The above picture is pretty much how I felt at the last Tuesday 25th August meeting of Taupo District Council after tabling my two Notice of Motions about improving staff information in reports and requesting a staff report on the New Years fireworks. Because apart from one minor exception, all the Councillors I have labelled as dummies had nothing to say before voting to the negative. Only Councillor Hope Woodward online (who also Seconded) contributed anything of worth to the debate on both counts, and although the recording doesn’t show it many of the others were heavily engaged on their devices throughout my presenting (watch the 20 min recording HERE).
What did I say, what did I do, to deserve such a ceremonial boo?
I cannot recall ever voting against any item without at least justifying because I figure at very least the public are owed an explanation, and otherwise isn’t that only what dummies do? So I challenged Councillors on this yesterday at our weekly backroom catchup, and apart from Councillor Kylie Leonard who left the room so outraged at such an accusation, was only able to get one piece of useful feedback and from a new elect – “we had discussed it all before”. Folks, the only reason I table any item at all for a public meeting, is because the issue isn’t getting properly addressed out of public view. I don’t completely blame the new elects though, because they were only following the lead of some more experienced who also played dumb.
Last week I labelled this as a conspiracy of silence, and I don’t think I am wrong. So I encourage you to tell them that they need to lift their game, and next time that it happens I will post again to shame.
Because it’s not just me they are disrespecting, they are also disrespecting you.
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 2024-34Long 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 2024-2054Waikato 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:
Disclaimer: I do occasionally use AI, but very rarely in any of the text for these Friday updates.
Ngāti Whātua Chief Paora Tūhaereat the Kohimarama conference of 1860 “These are my words. I sustained the Pakeha a long time ago, and I found him good. Hence, I say, I shall always remember the Pakeha, and I shall always remember too, with affection, the Governer who was sent here to protect us. The benefits which we received from him are – Christianity and the Laws. Now, listen! My affections at the present time lie between these two blessings. Listen again! My heart is satisfied”.
Hi y’all its Councillor Duncan again, and last week somebody asked me to explain my engineering background so I will do so briefly here. I graduated Auckland University in 1991 as a civil engineer, and although I tried to escape it for a couple of years then fell into the transportation field and have been there ever since. After working for ten years or so I went back and completed a Masters degree including a thesis entitled “multi-lane roundabouts for cyclists” which was conveniently undertaken during work time because we managed to get government research funding, and my employment ever since has been with a mix of engineering consultancies and various Councils like Auckland City, Waitakere, and Auckland Transport. In 2015, I decided to try self-employment, and because we have the internet of things that meant we could move to small town Taupo even though my work is mostly city stuff. If you want to read more then head over to my website TRAFFESSIONALS although it hasn’t had much attention for a while.
This week Council has just ticked along, and because being a Councillor is not a full time role that means one can’t really afford to be taking deep dives into everything that comes along. So that means I didn’t attend the gambling policy workshop on Tuesday (watch HERE) or attend the Accelerator fund application hearings yesterday either. One observation after skipping through the record of the former though: If Council’s rationale for considering tighter controls on gambling is the need to minimise community harm, yet Councillors are acknowledging alcohol as potentially causing equal or greater harm, why doesn’t Council have a Local Alcohol Policy like some other places? I wasn’t there to contribute, but that’s what I would have said.
Okay lets rattle through everything else:
Elected voices quenched: It is pretty obvious to me that the public would like to hear from us Councillors more than just once every three years, but clearly the significant majority of your Taupo elects don’t feel the same. I have mentioned this before but it was tabled for brief discussion again on Tuesday: Why hasn’t the “Councilor Korero” item been reinstated in the weekly Council Korero section of Taupo & Turangi News after the election hiatus up to October last year? The answer folks is pretty simple, and I have said it before as well: Censorship. Perhaps we might say the wrong thing. Criticise staff. Criticise one another. Criticise a Council Policy. Criticise the way something or other was handled. Oh and also, even though your job description is politician you are not to mention politics (excluding Mayor John Funnell of course, he’s allowed to say anything). Folks these are really the self-imposed guardrails being imposed upon us your elected representatives, the ones who are supposed to be governing the place. I asked AI the question if such attitudes are common (which you can read HERE includes examples), and the answer is pretty clear: A blanket rule that personal elected-member opinion has no place in regular Council media is therefore a policy choice, not a demonstrated New Zealand local-government norm. So I am asking the others, do I really have to do a Notice of Motion for something as basic as this? It is quite frankly embarrassing – not only that your Councillors don’t value their own opinions enough to push for this opportunity to have their say, but that the majority of them are also happy to have that restriction imposed on others. Yes of course people can just tune into duncandoestaupo.com to hear from me, but not everybody uses social media or even has a computer. But oh yeah I forgot, its all about maintaining the status quo right?
