10 April 2026
Quote for the week: “F… Off” (Mayor Moko Tepania of Far North District Council)
Genesis 16:11-12: “Behold, you are with child, and you shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your affliction. He shall be a wild man; His hand shall be against every man,
And every man’s hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren“.
I am no Biblical scholar, but am aware that Ismael the first son of Abraham is said to be the ancestor of Northern Arabs and of the prophet Muhammed himself. That Moslems have been the biggest challenge to Christianity for the past 1000 years or so is fairly indisputable, unless you wish to also count the anti-God movement which enveloped the Western and Communist world since Darwin times of the 19th century – but I am increasingly now seeing that as only a historical blip. The significant majority of people in this world believe in one God who created everything, but its the question of which God that still divides us.
Greetings people, and although we haven’t had much formal happenings in Council this past week there are certainly a few things going on in the background like a few wars. The fuel crisis doesn’t seem as if it will be letting up very soon, and quite ironically we have all the petrolheads descending on this town for the Supercar meet. I am not one myself and can generally think of better things to do, but I plan to check it out on Sunday when the exciting weather is expected to arrive and there might be some exciting crashes (Councillors get complimentary tickets). But unfortunately some saner heads than mine have prevailed to reschedule all the big races to finish up Saturday. Having said all that, we do actually get a bit happening here compared to say, a place like Ashburton, and although the loads of people can at times get tiresome at least Taupo can’t be accused of being too sleepy.
This week we just had an Elected Member induction session on cybersecurity and AI, and one worthwhile thing I did learn is that if you accidentally press the wrong button on your phone which goes to one of those dodgy sites which access all your data – immediately press the “Airplane” mode to cease the connection and hopefully prevent further damage. Another viable alternative is to right there and then totally demolish your phone, but the former option is easier and cheaper.
We also yesterday had the second of our Water Services Committee meetings, and if you are interested in water infrastructure I really do recommend you have a watch of the 90 min meeting HERE with the minutes and agenda as always available HERE. We had some a very informative presentation by Council asset manager wastewater Michael Cordell about the state of wastewater infrastructure (from about the 2 min mark), and afterwards some discussions about water services policy. The Taupo Wastewater plant in particular is facing some immediate future challenges, with the new wastewater standards in place that more severely limit how much nitrogen we are allowed to dispense to the currently irrigated land disposal sites – Houston, we have a problem. I’ll leave a couple of the relevant slides below, and note that the dotted line forecast departs the current reality in 2027 which is very soon.
My greatest question about this committee and its stated policy objectives is this (and I am not alone):
Will we be testing value for money and affordability, or are is the primarily focus on monitoring delivery and compliance?
Thus far, it seems to be heading towards the latter. and I am not assured this committee will not become the tick-boxing exercise I strongly suspect it will. Because you will be the ones paying for it, and there is unfortunately no rates cap going to be in place to affect this very substantial aspect of Council spending.
And as far as drinking water is concerned, as I see it Elected Members in this Water Services Committee have two main objectives: 1/ Ensuring that money is spent wisely; and 2/ Ensuring that drinkable water delivered to constituents is safe. The water regulator and Ministry of Health are not responsible for satisfying these outcomes – we are. And are we over-investing to meet regulatory requirements that is beyond what delivers real community benefit? I strongly suspect that we are, because the benefits versus costs are simply not being measured.
Apart from that, we have:
Joint Management Agreement saga continues: This week Taupo Mayor John Funnell put out a statement about the JMA which you can read HERE that caused quite a stir with Maori Ward Councillor Wahine Murch put out here own social media response HERE where she asserts the Mayor has got it wrong:
“Of particular concern are comments suggesting the JMA would result in “ratepayers being governed by people they cannot remove at an election.” This misrepresents the agreement. JMAs do not transfer governance of our district; they provide a statutory framework for joint management with partners like the Tuwharetoa Māori Trust Board. Mischaracterising it in this way can create unnecessary confusion and alarm” (Councillor Wahine Murch).
