An Interview with Xavier Dickason, City Council Candidate for Fendalton

Xavier Dickason is a candidate for councilor in the Fendalton Ward. You can vote for him any time between now and when polls close at the end of the 11th of October, even if you have not received your voting papers. Read on to find out how and why. 

New Zealand is a small country, and Christchurch is tight country. The kind of country where your supermarket run can be punctuated by “Long time no see!” from somebody you went to middle school and MUN with. Xavier Dickason, 22-year-old graduate, has stuck his hand up to run for a seat on the Christchurch City Council, and there’s not nearly enough time in a five-minute grocery dash to hear all about the ninety minutes of doorknocking he just did or the two months of campaigning prior to that. So I flick him a message, he quickly agrees, and on Tuesday morning I enter Fendalton Ward with forty questions, one book, two pens* and an hour to make the most of.

What was a wet and maudlin morning has brightened under brilliant sun. I slide into a cosily padded corner seat as Breaks Co-Op strum out The Otherside. Xavier’s on time, and it takes barely any time for the friendly staff of Coffee Culture Merivale to deliver us berry drinks: tea for him, and a smoothie for me. So we can get right into my questions, grouped into six segments: Getting to Know Xavier, Engaging The Voters, the Quickfire Round, Post-Quake City, Policy and For The Future. 

Scroll down and you’ll be able to find the header you’re most interested in. Under each question are Xavier’s responses† and the conversation we generated out of them. This article is intended to convey a complete sense of what it’s like to have a conversation with the prospective next councillor for Fendalton Ward. Come sit with us in the café, order yourself a hot drink, and, over the hubbub, eavesdrop on what he has to say.

*Somehow, mercifully, neither runs out of ink. 

†As an amateur journalist working off of handwritten notes and memory, forgive me if I haven’t literally nailed every single word, but the candidate has received and taken the opportunity to look over the article, issue all necessary corrections and clarification, and confirm that he’s happy for it to be published.

Getting To Know Xavier

Bolded speech is the interviewer’s, and everything in quotemarks comes from the candidate himself.

1. Kei te pēhea koe? [How are you?]

“Ahhh…”

Xavier struggles for a few seconds to recognise the phrase. Then it comes to him - “that’s ‘how are you doing’, right?” - and a reply quickly follows.

“Ngenge au.” [I am tired.]

I can confirm that he looks it: happy to be here, but, as the following questions will soon reveal, he has been awfully busy.

2. We just had Te Wiki o te reo Māori a couple weeks ago. How much do you speak? 

“Not much at all. I took a 100-level paper in te reo. I would like to study the language more - it’s about finding the time.”

Which, of course, naturally leads me to ask…

3. What do you like to do in your spare time?

There is a pregnant pause. “When I’m not campaigning?”

Because realistically you don’t have spare time at the moment, right?

“No.” He rattles off a list of intellectual activities - “Pub quiz. I love some trivia. Board games. Reading -” and acknowledges he fits “the archetype”. But, he stresses, “I’m not an introvert. Doorknocking has confirmed for me that I really like people. I like talking to people. These activities are just my way to unwind.”

4. When did you first get the idea to run?

He lists three reasons. “I was concerned that the race might be uncontested. One in five local elections in New Zealand are uncontested. We didn’t have nominations. I believed we were missing a balance on the council between short-term and long-term vision. And,” he rounds out simply, “I like Christchurch. 

So I told some friends I might consider running if we didn’t get more nominations for the ward. And when it was a few days from nominations closing and we still hadn’t gotten more, I decided to run.”

5. Who’s a leader you look up to?

“I know it’s cliché to say, but my mum. As a teacher, she showed me how you can lead by nurturing others.”

6. Tell the readers a little bit about your team. Who’s behind you? Because your billboards are everywhere.

“I can be specific. There aren’t many names. My family. Kopara Creative, who are run by family friends - I asked if they could design my campaign’s graphics, and they got back to me with the results that same weekend!” And another small-country story wends its way to the President of the Christchurch Vegan Society hooking them up with the signs. “We have distributed around nine thousand to ten thousand leaflets. Around five thousand of those by me, five thousand by friends and family.”

7. How many billboards have you collectively put up? You looking forward to taking them all down? 

[laughs] “Twenty-six signs.”