Head Start flickering embers: Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) proved themselves useful at times to put together this compilation of Head Start Proposals, including the one which Taupo is included the Western Waikato Unitary. Interestingly Rotorua has just announced after the 12th hour that it is going to submit a late proposal including themselves in a Bay of Plenty Unitary which you can read HERE and listen to Mayor Tapsells announcement HERE. Hamilton which is in Backstop like ourselves just put out a White Paper, which although much more constructive than Taupos blatantly defensive posturing, is asking more questions than it answers and still leaves us wondering: You had three months to get something together, so why didn’t you then? Apart from that, on Tuesday in Chambers we talked for way too long about next steps forward that it felt like a funeral after a funeral, managing to set up a working group of Councillors whose only purpose I can tell is to do more concentrated waiting for the government announcement in September than the rest of us can manage by ourselves. There were some murmurs again from the more idealistic ones like Councillors Wahine Murch and Rachel Cameron about marching on Wellington to show them what we think, but my experience is that one needs to do a lot more than just that if you want to get the attention of Beehive politicians.
Launch pad issues: Next Tuesday we have our monthly full Council meeting (read the agenda HERE) which includes a few items of interest. Most particularly item 5.5 which is a proposed change to the Chief Executives financial setting from currently unlimited to a set number of $1M. This is well overdue in my opinion, but some of the papers commentary caught my eye including that the previous decision of 2021 to remove those limits were “in the interests of good management and administration”. Well if you leave it as late in the process to just tickboxing an already tendered contract as seems to have been happening before, I suppose that would appear to be the case! People we have a very big problem – Councillors are elected to influence the decision making, not just rubber stamp the outcomes as they come to hand. But that is how things work now, and it needs to change.
Learn to vote: We also have the decision in Item 5.7 to make around First Past Post (FPP) versus Single Transferrable Vote (STV). I reported on this briefly in last weeks post, and although nobody has done much canvassing of public opinion my own hasn’t changed much. I would rather change to STV now if we can, but failing that lets stick with FPP for now and include the binding poll with 2028 local election papers – that way we can let the people decide and at minimal cost.
Duncan on fire: I also have two Notice of Motions of my own, the first item 5.6 is to amend the standard report template to enable better information be provided to Councillors for their decision making. The second item 5.7 is to request a September staff paper to reconsider the recently announced cancellation of the New Years fireworks to which I put out a social media post to bring attention and gauge public opinion. So far it seems that clearly a lot of people won’t greatly miss the fireworks, but the fact is that the stated $50K saving won’t really make a noticeable difference to anything and they have been an iconic Taupo thing for as long as many people can remember. To just have the staff announce it like this under the pretense that Elected Members asked them to get rid of non-essentials, is just not on. For some additional context, I asked AI about council funded fireworks elsewhere in the country which you can read HERE. A few Councillors from last term are even claiming the cancellation of fireworks was decided two years ago, but that it just wasn’t minuted or mentioned to the public! Luckily I have a good memory and even a LGOIMA answer to prove them wrong (for my 2024 social media post which includes that read HERE). Folks, in this game of Taupo local politics it pays to get everything in writing, because gaslighting and stretching of the truth are as common as mud stains on your shoe after you walk in the rain up a grassy hill.
