Concerns are being raised about Labour MP Paul Eagle surveying his electorate in his capacity as a local MP and rumours he'll make a bid for the mayoralty swirl.
The survey, posted out to residents in Paul Eagle's Rongotai electorate in recent weeks, asks what local issues the MP should make his priority.
It is understood Eagle has been considering making a bid for the Capital's mayoralty but he has remained coy on whether or not he is going to run.
Locals have been receiving an Annual Survey from Paul Eagle's electorate office, complete with Labour Party branding and a House of Representatives NZ Logo.
It asks:
What are the most important issues to you?
What local issues do you think I should make my priority?
Where do you think Wellington needs to improve?
What other issues would you like me to know about?
The only candidate currently openly running for mayor, Tory Whanau, said five people in the Rongotai electorate had contacted her to express their concern about Eagle's survey and the timing of the survey.
"They've said that they haven't heard from Paul in a couple of years now, so sending a survey using Parliamentary resources for a huge publicity push in the months leading up to a rumoured mayoralty campaign is a bit concerning," she said.
Whanau also said she was concerned the information gathered could be used to inform a possible mayoral campaign.
Current mayor Andy Foster said a number of people had raised the survey with him too.
"What is the purpose? I mean there's nothing obvious in the questions that are being asked in there, which relates to the national issues which an MP would obviously be interested in. The tone is very local," Foster said.
But University of Otago law professor Andrew Geddis said it was not unusual for MPs to survey their electorate. He said there would not be an issue with an MP carrying over information on his electorate into future endeavours.
"As a local MP, he's going to be gathering information about his community from all sorts of areas. So I don't think it's so much the information gathering that could be a concern here, because, you know, his role as a local electorate MP and any future role as a local body politician, overlap considerably," he said.
"The only possible area of concern might be whether the private information people are giving with regards to their names and addresses and so on might be carried over to a future campaign. But there's no evidence to show that he is actually planning to do that," Geddis said.
RNZ has also seen advertising for Paul Eagle and his survey in local magazine called Hello Wellington.
Geddis said there weren't any rules preventing a potential mayoral candidate from doing that.
"It would be very, very difficult to see how you could write rules to cover that, given that we don't actually know what people's actual intentions are until they declare as candidates. So in this kind of interim period, he probably is getting some advantage from his parliamentary position and his ability to advertise himself as an MP, but that kind of comes with the territory of being a high-profile individual," he said.
Eagle declined an interview. In a statement, he said, although his office didn't conduct the survey in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid-19, it is an annual survey that it is purely for parliamentary purposes.
"With the temporary closure of the electorate office for earthquake strengthening, surveys such as this one and weekly clinics in community centres allow me to regularly hear from constituents about the issues that matter to them," Eagle said.
Eagle did not respond to questions about whether or not he is going to run for mayor. Andy Foster has not made any announcements either.
"I've got a clear timeline. I'm going to hold that one to myself just a little bit longer," Foster said.
Official nominations close on 12 August.
RNZ
