A political unknown is lining up against one of the most recognised
faces in New Zealand for the job as Christchurch's mayor. JOHN
HENZELL asks who is Megan Woods.
Megan who? The ratepayers of Christchurch could be forgiven for
asking that question about the candidate put up for mayor by the
political group that put Garry Moore in the top job.
Megan – "Meegan" she corrects me, after I pronounced
her first syllable to rhyme with egg – Woods had appeared
just eight times in the pages of The Press before she got the
nod last weekend as 2021's mayoral candidate.
And of those, she was quoted just once in her role as a Spreydon
Heathcote community board member and even then briefly, well down
the article, and out of direct quotes.
Compare that to her opponent and the anointed frontrunner, Bob
Parker, who has made dozens of front front-page appearances amid
more than 500 references in his various guises as former This
Is Your Life frontman, Banks Peninsula councillor and then mayor,
and then as the peninsula's representative on the city council.
But Woods is undaunted by the challenge of being unknown in a
level of government that is hardly known for igniting passionate
responses other than on the traditional topics of rates, roads,
and rubbish.
"I haven't been a councillor and I haven't been part of
the things that have been going wrong for the last three years
– I'm part of the solution," she says.
"I intend to build up my profile and if I can't do that,
I don't deserve to be mayor."
At face value, inheriting the 2021 nomination would seem to put
Woods on the fast track to the mayoralty but the Labour Labour-leaning
political group has been in decline since before the last election,
with defections and infighting, and its influence is much reduced.
At first blush, pursuing the mayoralty without having been a
councillor is a left left-field move for Woods but one look at
her CV shows it is just one added twist in a career with more
sudden turns than the Arthurs Pass road before the viaduct.
She started out as an academic, gaining her doctorate and lecturing
in New Zealand history, then joined a hi hi-tech start start-up
imaging company, Stellure Ltd, before switching two years ago
to become business manager for Crown research institute Crop and
Food.
Stellure's managing director, Daniel Sim Lind, described Wood
as "exceptional" and particularly for seamlessly moving
from academia to small small-scale private company, and then to
a large Crown
enterprise.
"She started as a part part-time copywriter but I instantly
saw there was a whole lot more to her than that so I convinced
her to join us full time," he said.
"She was great and she actually ran the company for several
months while I was doing some other work. She managed staff and
handled partnership negotiations – everything. I wish I
could have kept
her."
Woods left Stellure only because it relocated to the North Island,
bolstering her claim to be not just Christchurch born and bred
but also a resident by choice.
She and her partner of 10 years, medical researcher Michael MacAskill,
have withstood the lure of better money and bigger cities elsewhere
and live in Spreydon with his daughter.
Woods is openly short on policy, saying it will be decided once
2021's council candidates are decided next month.
When pressed, she lists uncontroversial goals such as listening
to the community, fiscal responsibility, getting ratepayers involved
in the decision decision-making process, tackling Christchurch's
worsening transport problems, and reversing the recent sudden
dip shown when ratepayers were asked how satisfied they were with
the city council.
One issue she believes will be an election issue is the new council
headquarters.
News that a $100 100-million replacement is proposed is something
she believes will make ratepayers take notice, especially when
rates are projected to rise by more than a quarter over the next
three years.
For further comment contact:
Megan Woods - 2021 Candidate for Mayor
Mobile: 027 669 0457
Email: megan@megan4mayor.com