Spectator sport or walkover?Taupo District Council is finally following up on its commitment to build a new roundabout on Lake Terrace (read HERE) and also un-necessarily terrorise the residents of the Lakesidesubdivision (Pukenamu Road etc) who don’t want to be connected to it. There is bit of background to this to which I have previously written a summary HERE. In short: nice enough for us to get a free roundabout, but spending a few hundred thousand dollars of ratepayer money to achieve nothing more than peeving off nearly an entire street of residents to almost no discernible gain is just not on. Honestly, if I had proposed doing such a thing to my own Council manager back in the day, I would have been laughed or marched out of the room and told my job is to fix problems not go around creating them as here. Yes, Lakeside may be wealthier than most streets in Taupo, but every council worker in Auckland knows you don’t go walking over people in Remuera – yet TaupoDistrict Council seem so used to doing to everybody just as a matter of course. One of the residents did make a legal challenge last year to try and get the idea squashed, but all that came of that was a ruling that the Council wasn’t acting illegally and has the right to do as it proposes – so how’s that as an endorsement for wise decision making, shall we get some lawyers to design our roads?
For anybody really interested you can watch the 40 min Council meeting of December 2024, where Councillors decided to endorse the staff proposed way forward with a din of growling Lakeside residents in the background. Earlier consent conditions in the 2000’s were based in the context of Lake Terrace remaining as SH1 with a 100km speed limit, and back then things like a new roundabout and bunds to prevent headlight glare made sense, as well as the notion to connect Pukenamu Road to this new roundabout instead of exiting via Wharewaka Road as it does now. But things have very much moved on since then, and I expect the 80km speed limit on Lake Terrace will be reduced in the not too distant future as well. Council staff seem to be taking none of these things into consideration, with common sense long ago leaving the equation. So I say this is just troublemaking for troublemaking sake, and if we spent the money of fireworks it would be much more appreciated. Anyway, lets see what happens next.
Accountability for Five Mile Bay: There have been recent posts on local social media which have generated quite a bit of interest, and people need to understand this is a stain on custodian trustees Te Kotahitanga o Ngāti Tūwharetoa (TKTN) for failing to uphold the 2017 Treaty Settlement for the agreed public access to the two Scenic and Recreational Reserves. But also the Ministers for Conservation and Treaty Settlement whom people have previously written to asking them to enforce, not to mention Taupo District Council and NZ Police which have abrogated their responsibilities on behalf of citizens. So corruption or ineptness all round, and I think its about time this mess which has been going on since 2020 gets dealt to. I have written two new letters to both Minister of Conservation Tama Potaka and TKTN, and whatever the answer turns out to be the public should get to see how accountability for a statutory public reserve and Treaty Settlement actually works. So watch this space, things could get interesting.
Attorney-General gets it so should you: The judiciary in this country are way out of kilter and only the politicians are to blame, so says Attorney-General Hn Chris Bishop HERE, from interpretations of Tikanga to legislations about climate change. By golly its about time we remembered that we elect politicians to run the country and not lawyers calling themselves judges, I really hope Chris Bishop after October gets to stay on.
Accountability matters? Tauranga Council is under the gun with the recently released report about the fatal Mount Manganui landslide which you can read about HERE. But the question everybody really wants the answer to is: Who will be held accountable? Platform commentator Michael Laws has significant reservations that anybody ever will be as he talks about HERE. He calls it a New Zealand disease that in a car crash accountability always matters, but somehow when multiple people get hurt and a government agency is involved then nobody gets individually held to account. The only thing I would dispute about that statement is that car crashes can get swept under the carpet too – the Kiddle Drive / Arrowsmith Avenue debacle just a few years ago here in Taupo is evidence enough of that.
Fridays lest we forget: Five years ago there was a pandemic plan in place which the New Zealand government chose to ignore. We will be paying the consequences for decades to come, and for a host of associated reasons ex-Prime Minister DameJacinda Ardern is unlikely to be able to ever walk the streets of New Zealand again. For a glimpse of just one of these potential consequences, watch this informative but measured update by renowned Dr John Campbell below:
Ecclesiastes 11:9 with an encouragement to seek God early in your life before you make too many mistakes that are hard to fix: “Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, And let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth; Walk in the ways of your heart, And in the sight of your eyes; But know that for all these God will bring you into judgment”.
Okay lets talk about Daisy for a bit, who is the lady in the above picture and been appearing the past couple of weeks. She was born from the Head Startamalgamation chatter that has been going on the past three months, and really stems from the media team at Taupo District Council who likened it to a dating game. The fact of the matter is that last Sunday 9th August was the due date which Daisy didn’t get hitched up, the ship has now sailed and now she has to wait for the government to announce her arranged marriage with another partner(s). I am not completely against arranged marriages by the way, in fact I know they can work. Even if our culture doesn’t really go for it, given a choice what parent wouldn’t like to have some say in their children’s future partner? But anyway Daisy is probably going to be a regular fixture in my columns from now on, because in my mind she has come to represent the attitude of this Council quite well – a veritableprincess who is trouble free, insular and self-important, and continuallytipsy on the long-suffering Taupo ratepayer funded good life. And most importantly, I am having quite a bit of fun with AI doing it.
Duncandoestaupo.com: For people who choose to think
And its all over right, Head Start? Well I certainly thought so, at least for now, because 9th August was the specified due date and now we just wait for the government to respond in September…right? But it seems that Taupo District Council didn’t quite get the memo, because on Tuesday in Chambers we were still talking about it and already we have some strategy sessions set aside in our calendars starting next week! “What for?” you may well ask, and to be honest I really don’t know! There was some hearsay that the government might be granting a months grace for latecomers like us to still pull something together, but the latest as of this morning is that this will not come to pass. And the direction Mayor John Funnell is clearly wanting to still head is a Central North Island Unitary (i.e. with Ruapehu, Waitomo & Otorohanga) – which in itself is fair enough to at least further explore – but on Tuesday there was clearly expressed no commitment to even entertain the idea of negotiating with Waikato District Mayor Aksel Bech who is leading the Western Unitary Authority proposal which I think we will most likely be dragged into. On 11th August I publicly asked Mayor Funnell in my article entitled So then, who’s telling Porkies:
Why did Taupō withdraw from those wider discussions in the first place (involving the other Waikato Councils), and what opportunities to influence the eventual outcome did we give up by doing so?
So I guess we now have our answer in pretty transparent terms: Mayor Funnell is not prepared to even negotiate. My own take is that we have been painted into such a corner with his vehement political posturing of defiance (which I am interpreting as a deflection to us not coming up with the goods), that it is hard to backtrack now. Perhaps so, but maybe one shouldn’t say such words in the first place, and why should the rest of us have to pay for that? Or even, were they really his own words?
I’ll say just one more thing about Head Start and amalgamation before we move on: You didn’t have to be a Council to submit something to the government, even though that was the general stipulation and expectation. Ngai Tahu submitted a proposal of their own for the South Island which you can read about HERE, which perhaps is covered in more detail somewhere else than just that article. And I sent in my own Waikato Together along with a covering letter which includes my own perspective about Taupo District Councils quite intransigent position. So interesting times alright, and lets see if who dares really wins.
Okay finished with all that, is there anything else?
Why We Vote: On Tuesday we had quite an interesting one-hour workshop which you can watch HERE presented by Warwick Lampp our electionz.com contracted electoral officer, explaining the difference between First Past Post (FPP) which we have now in Taupo, and Single Transferrable Vote (STV). We have only until 12 September to decide as it will apply for the next three elections, or if a resident petition is received with 1414 signatures by 11 December to instigate a binding poll held by 28 March 2027 (estimated cost around $135K, or at least two fireworks displays). Quite interesting that we have this legislated referendum in place just like we had for Maori wards, although I am sceptical if people will be as motivated to pace the streets getting signatures for something as fairly mundane as this. A number of us Councillors including myself are quite warming to idea of change though, as it seems to present a more transparent democratic way forward with 16 other Councils already using it (read Warwick’s full presentation HERE, along with a simple demonstration HERE). One option I am favouring is to stick with FPP for now and include the binding poll with 2028 local election papers, and that way we can let the people decide at minimal cost. Of interest, Hamilton City just recently had a vote to change from STV back to FPP, but this has caused something of a controversy and there are already moves afoot to reverse it before the September deadline. Hamilton Councillor Sue Moroney is leading that particular charge and you can read more about that HERE.
