Last semester Chlöe Swarbrick completed her Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Laws conjoint, applied for Spring Graduation, and announced her campaign for the Auckland mayoralty.
Chlöe skipped Year 13 to undertake a Bachelor of Arts under Discretionary Entrance, and added an LLB along the way, in order to more fully understand the systems that she had been critiquing as part of her Philosophy major.
She might be the only current mayoral candidate that cites the Frankfurt School as a major influence.
Chlöe is enthusiastic about the opportunity to plan ambitiously and imaginatively for the future of Auckland, which is going to look very different.
“We get to be an international city.”
She is full of praise for how young people are contributing to life and culture in Auckland, and hopes to engage them more fully in the local political process.
“Everywhere you look young people are doing great things.”
This is the sort of raw material that Chlöe hopes to harness in building a truly brilliant city, which is growing extremely quickly.
Status quo politics are currently causing real pain at a local and national level, and Chlöe argues that we need new ideas, and brave leadership.
Chlöe acknowledges that in arguing for change, she will attract a lot of heated commentary, and she welcomes this.
“I wanted to become contentious on a public platform.”
She is especially keen to work alongside the artistic communities that she has been a part of across Auckland.
“It makes sense to build beautiful things.”
Chlöe worked as a journalist for 95bFM during her time at the University of Auckland, and her enthusiastic reportage on local political issues led to her producer joking that she should run for mayor, a suggestion that she laughed off at the time.
But reporting on dismal voter turnouts in local body elections gave her the inspiration to re-engage Aucklanders in this process by launching her own mayoral campaign.
“You can blame low voter turnout on apathy, but I think that is simplistic. A lack of understanding and engagement leads to only those most inclined to protect their own interests turning out to vote.”
