Vision Otago

Vision Otago has released a ten-point plan which consists of: • Reducing regional rates by cutting staff numbers and salary increases and prioritising "frontline delivery" and regional priorities. • Improving freshwater quality. • Protecting and restoring lakes by combating invasive species. • Overhauling pest management policies. • Offering better public transport alternatives and reinstating free school-hour bus travels for under-18 year olds. • Increasing local government input in the resource consenting process. • Reviewing staffing arrangements at the Otago Regional Council's headquarters in Dunedin. • Prioritising the monitoring of territorial authority-run wastewater management plants. • Supporting Otago's nomination to become New Zealand's first UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. • Rebuilding trust in local democracy by facilitating public input and "restoring confidence" with central government, industry and the wider public. ==History==

Launch and 2025 regional election On 17 August 2025, the Vision Otago ticket was launched to contest the 2025 Otago Regional Council election on a platform of reducing rates, overhauling the Otago Regional Council's bureaucracy, spending priorities, pest management, and public transportation policies. Vision Otago also advocated restoring local democracy and increasing public input in the Council's policy-making process. Vision Otago named five candidates including former ACT Party MP and Dunedin City councillor Hilary Calvert in the Dunedin ward, former ORC councillor Carmen Hope in the Molyneux ward, Wanaka businesswoman Nicky Rhodes, and incumbent ORC councillors Gary Kelliher and Michael Laws in the Dunstan ward. Laws, Kelliher and Rhodes also welcomed the Local Government Commission's decision to grant the Dunstan constituency a fourth seat on the Otago Regional Council, saying it would increase provincial and rural Otago's voice at local government representation. In addition, Kelliher reiterated Vision Otago's policy of slashing automatic wage increases and reviewing staff numbers. Based on preliminary results released on 11 October 2025, Calvert, Kelliher and Laws were elected onto the Otago Regional Council on the Vision Otago ticket. Fellow Vision Otago candidates Hope and Rhodes failed to secure seats in the Dunstan and Molyneaux wards. On 6 November 2025, Calvert announced an overhaul of the ORC's governance structure, replacing the previous committee-based structure with a portfolio-based structure with councillors serving as portfolio leads. While Calvert expressed an openness to including local Māori mana whenua input in the portfolio structure's decision-making process, Laws opposed mana whenua representation on the grounds they lacked a democratic mandate. Former ORC chair Gretchen Robertson and Green councillor Alan Somerville expressed reservations that the new portfolio governance structure would limit the Council's mana whenua engagement. The ORC voted by a margin of 9 to 2 votes to adopt the new portfolio governance structure; with all three Vision Otago councillors supporting the motion. That same day, the ORC voted by a margin of 8 to 3 votes to consult with mana whenua on incorporating representation into the new portfolio structure; with Calvert supporting the motion and Laws and Kelliher opposing it. ==References==