Source: Porirua City Council
Councillor Mike Duncan is being remembered for his community focus, eye for detail, generous spirit and warm smile.
Mike, who passed away suddenly on Sunday, was elected to Council in 2016. That year, the former Dominion newspaper printer and designer actually stood for the mayoralty as well as for Council in what was then the Western ward, finishing in third behind Mike Tana and Euon Murrell.
To sum up his disposition, which we all came to know and enjoy, he told a Kapi-Mana News journalist about missing out on the mayoralty with a twinkle in his eye: “I was disappointed, but then the sun came up…”
Mike stood for Council in 2016 with cornerstones of deep-set community connections, down-to-earth family values and an everyman attitude that resonated with voters on the western side of Porirua.
As a councillor, Mike forged a strong reputation with Council staff and his fellow elected members as someone who played with a straight bat, possessing a calm and competent manner, often with his tongue firmly in his cheek. Due to his journalist, print-making and design background – Mike was a keen cruciverbalist, crafting his own crosswords – he had an eye for detail and was able to spot a misplaced comma or spelling mistake buried in Council documents.
He asked questions that he felt his community needed answered, but never in a combative manner to his colleagues or Council employees.
Along with being a member of Te Puna Kōrero (Council’s committee) and full Council, this term Mike was on the Audit & Risk, Porirua District Licensing (latter as deputy chair) and Hutt Mana Charitable Trust Appointments committees, as well as the Dog Control Hearings Subcommittee. In previous terms, he was an active, hard-working and steady hand among much of the committee networks of Council.
He will be remembered by staff who interacted with him as open-minded, warm and friendly, someone who cared about representing his community around the Council table.
These past few years Mike was MC at the Porirua Anzac Day Civic Service, carrying out his duties with typical aplomb and humility. Mike was a strong advocate for New Zealand Sign Language, and pushed to get interpreters more often included in Council events, including Anzac Day. Mike and his wife Christine had a very personal interest in championing the deaf community, with two of their grandchildren being deaf.
He was no stranger to local politics. Along with a tilt at the Porirua mayoralty in 2010 – losing to Nick Leggett – Mike stood against Graham Kelly for the Labour nomination for the Porirua electorate in 1987. He also stood for the mayoralty in 2019, losing out to Anita Baker.
Mike lived all but two of his years in Porirua, telling Kapi-Mana News in 2016 that he built a home on the site of a burnt-out state house on Te Pene Ave, where his family put down what would be indelible roots.
“I moved to a house next to Mana Esplanade when I was two. We used to collect mushrooms in the hills where Cannons Creek is now. I’ve travelled a lot, but this is the most beautiful place in the world.”