Because - do we have the same restrictive rules around local election advertising we do around general elections?‡ 

“We do. Yep. Same rules. To be honest, I’ll start taking them down a day or two early. What matters in the last days isn’t squeezing every drop out of the signs - people will already hopefully have seen them, they aren’t going to change anybody else’s mind. What could make the difference is engagement on the front doorstep.”

‡It is illegal for campaign signage to remain up after the election is over. In practice, this forces campaigns to begin taking down their own signage before the election is actually complete.

8. You mention in your biography work for Parliament, work for local charities. Please elaborate on your experience and education.

Besides a Masters in International Relations and Diplomacy, Xavier also works  “as a teacher aide and uni tutor.” UN Youth, an educational charity for under-25s, is what first engaged him in politics, and he rose all the way to “President of UN Youth!”

Canterbury?

“Yes, President of UN Youth Canterbury. Got to be careful about that.” [laughs] “I organised our largest post-COVID event - we had one hundred and fifty attendees. Because during 2021 and 2022, there was a real dropoff.”

And I was part of Rito. So that’s a non-partisan body that’s part of Parliament and works on the issue of youth engagement. And actually what it came to show me was that we have an issue of high youth disengagement. 

I’m sure we’ll come to that later in the interview.”

9. If you are so talented and bright and hard-working, why haven’t you left for Australia yet?

[laughs] “Because I like New Zealand. I had considered studying overseas for my PhD, because that’s what you tend to do in International Relations.” He’s still sitting in front of me, so clearly other factors meant more to him; and, he goes on, “But when I talk to people about why they’re considering leaving New Zealand, it’s usually because they don’t think there’s any hope for New Zealand getting better. I do think that there is hope. We have to try.”

10. What did you learn from your studies?

“I learned about New Zealand’s place in the world alongside all the other countries out there, and what Kiwis stand for,” comes the succinct answer. 

I considered asking further about City Council and international relations, but I’m not sure if Council can really do much at all.

“But we can! City Council has passed a motion to divest in investing from Israeli illegal settlements in the West Bank, albeit not Gaza yet. To not do anything internationally is like saying, I’m just a person and I can’t do anything. We all have power. Local government and central government and civil society all have to work together on this.”

Engaging the Voters

11. Inevitably, I have to ask this. “Youth and inexperience”, that’s what I’d expect to be the biggest concern amongst voters about your candidacy. Many voters I talk to, especially older voters, particularly prize experience in business or otherwise managing people. What do you say to them?

“I would say that I have as much experience as I can at my age.” It’s the same thing he told Corin Dann on RNZ’s Morning Report the day prior. “I’ve led a busy life.” (I think you have to be a busy soul, to be on your toes on the radio before 7am.) “And I respect that people want some councillors to come with a background in business. Council needs a range of backgrounds represented. Lots of Christchurchers don’t come from any business background. They should have councilors like them too.”

12. I was at a party a week ago with a lot of well-educated, well-informed young people. When it came to local elections, all that they wanted to talk about was all the conspiracy theorists and cookers. How do we engage youth with the serious and important work that goes on in local politics?

“I have no issue with unserious candidates, they have the right to run. But it’s about having candidates who are focused on serious issues. Local government has historically been very focused on ratepayers - we need a broader focus beyond that. For instance, I was talking to people in Bryndwr recently and several of them brought up mental health support. That wouldn’t have come up otherwise if I hadn’t been out there, talking to people.”

I was scrolling through your page and I saw a comment raising the issue of the Clyde Road shooting. I mean, that’s on my bus route. There’s a stereotype of the Fendalton area as rich but there are pockets of deprivation, pockets of poverty, and-

“Not even pockets! You meet people from a whole variety of backgrounds when you go doorknocking around the ward. So we need to talk about the issues that matter to people. That’s when they engage.”

13. Oh, would you look at that. Here’s a fun stat I wrote down before coming here. Around one in five local elections are uncontested: they don't attract multiple candidates to choose between, so the only candidate wins automatically. It almost happened in your ward and it has happened in mine with Sam MacDonald. How do we make sure every voter gets the chance to choose their best candidate?

“Local government must be more accessible. Sometimes it’s as basic as - we’ve been live-streaming meetings for the public to see, but there is awful audio quality on the livestreams. It might sound petty but if people can’t actually understand what’s being said, they’re not going to engage. We should fix that.” 

