Allan Birchfield

Local government career Birchfield was elected chairman of the West Coast Regional Council in 2019, after six terms as a councillor, and reinstated an opening prayer at Council meetings. "New Zealand is a Christian country, and Christian standards are good ones," he claimed.

He was a member of the Te Tai o Poutini One Plan Committee, which is legally required to identify significant natural areas (SNAs) such as native forest or wetland remaining on private land. Ecologists Wildlands Consultants Ltd were hired to physically inspect features on private land that might qualify as a SNA, but Birchfield vowed to bar any ecologists from accessing his own land. "As far as I'm concerned, it's theft. If the government wants to save this stuff it should buy it." he said. On 8 August, councillors voted to remove him from committees due to leaking confidential information to the media.

Views and positions Climate change denial Birchfield denies the scientific consensus on climate change, specifically causation by humans and sea-level rise, calling it "a gigantic fraud" and "the biggest rort in the history of human civilisation". He refused to accept a report to the regional council about future hazards to the region from sea-level rise, calling it "bullshit".

COVID-19 pandemic Birchfield was rebuked by the New Zealand Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon for referring to the COVID-19 as the "Chinese virus". He claimed "It's not racist at all, we all know where it started." Buller mayor Jamie Cleine and Greymouth mayor Tania Gibson distanced themselves from Birchfield's remarks.