19 June 2026
God gives consequences to even His greatest servants and there are none without fault in the Bible, so what makes anybody think there won’t be any for you? Numbers 20 10-12: “And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock; and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?” Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank. Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”
Decision time is looming for the future of Taupo District Council, and how is it all looking to me? Controlled chaos is still how I describe this foisted and rushed amalgamation, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it is all bad. You see despite some of the things I might say – the negativity, I mean – I am an optimist at heart. Things might work out quite a lot better than now, and that is good enough for me. Are you an optimist or a pessimist, an idealist or a realist? Take your pick there is something in this for everybody.
I have pretty much had enough of this Kindergarten Council with its boorish culture of intransigency towards its governing members who are house trained to acquiesce, and although its a shame things have gone this far and smaller really can be nimbler – that certainly ain’t the case here. If the likes of Hamilton City want a piece of us we would be shortsighted to instinctively decline (and they are doing some great things to curb costs lately), and I certainly don’t think it would be healthy to get tied up with other backwater Councils of a similar vein to ours. It’s time we paint a new canvas with an improved outlook and a wider gene pool.
Smalltownitus is one name I give to how we are afflicted here. Everybody knows somebody connected with anything, so public commentary gets stilted because adverse reactions can really affect the bottom line. It’s only because I have zero business interests in this district which leaves me more or less uncompromised, and is one reason I think bigger can really be better for a small town as this. Last week I mentioned non-participation in the Headstart process as a pathway to remain independent – and it still is – but after reflecting on the ways of fickle central government I reckon its a pretty fragile hope, and it is now apparent that we could get chucked into somebody else’s proposal if the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) decide. So sitting on our backsides is looking a decidedly risky affair, and why stick up for a flawed status quo anyway?
There were no Council meetings of any consequence this week that I attended anyway, so what else is on the radar?
Missing the point: Taupo District Council is parading its recent AA credit rating as a win, and I am not saying it isn’t. But I think most of us will disagree with performance manager Sarah Matthews who claims: “This confirms we’re continuing to manage our finances prudently and have strong safeguards in place. In line with what the community asked us to do during our last Long Term Plan process, we’re investing for the future while keeping debt under control”. My own response to that is shown right.
Slack water? Last week I mentioned the Water Services Committee meeting on 11 June, my notes were very brief and below is the subsequent and quite pointed letter sent to us from retired engineer Phil Shields about the state of the reported stormwater system. You may want to read Mr Shields full letter HERE and to watch those particular proceedings again can do so HERE. I will leave you with this excerpt below:
South Waikato Pre-school: The week before last South Waikato District Councillor Zed Latinovic was censored on two Code of Conduct complaints in a kangaroo court of a proceedings which you can read the media article about here. I am acquainted with Zed and closely followed how it all went down, with experienced Rotorua Councillor Robert Lee turning up to represent Zed but them both walking out after being faced with a 15 min maximum time to present a defence case – and this after over $34K had been expended by the prosecuting independent investigator. You can watch the proceedings HERE on the Councils own media channel, which cost them a small fortune because it enables them to readily edit out the bits they don’t want people to see. I understand that Zed has probably little intention of complying with the stipulated punishment of: “written apology to council staff, further training and mentoring on his duties, council procedures and conduct as councillor”, and in his same circumstances neither would I (one of the upheld complaints was because in a Council meeting he naively used the term “creative accounting” to describe staff financial handling – yes really, it is that trivial). Ugh, I know Taupo District Council is a dog at times but that place makes us look like a shining beacon of democracy.
On the brighter side: Tararua District Council seem to be doing quite a good job with their amalgamation community engagement as their webpage indicates, and I gather they even had some town hall meetings early in the piece. I quite liked watching a short of their 10 June extraordinary meeting which you can watch HERE. One thing I noticed though, is that all the men were in suit and tie – do you think that’s important? Anyway, it is nice to hear that there are some not-dysfunctional small Councils out there.
Concealed election ripoff: I was finally able to confirm but only after the Ombudsman stepped in and it took over eight months, that Taupo District Council paid $235k to Electionz.com to undertake the recent 2025 local body election. I submitted a LGOIMA request for this information mainly because I had an unsatisfactory experience with Electionz.com with regard to their refusal to answer a basic question around indications of potential fraudulent voting (the Ombudsman could not help with that part, because as Electionz.com is a a private organisation it has no jurisdiction). I think it is interesting that such a significant sum can be effectively hidden within Annual Plan (AP) and Long Term Plans (LTP), not to mention the hundreds of other line items which are allowed no direct scrutiny by elected members (and the rushed AP & LTP process effectively precludes that anyway). But as far as I am concerned and because they unreasonably withheld important information upon request, for future consideration I would not be touching Electionz.com with a bargepole.
Guide to Amalgamate: The Taxpayers Union Guide to Amalgamation is now available and it makes for some good reading. Much of it is detail applicable after 9 August when fuller proposals need to start being prepared, but they are definitely against the rush which is being imposed and some of their wishlist items like waiting until a full review of the Auckland Super City experiment seem quite forlorn.
Oops better fix that: And the Taxpayer’s Union have been busy bees on something else too – they claim to have uncovered with Local Government Minister Simon Watts’ Local Government (Systems Improvement) Bill currently before Parliament and in the last stages, that it contains some pretty bad errors – and hopefully they are errors not by design. In effect it is being stated that the new Bill: “creates rights for Councillors that are inferior to those already enjoyed by ordinary members of the public under freedom of information law (LGOIMA)”. You can watch the Platform interview with Taxpayers Union Chief Executive Jordan Williams HERE. I think it is a shame that our society is starting to become so litigious and pedantic instead of the egalitarian she’ll be right, but when trust gets eroded as much as it has then this is where we end up. Anyway, here is my brief note to Hr Simon Watts below:
Community Transport Fund $500K: Yes really. Waikato Regional Council gives it away every year to worthy applicants, but it is something that clearly is not well publicised. In summary: “This fund aims to enhance accessibility and mobility for residents, particularly in rural areas where public transport options may be limited. The grant provides financial assistance to community transport providers, enabling them to offer essential transport services for health, education, and social purposes”. It occurs to me that this could be relevant to places like Turangi and Mangakino which do not have regular bus services, so if anybody out there is interested you can read about it HERE. There was also the WRC Transport Committee meeting last week where the item got discussed HERE, and I believe the next time applications are open will be February 2027.
Spending sprees continue: I got some more information about the roadworks on Titiraupenga Street in Taupo town central shown below, and it more or less confirmed what I suspect – not only are these works which I understand cost in the order of $600K a very big nice to do, but they don’t even address the biggest actual problem which is crashes at the Roberts Street intersection.
If I had been on the design team would have instead done something like below with none of the rest, costing a fraction of the above to build. We wouldn’t touch the kerbs, and we would address road safety (police reported crashes in the last 5 years shown inset, including two injury). Then again, I’m just a humble traffic engineer… Yet another reason why we need a Council where this sort of thing gets run past your elected members for permission first, and at very least for them to ask such basic questions as: “Why?”
Fridays wrap with Duncan’s novel 3 X car lane / 2 X truck lane compact roundabout to get things moving:
duncandoestaupo.com 