And now we come to a key matter in the election - not just who you should vote for, but who is actually going to go out and vote. (I hope that includes you, reader.) “And postal voting is a huge issue for young people. A lot of whom are renters, who don’t remain at a fixed address and move around regularly. I have talked to a lot of people who know that the local elections are going on but haven’t got their papers because they’ve moved address.”

14. I’m going to jump ahead in that case to a relevant question. When I bumped into you in the supermarket, what you kept bringing up were the specials. Can you explain to the reader what those are?

“Lots of people have to cast special votes for a variety of reasons. One of them is not being enrolled by the first of August. So to get your special vote, you should go to a council service desk and ask them, or flick them an email. It is easy to cast a special vote; it can be done.”

15. Say I’m walking around town and I see a problem - a cracked sidewalk, a burst pipe. I want council to fix it, but I don’t know how to reach them. What should I do?

“Great! So, you can use the app, Snap Send Solve.” Christchurch City Council are signed up to the app so that, when you submit a photo of the issue and provide written details, they receive them in an email. “As I’ve been walking around during this election I’ve used it when I’ve seen abandoned trolleys, broken signs. If you need to talk to somebody then you should contact the council by phone. Even if you don’t reach the right person, they probably know who the right person is to talk to and can pass you on. At the same time, following up to make these fixes is still an issue that the Council needs to improve on.”

The Quickfire Round

I warn Xavier that these questions demand a yes or a no answer, though I grant him a few seconds to elaborate afterwards.

16. Should Christchurch chlorinate our tap water? 

“Yes.

I support it for health reasons, but I understand that there is a lot of opposition across the city. I like [mayoral candidate] Sara Templeton’s plan of chlorine-free water stations across the city.”

Right, because a big thing in Burnside was they closed down the chlorine-free pump, and then opened it again.

“So it’s good for people to have the option of filling up on chlorine-free water.”

17. The Christchurch Cathedral rebuild has a forty million dollar funding gap. Should Council bail them out?

“…Yes, if they can show a viable pathway to completion. But it’s a tricky one. I can see you worded that very carefully.”

Yes, I was trying to make it tricky.

18. In August, City Council evicted ten homeless people from their shelters in an abandoned church carpark. Was that right?

“No.”

Can I ask what the council can do generally on homelessness? 

“We should be providing funding for non-profit community organisations to fight homelessness. But the other thing is how leaders can frame homelessness. They can make it about delinquency, versus about housing. So it’s on leadership too.” 

19. Should Christchurch spend on a rainbow crossing?

“No, not right now. I haven’t heard much demand for it.”

20. Are there any circumstances under which you would consider selling Christchurch City Council’s shares in the airport or Lyttelton Port?

“No. It’s one of my key campaign promises!”

I know! I wanted to check.

21. A national rates cap would restrict how much councils can raise rates by each year. Should Parliament pass one?

“No.”

22. Dubai chocolate or matcha latte?  

[laughs] “Matcha latte.”

 Oh, sorry, you failed. The correct answer was no.

[laughs]

23. Do you see a pathway to higher office some day? 

“No. 

I haven’t even considered it, this is enough. There’s nothing more than this on my radar.”

24. Could you beat Phil Mauger in an arm wrestle? 

“No.”

That was instant!

“I know my limits.”

25. Are we ready for the next earthquake? 

“…depends how big it is.”

You almost made it through the quickfire round! Tripped up at the last question.

“It could be a yes or a no. It depends on a lot.”

Post-Quake City

26. Where has the rebuild failed? 

“LISTENING.” Every time Xavier says the word, everything in his expression screams the emphasis he places on this point. “I don’t believe there was enough community consultation, and I don’t think that it played enough of a role in the choices made in the rebuild. 

And the speed of recovery - it’s hard to say because it was so long ago, but from people I’ve spoken to it seems that we’re only just now regaining the same energy that we had before the earthquakes.”

27. How do we bridge the divide between the east and the rest? 

“Sure.” 

You said “sure” and you’ve been sitting there now for several seconds with a pensive look on your face.

[laughs] “I don’t want the questions to be easy. There are issues that have no correct answers. They’re about the choices we make. And residents disagree on what those choices should be. So finding compromise between residents is part of the job. And it’s often not appreciated as part of a councillor’s job.