I wouldn’t have put it quite the same way as Mayor Funnell did, because in my mind since this JMA retains much of the ultimate decision making to Elected Members then that means it is technically more of a “co-management” rather than co-governance agreement. But there the hair-splitting ends, because I say that enmeshing any private entity into Council operations as the current draft JMA is proposing to do will absolutely have undue influence to Council affairs – it is foolish or naive to think otherwise.
On that note, ACT MP Cameron Luxton put out a social media message recently that pointedly reflects to where places like Taupo finds ourselves now (snippet below):
And while we are on that theme, a lot of people including myself are very inspired and impressed by Councillor Davina Smolders of Far North District Council who was this week speaking out against her own Council on the Duncan Garner podcast which you can watch HERE. Man oh man, I thought I had it tough here, but that place is a world apart in terms of the abuse and threats she has copped for speaking out. You really need to hear it for yourself, including that their Mayor Moko Tepania is acting like a complete nob and telling Duncan to F… Off. I know that I give Mayor John Funnell a hard time on occasion, but he has never told me to do that. I really do hope for sake of Far North constituents that the government steps in to sort that mess out, and it really does sound like a mess. If you want to follow Davina’s exploits you can find her Facebook page here and I have already ticked subscribe.
Duncan bleating on: Although it seems trivial by comparison to the above, to follow up on my failed Notice of Motion last Tuesday to elevate Elected Members to a level playing field with members of the public in terms of freedom of expression in our own Council Chambers, I put together a subtitled version of the unfolding 30 min drama which you watch HERE. I learned a few important things from that experience: (i) we have a Chairman Mayor who doesn’t understand that when you give the majority an opportunity to quench the minority, they will take it almost every time; (ii) our first term Councillors (with the notable exception of Cr Woodward) do not yet appreciate the value of free expression in Council Chambers; (iii) I had assumed this matter was 1 + 1 = 2 to understand, but some voiced reservations by even those voting in support may have swayed some fence-sitters to vote against (only myself and Cr’s Rankin, Greenslade, Woodward voted in support, with the rest against and the Mayor abstaining). So behind the scenes diplomacy in advance is obviously required for even the most basic of propositions to change a status quo, which this surely was.
Councils are not signatories to the Treaty: Just as a reminder Michael Laws (who happened to get a A+ on a Treaty of Waitangi paper at university) points out this out on a his recent podcast. In this he points out a relatively recent court decision from Marlborough where it was affirmed that Councils are not signatories and have no stipulated obligations to the Treaty of Waitangi. Now I don’t always like what Michael Laws has to say and at times he can be downright rude, but on his call for complete reform of local government to sort out the total mess its in including stuff like this, I totally agree.
Transport going Nuclear? As your representative to the Waikato Regional Transport Committee on Friday I attended the second workshop for the Transport Long Term Plan which you can watch HERE. If transportation is your area of interest I do recommend it worth tuning in, because we are at the stage of putting down all the priorities that will contribute towards where quite a lot of money will go. Okay its not edge of your seat stuff and Taupo is certainly the most strained district in the region for this aspect, but I managed to poke in about a few things. Hamilton Councillor Sure Moroney pretty much outed herself as an avowed climate warrior who several times piped up with comments to the effect that we should be getting all cars off the road. I almost laughed out loud when she also effectively stated that economic prosperity is linked to dependence on fossil fuels! I commented that the last government exacerbated the current fuel crisis because it stupidly pretended we could do without oil, gas and the Marsden Point refinery, or even sensible speed limits – but if in the future we decided to go nuclear then things could turn around. Taupo already has some cooling towers, so why can’t we just build a few more?
Help for the Homeless: Rotorua has a free laundry and shower service for the homeless which is now closing to some dismay. This article only caught my eye because of recent discussions in Chambers about the future of the Superloo toilets in Taupo town centre that is frequented by homeless for a similar purpose, and is being mooted for removal of its shower service because of security concerns. I am in two minds about this – on the one hand we don’t want public facilities turned into unsightly or hazardous places to frequent, but on the other shouldn’t we be offering a helping hand to those most in need? The problem is that these things never come for free, and the Rotorua facility is ceasing because the government funding ceased. I see an opportunity here for some local philanthropy.
Fridays lesson on how to think of your average local politician:
duncandoestaupo.com 