Tim Dower: Tauranga by-election a waste of time and money

Early Edition with Ryan Bridge · Jun 19, 2022 · 1m

What a pointless exercise the Tauranga by-election was and what a waste of taxpayers' money.

National is keeping the seat, hardly a surprise.

But the turnout was awful.

40 percent, about 20,000 votes cast and cost the taxpayer - roughly $50 a vote according to the Electoral Commission's figure of about a million to run a by-election.

Of course, we wouldn't have needed to go through that whole process if Simon Bridges had been a list MP, just ring up the next person on the party list.

And maybe, maybe that could work in constituencies too, given we have a general election every three years.

Do…