I believe in appropriate funding where services are needed. And cultural unity between the different parts of the city. We’re all Christchurch. 

…I can’t answer it.”

28. Coming back to your own ward, the council asset that I visit the most is Fendalton Library. What has it gotten right?

“Oh, I love Fendalton Library. I go there often when I tutor. People often think about a library as just a building to fill with books, and at Fendalton Library they understand you can go so much further beyond that. They store sewing machines in the back for upcycling and skill development. You see librarians providing tech support to older residents who maybe aren’t as comfortable with technology.”

29. Since the earthquakes, what’s the best thing that Christchurch has done?

“Perhaps other people would say that there are greater projects for economic gain. But I would go with Margaret Mahy Playground for its place in our culture. It’s in a great location, it’s been well-developed, culture, and it really embodies the spirit of bounceback.”

Fair call. Personally, I would go Tūranga.

“Ah, true, I didn’t think about th-”

You can’t take it. Too late. 

30. Christchurch is booming and a lot of great projects are coming to completion. There was the wastewater plant, there will be Parakiore, and of course, we can’t not talk about Te Kaha stadium. Having a stadium means we are going to enjoy tens of thousands of visitors. How will you prevent a traffic nightmare and make sure big events are a good time, not a headache?

“Public transit! We should expand capacity within the ECan Route Plan. When there’s an event finishing at Te Kaha, the buses should be coming every 3 to 5 minutes, just getting people out as soon as they emerge. Public transit in general should be - you turn up, you get on, and you go. The 120 is a bus that comes every half hour, and that’s too rare. The 1, 3 and 5 are good counterexamples - they’re a few of our ten to fifteen minute buses,” alongside the 7 and 8. “There goes the 1 now,” he points outside, the blue beast on its way to Princess Margaret Hospital.

Fitting. I read through your posts and you also mention the yellow bus shuttle. Can you tell us about that? Because that’s before my time. (And this isn’t just interesting to know where you stand, but as a peek back into Christchurch’s history and culture.)

“Yes! So, we used to have a yellow bus shuttle that would circle around the central city. The point is to ease parking trouble - you park further out and come in on the shuttle. And people just liked the yellow bus! It was free! 

I also support looking for other ways to contribute to funding our expanding public transit. I think currently there’s a ‘30% from farebox’ rule -”

Farebox? Sorry, what’s that?

“30% of the funding for the buses has to come from fares that passengers pay. So, that is a limit, but council should negotiate with central government to see if we can change that.”

Policy

31. That seems like a good time to segue into another question about centralisation. A few years ago, central government issued a new set of housing standards for intensification. Christchurch City Council refused to adhere to those housing standards and began to develop its own recommendations. In June, Chris Bishop rejected most of the council’s recommendations. Where do you stand in this clash?

“Yep - so, I’m interested in housing that works for everyone. We want to avoid sprawl, sprawl is expensive. You have to spend more on building more infrastructure, instead of utilising what we already have. We need to build more apartments, and there is a demand for apartments. I’m one of many younger people happy to live in a shoebox apartment, I don’t need a garden.”

You mean you don’t want to be spending your time out mowing?

[laughs] “It’s about the right places for it.”

32. The main contender to Phil Mauger is Sara Templeton. If you research her, again and again she will bring up how Christchurch needs to invest more in water renewals. Memorial Avenue out to the airport is just one of many streets in the city that floods during heavy rains. So what could water renewals mean to me? 

“Well, fixing our pipes means less flooding. We need to build up our capacity. At the moment, thirty percent of our water is lost from start to finish. Over five hundred kilometers of our pipes are from the 60s or earlier. It’s about investing now to save later.”

33. What do you say to homeowners concerned about rates rises?

“They should be. It’s a real problem. We are seeing the costs of underinvestment in past decades. 

So we need to look at creative solutions. Taking GST off rates. More contribution from the central government. Rates are nine percent of the total tax take in New Zealand, and it’s absurd for the expanding number of services that councils are expected to provide. 

And we should look at our rates rebate schemes. I’ve talked to pensioners who have lived in a home for thirty or forty years, and now struggle to afford rates on superannuation. And that’s going to be a real challenge to confront over the next two or three decades.”

