Dr John Hyndman prescribes patience for improving Marlborough

John Hyndman, new to Council, charts diagnosis for a healthy Marlborough.

Generations of Marlburians remember John Hyndman as their doctor. He treated patients young and old as a general practitioner as well as an anaesthesiologist and intensive care physician at Wairau Hospital.

“I delivered lots of babies,” he said. “A lot of people in Marlborough know of me from their past.”

Nowadays, they associate him with something else: local government. John represents the Blenheim Ward on Marlborough District Council, though his residence in Picton means he also adds insight from the Sounds.

He ran under the banner of the ACT Party, as did fellow first-time Councillor Malcolm Talor from the Sounds Ward. Yet, in the initial months of his term, John has earned praise from colleagues such as Blenheim Ward Councillor Deborah Dalliessi who says he makes decisions “with an open mind based on the information at hand and not party lines.”

“I have no pretentions, but I think I can do a good job,” he relayed over coffee on a sunny day in the Town Centre. “I was a bit concerned, ‘Am I getting too old for this?’ But when you’ve been around for a bit, you’ve seen a lot of things; you kind of know what works and what doesn’t work. I think I’ve got a good perspective on things.”

From his vantage point, John sees an austere trajectory for Council services. Inflation, loan repayments (from the COVID rate holiday) and depreciation total 8.6 per cent, he calculates, compared to a consumer price index rise of 2.7 per cent.

“People have been bristling about increases in their rates, and rightly so,” John continued. “But, I tell you what, it’s not easy – Council is a really lean machine, we’ll try to make all the efficiencies we can, but there are certain things you can’t cut.” That said, given the proportion of Marlburians on fixed incomes, “we’ve got to be bloody careful.”

Path to ‘politician’
Though he has “always been interested in politics,” John was “never actively involved” until his run for office last spring, although he said ACT encouraged him to seek a Council seat in the 1990s. “I just had too many other commitments.”

ACT came calling again ahead of the 2025 election. John, his wife and six children had moved to Dunedin in 2000 for university opportunities. Along with practicing medicine, he started several businesses; one – HYVAN, based in Christchurch – proffers low-cost anaesthesia systems to developing countries. That earned the 2016 New Zealand Innovator of the Year Award and, for him personally, the New Zealand Order of Merit.

The relocation southward “was probably the right decision,” John reflected, “but I did miss Marlborough, and I kept coming back. Eventually, when I retired, I came back here.”

Soon after, he heard from ACT, which promotes a motto of “Real Change. Lower Rates.”  John once more expressed reluctance.

“I don’t think I’m a natural leader,” he explained. “I’m just sort of fair and give everybody a fair crack of the whip. Integrity is everything; if you haven’t got that, you oughtn’t get involved in public life.”