THREE-WAY MAYORALTY RACE Margaret Murray: ambitious, hooked on pijjjlic life

Press, 19 July 1989, Page 20

THREE-WAY MAYORALTY RACE Margaret Murray: ambitious, hooked on pijjjlic life

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Margaret Murray admits she thrives in the glare of the political limelight. And she acknowledges she is ambitious. Ambitious for Waimairi, ambitious for Christchurch, ambitious for Canterbury. Ambitious for Margaret Murray? “If you do your job well you can leave it to the people to judge. You don’t have to be ambitious,” the Waimairi District chairman says. Ambition, unbridled ambition, is the charge levelled at her over the United Citizens alliance bustup.

Margaret Murray argues that all of her decisions, contradictory as they may seem, were in the best interests of Christchurch. She believes she has a track record in local government leadership in the South Island that is hard to match. She was determined Christchurch should have the best leadership possible. As well as the top job at Waimairi, which she has held since 1983, she heads the Canterbury United Council and the South Island Local Bodies Association, and is an executive member of the Local Government Association. She got into local government through her passion for tennis. The 47-year-old councillor has a

regular tennis work-out with fellow councillors and friends. As president of the Fendalton Tennis Club when it moved to its Burnside Park site, she had dealings with the Waimairi District Council. She decided she could do just as good a job. She topped the poll in the 1977 election for the then county council, and came to the council as a teacher turned homemaker, with a young family. She says the homemaker-coun-cillor combination was a good one and brought a useful perspective to the council table. Initially her time given to council matters did not impact greatly on her family life, she says, but it did after she became chairman iri 1983.

“The children (then 18, 16 and 13) were not greatly affected. They were a bit embarrassed by what their mother was up to, perhaps, but they gained a perspective on what the council was all about. But it did affect my husband, John.” The couple have been separated for more than a year. John Murray, a pilot, now lives in Auckland. Margaret Murray says the split would have happened anyway because they were growing apart, but certainly her involvement in local government accelerated it. “I say there’s a sacrifice involved in local body work. I

know all about it. A year ago I went through a very painful time.” But she has no intention of giving away the public life that began in the realm of national politics with posts in the National Party. From divisional delegate in Riccarton in 1975 she moved through several party positions to become a dominion councillor and women’s vice-president in 1982. She stood for Parliament in Yaldhurst in 1981. Now she is not sure if she is even a financial member of the party. “I’ve always said that it doesn’t matter how you vote in a General Election, you have talents to bring to the council table.” Does she still hanker after a spot in Parliament? “I was asked to stand in Yaldhurst again in 1984 ... promised all the money I would need for my campaign. I looked at it and decided my commitment was to Waimairi.” Her local government career ran parallel to that within the party. She was elected to the council in 1977 and became chairman in 1983. She receives $42,000 as chairman and another $9OOO as chairman of the Canterbury United Council. Now, she says, her ambitions are in local government, definitely not central government. She wants to be Mayor of Christchurch —and she wants to be elected so her mother, aged 74,

can see it. "She’s wonderful. She has been so supportive for so long.” Her other main family supporter at the moment is her son, Craig, aged 24, who lives with her in the Avon Loop. Her daughters, Pamela, aged 22, and Melissa, aged 19, are both in Australia. What sort of person is Margaret Murray? She certainly evokes a strong response — for or against. Her delivery as district chairman is forceful, some say aggressive. It was her style that drove Christchurch City Councillor Carole Evans out of the United Citizens Association. Carole Evans says the Waimairi councillor brought with her political bickering and wheeler-dealing.. She suspected her motives and disliked her sniping and attitude to other members of the association. “Her wheeling-and-dealing and lobbying have sent her credibility down the drain,” Cr Evans says. Margaret Murray describes herself as easy going. She says she has tried to make people feel comfortable with her as the Waimairi chairman. “I have met people without fear or favour, outside council staff, inside staff, the public, everyone.” She loves the public life, thrives on it. She accepts she has become

hooked on it, but sees no problem with that so long as she keeps growing herself. “It’s all part of growing as a person. I’m more confident now than when I started. My theme is a team theme. I try to use people’s talents, encourage them, lock them in as part of the team, so they grow. That way they feel they are achieving. She feels she is still achieving and has more to achieve. She wants economic growth for Christchurch, jobs, a quality of life, a safe city. “I want people to feel good about Christchurch. Waimairi people feel good about Waimairi. Christchurch as a whole needs an attitudinal change, a drive to put Christchurch on the map. I believe I’ve done that for Waimairi. I can do it for Christchurch.” She chairs the tourism section of Going for Goals and sees tourism as a focus for the city. Mrs Murray believes her votes in the mayoralty race will come from Waimairi, but also from across the city. She reckons she will draw the anti-City vote and the anti-amalgamation vote. How does she reconcile chasing the top job of an enlarged Christchurch with her dedicated opposition to a one-city Christchurch? “We have never opposed amalgamation but the way it was being done.”

But she did oppose a singlecity Christchurch as too big.

“True, but we were anxious about Waimairi ratepayers inheriting the problems of Christchurch City. We were critical of the efficiency of the city. We wanted the small authority effectiveness to be built into the new structures.” So a single city of 300,000 is not too big for her as Mayor? “We’ll be demanding efficiency and that the present problems of the city be solved and not passed on to all the ratepayers to deal with.” As well as contesting the mayoralty she wants to play a role in getting the new Canterbury region off to a healthy start. Just what that role will be she is not certain until she weighs up her various commitments. She acknowledges that even a workaholic like herself would be pushed to be a full-time Mayor and regional councillor, let alone chairman of the regional body. “I’m not afraid of hard work. I want to see the region and the city working together,' not competing, making the most of each other’s strengths.” If she is elected Mayor on October 14 — and Mrs Murray says she stands as good a chance as any of the candidates — she has a promise for voters. She believes that three terms as Mayor is enough. No-one should stay longer.