30 July 2025
Take note, students of spin – because this week, Taupō District Council’s comms team has gone full throttle on myth management. The topic of this week’s ‘Mythbuster’ – the draft Joint Management Agreement (JMA). If you’re sick of it already, please scroll on.
But if you care who really shapes decisions in this district – please stay with me just a little while longer because hopefully it will be sorted at tomorrows Council meeting.
They say the JMA isn’t co-governance. But when unelected reps help shape policy, planning, hearings, and public land decisions – what else do you call it?
They say that Councillors have been working on this since September. But apart from the working group of a few elected members, the rest of us were only presented with this draft several weeks ago. And these ‘workshops’ are staff presentations only – not opportunities for open or lengthy debate, and no decisions ever get made at them.
They say Council has the ‘final say’. But in my experience, once a staff paper hits the table it can take herculean effort to shift it.
They say no consultation is necessary. Yet the expansion to include Lake Taupō and the ‘Further Matters’ contained in clauses 118–155 are not mandatory at all. They were quietly added, as if asking you about it was also optional.
They say no extra costs. But shared staff, joint infrastructure planning, and external facilitation don’t come free.
Come on people, really?
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