24 April 2026
Daniel 1:8: “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself”.
I had the Biblical character of Daniel pointed out to me twice this week as relevant to positions like mine in secular governance, and the analogy is apt. It is every bit akin to a den of lions, and it takes more than just willpower to overcome the gravity of this world which pulls so hard. Great men, and women, are required to pull this nation back to the greatness it once was and can still be. So stand firm wherever you are, and dare to stand alone. Because others will see and follow.
Council was simmering this week and not a whole lot to report, except it has struck me that the effort to uplift it from its current setting can be extraordinarily hard and perhaps isn’t really worth the sacrifice. Where we have landed I believe, is a place quite different to the past when there was tension in the system to keep a lid on. A time when there was common purpose and intent, and a real sense of public service. I say systemic failure is why rates keep rising, and unless the current system changes the only way I see for tension to be applied is from above – not governments so much because they come and go – but from those you elect to locally govern. What would a true Anzac do?
However, for those you elect to make that change, they have to be able to have their say. Last week Rotorua Councillor Robert Lee walked out of a Council meeting because he was prevented from asking questions of staff (you can view his social media post including the exchange HERE and read the media story about it HERE). I have received that sort of treatment many times before in my three or so years on Taupo District Council, and continue to still do so (local sleuth Sophia M Smith also wrote a recent piece on the topic HERE). At the end of the day, it is 100% the responsibility of the Chairperson to stop this nonsense happening and nobody else, so in Councillor Lee’s case his Mayor was undoubtedly complicit. My number one 2025 election pledge was to Restore Democracy in Council Chambers, because if that doesn’t happen then nothing worthwhile afterward can. Perhaps I should start to walk out more often, what do you think?
On that note I attempted to table a Notice of Motion for next weeks Council meeting which you can read HERE, but thus far have been thwarted by Chief Executive Julie Gardyne’s direct application of a technicality belying one of the very things I am wishing to highlight:
To cut a long story short, my notice was submitted a couple of hours after their official deadline (which I still dispute the interpretation of), and neither the Chief Executive or Mayor are so far willing to exercise their discretion to accept even as a late item. So I guess you will probably have to wait another month to hear how it goes down. Ugh, moving right along…
A couple of workshops we did have this week included a workshop on Property Revaluations which you can watch HERE. Not a lot of consequence that I can recall from that, except that one thing which could make a big difference was not a topic of discussion – Differential ratios between business/commercial and residential. The current setting in Taupo is 1.8 and apparently has been for quite some time, and it would take a Long Term Plan (LTP) round of probably controversial public consultation to amend – because changing that figure would shift the rates burden to either side of the equation. So its not something this Council would lightly dare to touch without much consideration, but I think could contemplate. Of interest a Chatgpt scan of settings elsewhere around the country (shown right) demonstrates that figures can vary widely.
There was a Taupo Airport Authority (TAA) workshop on a proposed District Plan change which you can watch HERE. I have been on the TAA committee the past three years, and it surprised me that there had been little or no protective designations already in place as with most other airports, so I don’t see this as very controversial and just needs to be played out.
There was also a lengthy workshop for Elected Members on Tuesday entitled “Long Term Plan Wrap Up”, and despite all the previous LTP workshops being public viewable was held behind closed doors on the spurious grounds of “the possibility that sensitive material will be addressed, including that they may impact staff employment”. Myself and at least one other Councillor disputed beforehand that there was no justification to keep things under wraps, and as far as I am concerned there was virtually no sensitive material discussed and it certainly was never mentioned the laying off of swathes of staff. Not that the four-hour workshop was riveting viewing or anything, and I rather suspect that certain Elected Members don’t want people to see their commitment to reigning in rates isn’t perhaps quite as strong as some of their election campaigning spoke to. But I did mention that the $70M bridge over the Waikato was surreptitiously put into the last LTP without the required debate, which Deputy Mayor Kevin Taylor probably wouldn’t want you to hear about because he was instrumental to make that happen. And that places like Waikato District Council which managed to achieve a below inflation rates increase this coming year are anomalies which are best not talked about…because they probably fiddled the numbers anyway.
At the outset of the workshop staff presented us with three options: A/ Implement proposed rates cap range of 2-4% from July 2027; B/ Transition to a rates cap range of 2-4% by July 2029; or C/ Wait until 2029 to comply. Instead of any debate, vote or even show of hands, the discussion morphed into something resembling what I have seen every year last term:
Things are tough, we’re doing our best, see it could be worse, now give it a rest.
(Yawn) so apart from all that, what else is going on?
Daring to be Davina: Kings Counsel Colin Judd gives a stirring inditement of Far North Councillor Davina Smolders brave stand against her own bunch of miscreant members elect which you can read HERE. This is a story really worth following and Shane Jones ill-thought words about it I am sure will come back to haunt him. Local Government Minister Chris Watts says he is looking into it and will have a response in about a month. I hope all this publicity makes a difference, because any time I have called on Ministers to help out the response has always been the same: “its a local issue that needs to be dealt with locally”. Not this time around Minister Watts, its time to do your job. But one of KC Judd’s comments stuck with me as quite relevant to the Taupo JMA saga we have going on.
On that note, I was recently sent this 2011 thesis by a Sonja Hancock entitled “Joint Management Agreement between Taupo District Council and Ngati Tuwharetoa: A Summary of lessons for local government”. If we put aside the accusations of me scaremongering for a moment, why don’t you read the concluding paragraph for yourself:
Also on that seeming endless note, I submitted some legal and financial questions about the JMA which you can read HERE and which our Chief Executive neatly deflected. If this Council gets it wrong which it very well could, I perceive an expensive Judicial Review is just around the corner because there are people out there to make it happen. Question is though – will they carry it through?
Late item on Council spending: I used my discretion to include this letter to Mayor and Councillors from intrepid retired engineer and Taupo resident Phil Shields, and his final statements are precisely on point (except I think we do need consultants some of the time):
Fridays I don’t know why but this just struck a nerve for me:
duncandoestaupo.com 