Fridays Best and Worst of Times

28 August 2026

Disclaimer: I do occasionally use AI, but very rarely in any of the text for these Friday updates.

Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities (1859), a book I once started and never had the patience to finish, and somehow it just resonates in the times of today: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way”.

I sometimes get accused of being too negative, yes really, and manage to somehow brass off somebody every week. But I can’t help how I come across at times, and I can’t understand how anybody can be motivated to fix something unless they first point out what’s broken. After I posted the video last Friday showing Dr John Campbells (no relation) breakdown of the white blood clots phenomenon, I was contacted by a local medical professional who berated me for broadcasting (my paraphrasing) unsubstantiated tripe . He also seems to think that politics is like say science and engineering, and that compelling truths are always liable to be accepted if only they are well presented..

My answer to the above: (i) The medical establishments reputation is thoroughly tarnished for its absence of ethical behaviour during covid, but I mostly blame the politicians who created this great divide in our society with the unwarranted vaccine mandates; (ii) Politics is not like science or engineering or law, where we like to think that most of the time truth and reason will prevail. Politics is about people: some who are truthful in the main, but enough who are devious and manipulative with their own often unspoken agenda; and (iii) as to the compelling argument idea – what if it isn’t even allowed to be presented? A Chairperson can politically intervene by simply excluding disagreeable voices from being heard, and some decisions come predetermined. In other words its a pretty rotten game, and I think we have enough local examples to go off.

We had our monthly Council meeting on Tuesday, and it was a lengthy one. As always you can find the agenda here, and for the entire over three-hour meeting you can watch HERE. There were quite a few items of interest this time, and incredibly I was still perky enough at the end (and sitting through all this guff is not like a real job). I will rattle through the main items as per below in their respective order:

Lakeside troubles linger: We had two members of the public make their submissions about the proposed new roundabout about to start construction at Maunganamu Drive/ Lake Terrace near Wharewaka, (watch from HERE). The first was Dean Stockwell of Pukenamu Road with a well presented summary of events which you can read HERE, as well as the Council produced community engagement summary which spells it all out loud and clear – 91% of the 55 surveyed Lakeside people don’t want to be connected. This issue seems somewhat convoluted and I also gave a report to it last week, but in short the Council’s position to connect Pukenamu Road has always hinged on this one opinion of a lawyer regarding a previously stated commitment of the Lakeside developers: “External legal advice provided to Council was that not proceeding would leave an unmet obligation and expose Council to legal and funding issues”. Personally, I don’t believe in putting lawyers in charge of running our streets, and indeed the Lakeside residents asked Council last year to support their case in Environment Court if there was any uncertainty (the answer: a resounding “no”). In any case, my recent questions to the Council lawyer look as if they will be going unanswered:

“Where has the Court determined that the particular configuration now proposed by staff is legally required? If the Court has made that determination, could you please point me to the relevant paragraph? Also when you identify said persons who would conceivably make a legal challenge, as well as an evaluation of their possible chances to succeed – please let me know”.

Immediately following was Murray McCallum from the Maunganamu side, whose main gripe was that he only received a few days notice of the construction happening. Murray spoke very well, and to be fair it sounds as if the things he is concerned about have since been addressed and in quite a short time. So I fear the main points could be lost: it is common decency to consult not just inform; and as the Road Controlling Authority this Council is still responsible to its residents even though a developer might be building it.

Maori plans change: Item 5.2 Plan changes including Maori Purpose Zones got the final tick (watch from HERE). I didn’t have anything much to say here, except about a year ago I did write a more cynical social media post that these were being foisted upon us without much discussion – but at least I accept the well intentions, so lets see what does result.

Pedaling backwards but we didn’t look cool: 5.4 Review of Annual Plan Projects (watch from HERE) where Mayor Funnell is attempting to make some savings with a relook at projects already approved for the next 9 months or so. But we didn’t get very far, and the expected list for closer inspection never actually was agreed to. Councillor Rachel Cameron used it as a chance to berate the Mayor for looking backwards, and I talked about my already submitted in list of projects a month ago along with specific questions – the Mayor responded last week telling me not to waste precious staff time!

