12 June 2026 2126
Charge of the Light Brigade (Lord Alfred Tennyson 1809-92), with a message about those who willingly put their fate in the hands of others:
“Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die”
But unless you are a soldier in an army, that is not what the rest of us would very much like to do. Councillor Duncan here reporting in with the latest goings on, and there have been a few things interesting lately. The title of this weeks update you may figure out the meaning a little further down and it doesn’t have a lot to do with Council, so lets start with the most important stuff first: Amalgamation.
From the workshop with Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) on this Tuesday just gone which is well worth a watch HERE, it has been revealed to us from Vanessa of DIA that the surefire way for Taupo District Council to remain intact until 2031 is to just sit back and do nothing (watch HERE for that question). That was quite a revelation to the room actually, because until now the understanding has been that whether or not one takes part in the Headstart submission process, the curtains are going to come down on any Council not already part of a Unitary Authority in time for the 2028 local body elections. So my take now is: any council wanting to remain independent as long as possible and perhaps hoping to never amalgamate should kick back and ignore the Headstart process entirely, because anything can happen by 2031. In other words: Don’t participate. That is about the easiest form of protest imaginable, and its true.
But do I think Taupo District Council (TDC) is competent enough to stay independent? No. Not in its current state anyway, and not if you don’t want rates to continue skyrocketing through the roof. I have referred to it as a kindergarten Council before, and I do mean it. Staff run the show with Elected Members following after, except it does of course not get portrayed that way (I will give some kudos to the council media team). People like me you elect and expect to have oversight of Council operations, but the culture is very ingrained to treat us like small children and not to press with probing questions (Operational / Governance divide they call it, and it has no credence in the Local Government Act or any other). By golly what a load of codswallop, and if the only way to throw that nonsense out is along with the bathwater then please let it be so. Its kind of a shame in a way, because smaller can be nimbler and bigger is not always better – but in the case of TDC, I think bigger can only make it better and its time to let some adults in.
On that note there was one item this week which is a seeming glimmer of hope being the Fees and Charges deliberations on Tuesday which you can watch HERE (if you really like, but it is lonnng) – Councillors kicked back on a proposed 8% increase to just 3.5%, with Deputy Mayor Kevin Taylor especially demonstrating some diplomatic skills to turn the fray (he isn’t Deputy Mayor for nothing). But we are taking about trifling dollars in the scale of things (I think $50k or so), and instead of getting frustrated that some of our fees and charges are amongst the nations highest with vacant expressions from staff to try and justify, I think this clearly demonstrates why there is a need for deeper dives to better understand why. That is exactly why Auckland and Hamilton Councils have set up some committees to do as I discussed last Friday, with Elected Members getting into operational detail to try and pull things apart. Otherwise its just like the arcade game Whack-A-Mole, and whatever we press down now will only resurface elsewhere.
Anyway, what are the other Councillors views on amalgamation, and who we should consider partnering up with? I don’t have a clue. You see even though its been a month since the government announcement and less than two before the submission is due, apart from occasional one-on-ones we haven’t had one round table discussion or debate, not a single one! Yes staff did put out a survey which you have until 17 June to complete, and which I bleated about last week as flawed and disrespectful the way it was foisted. I glean this approach is being attempted to be portrayed as level-headedness when others like Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell are too early on making their preferred directions known – but you’ll just have to take it from me folks, that here in Taupo the people you elected to govern are very much in disarray – although it probably doesn’t help we are in the middle of the island and have more options than just about anybody. My own leanings right now: Bigger is certainly looking decidedly better, but the devil will be in the detail and ringfenced budgets, debts and accountabilities will be key.
Okay lets get onto some lighter topics, shall we?
Turangi buses out this time: On Monday I attended the Waikato Regional Council Public Transport Committee where it was decided that the proposed timetable rejigs which were originally proposed for May but now deferred to September will kick in (you can watch the entire meeting HERE, for just for the Turangi bit watch from HERE, and for the agenda read it HERE which include the timetable changes which were voted to happen from September). Some of you may recall that I put up a bit of a good fight to get a commuter service put in, and that it depended on additional funds being thrown in ($170 was estimated). To cut a long story short it didn’t happen, and my thoughts I expressed below:
“I wish to thank WRC staff for the efforts towards this program. We are disappointed that a Turangi commuter service became too difficult to attach to the trial and we do recognize that the fuel crisis probably negatively influenced the opportunity for WRC to drop in some extra funds. My own disappointment extends to the Mayor of Taupo for his only tepid support, but we do intend to follow up on the WRC offer if external sponsorship can be found and perhaps that way additional services can be made to happen. So with the proposed timetable changes, I will vouch my support in the interests of data collection for future funding applications. However, I would like to suggest that future proposals get directly consulted for feedback first, and although we suspect the new Turangi service might not be enthusiastically taken up, we do not know that for sure”.
Folks, I think it is a travesty that this Council was not prepared to enthusiastically jump on this opportunity, at a trifling cost and during a fuel crisis too. Although WRC haven’t been spotless in the past, I certainly don’t put this one on them. This ball was ours for the taking, and we didn’t even pick it up off the grass. Turangi, I hope a new Council after 2028 will treat you better.
Driverless in 2126? I also attended the Waikato Regional Transport Committee which was held a few hours before, where I was granted opportunity to present for 15 min on Driverless Cars. This was based on a paper I did back in 2016, and perhaps surprisingly did not need very much need to update. I called it Co-operative Autonomous Vehicle Networks (CAVN), and you can watch my presentation HERE. Part of my talk included a year 2126 hindsight look at the parlous and inefficient state of 21st century roads, and this topic even for me was quite left-field at the time. But I took it on and am quite happy that I did, and wonder if the enthusiasm of 2016 will catch on again very soon or if I be presenting the same again in another ten years time. There was also immediately following an interesting Ride Sharing initiative presentation which immediately rung bells for Turangi, so I am trying to get the right people connected about that. If you really want to watch the first few hours of the committee meeting you can watch it HERE, but I warn it is on the dry side and you would have to be really keen.
Water Sleight of Hand? Yesterday we had our Water Services Committee meeting, and there really is not too much to report (available are the agenda HERE and recording HERE). If you want to hear an interesting talk about Stormwater you can tune in HERE, but what struck me afterwards is the item on SCADA which was presented HERE almost as an aside – after the meeting I was astounded to hear it will require around $10M of investment! This is exactly the sort of thing my last month Notice of Motion for more responsible financial decision making to start happening, so will be chasing that one more before it gets signed off as just one more Long Term Plan (LTP) line item – this is exactly why I tried to get a financial threshold for full reporting to start happening, not just perfunctory reporting as happens now.
So its a shorter update than usual this week with not even any bits and bobs from other places, but oh well at least I got something out.
Fridays Desiderata you need to read:
duncandoestaupo.com 