34. The global political climate is tense and aggressive. And Christchurch in particular has a long and ongoing history of skinhead racism. Just a few months ago, my local park was vandalised: “Stand Up 4 White Rights”. And Phil Arps, a Neo-Nazi who distributed footage of the mosque shooting, is on the ballot alongside you. What should councillors do to protect Muslims and reduce hate and harassment against vulnerable groups? 

“Continued acceptance of our differences. We must uplift voices from within the community. Celebrate multiculturalism. And make it clear that hatred has no place here…and LISTEN! Listen to the Muslim community.” It’s the latest of many times through the interview Xavier has returned again and again to the theme, more than any other, of listening to residents first.

35. We’ve just passed the height of blossom season, and those are just a few of the many gorgeous trees we have around Christchurch. If you think about it, after buildings, streets, pipes and pylons, trees are our next-biggest piece of infrastructure. What place do trees occupy in your vision for the future?

“What I’ve found out talking to residents is that everyone loves trees and everyone has a specific tree they hate.”

[laughs]

“And it’s usually the tree right outside their house. So we need to make sure to plant them in the right places. I really love trees. They have so many benefits. Urban cooling. They actually reduce speed as drivers are more careful around less visibility. They improve air quality. Christchurch City Council has their urban plan for tree planting - and in the east, especially, we need to expand. I value what we have here - Fendalton is I believe the third leafiest suburb in the city.”

That’s a wild stat to know off the top of your head.

[We were making good enough time that, before entering the last segment to wrap up on, I was able to pick my two best backup questions to ask.]

What do you think of the migratory trends out of Christchurch to the satellite towns - Rolleston, Lincoln, Rangiora, Kaiapoi? 

“Well, we’re not shrinking. We’re attracting a lot of people.”

I don’t mean that we’re shrinking - just that as we grow with people from elsewhere, lots of people are also part of this growth across Canterbury.

“It’s good to see. We should be encouraging partnership across Greater Christchurch. Don’t amalgamate, but do cooperate.”

What do town councils around the country show us to do - or what not to do? 

“The truth is that I’m too busy staying focused on Christchurch’s issues that I don’t keep up with others. I don’t know enough to say. I have no specific examples.”

For The Future

36. Is there anything that you haven’t got the chance to talk about that you would like to? 

Xavier lights up. “Community trust should be discussed in this election and it’s a shame that it hasn’t been a topic. Because trust has been lost. 

For instance - some councillors hold a set time to see them. Well, there are people who always work the same shift at that time who need a way to see their councillor. Most of the time council isn’t very important to them, but when it becomes very important it needs to be available. I want to show people through all this doorknocking that I’ll be here to talk to.”

37. Where can the Xavier Raviers find you? 

[laughing] “Xavier Raviers?”

Well, we needed a name for the fans.

“On Facebook and Instagram: @xavier4fendalton. By email: xavier4fendalton@gmail.com. And hopefully doorknocking! Hopefully I’ll see you in person.”

38. What’s been your highlight of 2025?  

“Honestly, this doorknocking. I have knocked on I believe around 2200 doors. It’s been the fun of meeting so many different people and getting to hear what they care about. Some of them care about a little thing, the tree or the footpath outside. And some of them are looking to the big picture. And getting to hear how excited people are for Christchurch. They’re really excited.

39. Picture this: it’s the day after the election. There is no more campaigning to do. How will you celebrate?

“To be honest, after all of this, I don’t want to do anything big. Win or lose, the end of the election means a few weeks to spend with my family.”

That’s sweet.

40. What is the one thing that you want to leave local government having accomplished? 

“Hmm…nobody’s asked me that before.” Xavier thinks for a bit. “To have LISTENED. Decisions should go the way that the community wants them to go. I don’t want to make any hard promises because local government is unpredictable, and things change. But if I could say one more thing to accomplish - setting out the foundation to build solid infrastructure on, into the future.”

And we’re done!

With the forty questions exhausted, we catch up for a few more minutes, and Xavier still isn’t tired of talking or listening. I walk him onto the street, and then it’s off to knock on more doors. The voters will decide which candidate they like best, but with eleven days to go, there’s no denying that Xavier Dickason is giving this his all.

As of the time of publication, there are nine days until the election closes on the 11th of October. Make sure to organise your ballot, read up on the candidates and submit your votes before then. Only two in five voters showed up in 2022 - be part of the solution and engage with your democracy, your council and your city today.