But I also challenged Deputy Mayor Kevin Taylor about his audacious behaviour last term, when he was directly responsible for inserting a $70M line item for a new Taupo township bridge and transport solution in the 2024-34 Long Term Plan (LTP) without any deliberation or debate. Kevin headed a Steering Group for the consultant $300K Northern AccessTransport Study which as far as I know has not seen the public light of day even two years later. In 2024 I felt strongly enough about this one matter that I refused to vote affirmative for the 2024-27 LTP, but the other Elected Members of the day were not so discerning. There is $150K set aside to continue this work in the next 9 months which I opposed going ahead until this gets revisited, but nobody took me up on that so I suppose will have to repeat myself about it. Oh yes, Kevin also mentioned that he managed to get this on the 2024-2054 Waikato Regional Land Transport Plan, but as No. 30 out of a total of 30 projects regionwide I can’t see that being of too much consequence. So what was the outcome of all this debating to and fro? Not much that I could tell, so somebody please wake me up in 2028 when this is all over.

Accountability yeah right: 5.5 Review of Chief Executives Delegated Financial Authority Limits (watch from HERE). Now this is where things get interesting. The staff item quite clearly identifies the problem, and even Deputy Mayor Taylor agrees – even though we decided on Tuesday to introduce a $1M limit to the Chief Executives signing authority, because Elected Members only get to see things at the very end of the process it will be a rubber stamping exercise only. So I now better understand why the spending limit was increased from $500K to unlimited two election cycles ago – they were just tickboxing then, just as we will be expected to tickbox now! So I brought along my suggested addition as per below, only for acting Chief Executive Sarah Matthews to point out it might be against the Local Government Act (LGA)! I still find it hard to comprehend what spanners get thrown my way, but anyway confusion then reigned so it will have to wait another day – probably until after our new elects get to see for themselves what rubber stamping really looks like. In the meantime, Council Daisy will continue to remain obliviously tipsy and at your expense. My suggested addition:

“That Council requests the Chief Executive to report back to Council on a pre-procurement governance gateway for significant projects, to ensure elected members have an opportunity to consider the project scope, practicable options, estimated costs and key strategic risks before the procurement process commences and before the project has substantially committed to a particular solution”.

Yay we get a binding referendum: 5.7 Electoral System for the 2028 and 2031 Triennial Elections (watch from HERE) where we agreed to a binding referendum to let you decide if we want First Past Post (FPP) as present versus the more interesting Single Transferrable Vote (STV). The referendum will be included in the 2028 local election papers so won’t cost much to make happen, and I am happy this will be a chance for Taupo residents to get a taste of some direct democracy action.

Silence of the lambs: 5.9 & 5.10 Notions of Motion (NoM) from myself to amend the standard staff report template for better informed decision-making, and also an item requesting a staff report on the New Years fireworks. Now the only thing of consequence from both of these which I think you should be aware – apart from some brief commentary from Councillor Hope Woodward who seconded, not a single other Elected Member had a word to say before voting to the negative. Watch the whole 20 min clip HERE to see for yourself, and although the camera unfortunately doesn’t show you can take it from me that during my presenting many of them were thoroughly engaged on their devices. I will probably do a special post next week to break this down further, but I’ll let you know in advance that I have fairly good reason to believe there was a conspiracy of silence going on. Because you know, being a team player is the main thing in Council chambers, right?

Apart from all that less than highly edifying business, what other tidbits are happening about the place?

In Rotorua money goes missing too: Sounds like over there they have some similar problems to us, and last week Councillor Robert Lee tried to get to the bottom of a $70M line item which managed to get slipped into their 2021 LTP going forward, but most of their elects weren’t interested in getting to the bottom of it. “Relitigating the past” some of them called it, but to me this sounds like they are just as bad as us at not wanting to learn from past mistakes. Watch the 28 min reel HERE if you like, I found it interesting.

Whistleblowers wanted: An interesting social media post appeared on the Taupo Noticeboard during the week from Daniel Gray who seems to know something the rest of us don’t. But anyway wish that I could help but I can’t, and good on him for asking because we absolutely need more people around here asking questions.

Who owns your child: Did you know what goes on behind closed doors in todays education? The idea that a school could connive with your child to take sex transitioning drugs and without parent consent is quite mind boggling, yet it is happening. Watch it HERE if you don’t believe me.

Fridays why we can’t do away with AI now that its an art: