William Stuart "Nobby" Clark (born ) is a New Zealand politician, serving as the

Mayor of Invercargill The Mayor of Invercargill is the head of the municipal government of Invercargill, New Zealand, and leads the Invercargill City Council. The mayor is directly elected using a First-past-the-post voting, First Past the Post electoral system every ...

since 2022. He has also served on the

Invercargill City Council Invercargill ( , mi, Waihōpai is the southernmost and westernmost city in New Zealand, and one of the southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland region. The city lies in the heart of the wide expanse of t ...

since 2019 and as deputy mayor since 2020.

Early life and career

Clark was born in Nelson and moved to Auckland after leaving school. He served as a medic during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

, and subsequently moved to Invercargill in 1975. He has been described as a blue collar worker and worked at

Oranga Tamariki Oranga Tamariki, also known as the Ministry for Children and previously the Ministry for Vulnerable Children, is a government department in New Zealand responsible for the well-being of children, specifically children at risk of harm, youth offen ...

, Stopping Violence Southland, and the

IHC New Zealand IHC New Zealand is a New Zealand organisation providing support and care for people of all ages with intellectual disabilities. It began as the Society for Intellectually Handicapped Children, hence the IHC acronym. IHC advocates for the rights, ...

. He was employed by ''Idea Services'' the company owned by IHC, until he was sacked as their Southland regional manager. He initially lost a wrongful dismissal case, but on appeal won $15,500 compensation and repayment of costs.

Political career

Prior to being elected to council in 2019, Clark was spokesman of the Invercargill Ratepayers Advocacy Group. He was the highest polling Invercargill city council candidate in 2019, with 10,802 votes. He was selected by mayor

Tim Shadbolt Sir Timothy Richard Shadbolt (born 19 February 1947) is a New Zealand politician. He was the Mayor of Invercargill and previously Mayor of Waitemata City. Early life Shadbolt was born in the Auckland suburb of Remuera in 1947. His father died ...

to be deputy mayor on 12 October 2020, following the resignation of Toni Biddle. Following clashes with Shadbolt, Clark announced his intention to resign as deputy in March 2022, but was eventually convinced to stay on.

2022 Invercargill mayoral election

On 30 May 2022, Clark announced his candidacy for the

2022 Invercargill mayoral election The 2022 Invercargill mayoral election took place on 8 October 2022 as part of the New Zealand local elections. Incumbent mayor Tim Shadbolt unsuccessfully sought a tenth term against nine other candidates, losing to his deputy Nobby Clark. T ...

. In June, he announced the formation of a group of ten council candidates he would run alongside. The group mostly consists of new candidates, though incumbent councillor Allan Arnold was among them. This ticket was revealed in July to be called "Let's Go Invercargill". On 8 October, Clark won the Invercargill mayoral election, winning 6,537 votes. The incumbent Shadbolt only won 847 votes while the second-highest candidate

Newstalk ZB Newstalk ZB is a nationwide New Zealand talk radio, talk-radio network operated by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, NZME Radio. It is available in almost every media market, radio market area in New Zealand, and has news reporters based in m ...

broadcaster

Marcus Lush Marcus Lush (born July 1965) is a politician and television and radio presenter in New Zealand. Broadcasting He made his first footsteps into television in the 1990s as a reporter co-presenting TV2's ''Newsnight'' alongside Simon Dallow and Ali ...

won 3,785 votes.

Mayor of Invercargill, 2022-present

Following his election as Mayor, Clark announced that he would focus on opposing the Government's

Three Waters reform programme The Water Services Reform Programme (formerly known as Three Waters) is a public infrastructure restructuring programme launched by the Sixth Labour Government to centralise the management of water supply and sanitation in New Zealand. It orig ...

, building a new museum in Invercargill and reviewing project spending. He also detailed plans to cut $50 million from the city's $115 million budget. He stated that he would not wear the mayoral robes and would not be addressed as "

Your Worship Worship is an honorific prefix for mayors, Justice of the Peace, justices of the peace and magistrates in present or former Commonwealth realms. In spoken address, these officials are addressed as Your Worship or referred to as His Worship, Her Wor ...

" as his predecessor had. On 14 October, he appointed newly-elected councillor Tom Campbell as his deputy. On 1 November, Clark attempted to remove the speaking rights of

mana whenua In New Zealand, tangata whenua () is a Māori term that literally means "people of the land". It can refer to either a specific group of people with historical claims to a district, or more broadly the Māori people as a whole. Etymology Accordi ...

representatives at full council meetings, as they did not have voting rights. This proposal was defeated in a council vote.

Personal life

Clark has the distinction of being the first person to run the

Kepler track The Kepler Track is a circular hiking track which travels through the landscape of the South Island of New Zealand and is situated near the town of Te Anau. The track passes through many landscapes of the Fiordland National Park such as rocky m ...

30 times. In 2004 he became just the fourth person to donate a kidney anonymously in New Zealand.

References

1950s births Living people People from Nelson, New Zealand Invercargill City Councillors Deputy mayors of Invercargill Mayors of Invercargill {{NewZealand-politician-stub