New Years Fireworks CANCELLED: To be absolutely clear – this was not brought before elected members to decide or discuss, either this term or last. This is a staff decision to save around $50K based on a previous directive to curb costs. So I am just as surprised as anybody to have this sprung upon us, but unfortunately not very surprised at the poor way this has been handled. I myself am fairly ambivalent about fireworks, but I know they bring joy to many people and there are those who drive a long way just to come and see them. The bigger question for Mayor John Funnell, is: Why does he let the ship be so steered in this way, to just let a bureaucrat decide?
How to spend $3M in one place: Okay many of you have probably been aware of some works happening just downhill of the Napier Road / Kiddle Drive roundabout (you know, that one which Council installed around 2020 for $2M). Some of you might even know that it was to replace the 30 metre timber footbridge which was starting to fall into space, but do any of you know that by the time it is finished we will have spent $1M to replace it? My interest in this was recently triggered by the following resident contact:
“Initially was a repair of the bridge and stabilizing bank underneath. Was quoted for by several local companies but TDC accepted out of town quote. Napier Rd started collapsing during process. That company wasted so much money on something that wasn’t going to ever work. Now another company has taken over and the road has had to be stabilized with rods so first lot of works was a total waste of money. Traffic management must have cost a fortune. The company that Initially advised the council the foot bridge was not a good choice have been called in to sort the shambles out. It’s been going on for so long and has been a poor council decision from the start. Would love to see a cost trail!! It would be terrifying”
So I am now starting to ask questions like: “Wasn’t there any other way?”. For example, I sketched up the below in PURPLE for an alternative walking link which I am confident would work. My rough order estimate (and this is more or less my line of work): $200K at very most. Folks, that’s an awful lot of fireworks we could have burned instead, more than enough for a good show every last Friday of the month. Yet another example of why we need your Councillors Elect to be given mechanisms set in stone that will give real and proper oversight of what your money gets spent on, because after all we are the ones who sign off and are responsible for it all.
SuperGold Users Under Threat: Okay I attended a meeting of the Waikato Regional Council (WRC) Public Transport Committee special workshop meeting this week to discuss some proposed revision in fares. Nothing too much affects Taupo which we can do anything about anyway, except for the proposed deletion of peak hour travel for SuperGold Card users (by peak hour, we are talking around 7-9am and 3-6pm), excerpt shown below. Anyway this is just a proposal at this stage to be publicly consulted the next couple of months, so any affected oldies better get their acts together to submit a response if you are one of those affected (keep an eye out for news release by WRC). The government only gives SuperGold subsidy for off-peak travel, which I figure makes sense for congested cities but hardly for the more empty buses we have around here.
Gee whiz really: I have fielded a few questions lately about the fate of the $80M TEL Fund which Councillors discussed a week or so ago in a closed workshop, and have been telling people to wait for the official news release – well, you can now read it HERE. But if you want to save a few minutes valuable time just read this snippet of it here: “Council held a closed workshop last month to receive legal advice on how it can affirm and protect the TEL Fund for its intended purpose. There are a few different avenues that can be explored to preserve the fund, but each comes with different advantages and disadvantages, including costs. Work on the matter is continuing”. In other words, we are hedging our bets and watching our words because the lawyers are telling us to be careful what we say.
More garbage from Sophie: For local investigator Epitome of Coolness’s latest post on tracing the $5M question of Taupo rubbish read HERE. I do hope she starts looking at incinerators too, because that would mean we won’t have to dig a bigger hole by precious Mount Tauhara. And what about that wheelie bins idea we had a few years ago…
Help Wanted:Mayor John Funnell is wanting some help by the sounds, and is prepared to use your money to make it happen. Anyone interested you have until 23 August to apply HERE , and a few of us Councillors are already typing up our CV’s in hope of a decent pay rise.
Oh yeah nearly forgot: We had a Water Services Committee meeting yesterday which you can watch HERE, but not many shots were fired except at wet wipes and a confirmation from the Commerce Commission that yes, it is indeed the job of this committee not theirs to ensure that ratepayers get value for money.
Fridays we shall remember them who did this to us, and you better be careful if there’s a next time:
I don’t want to make too big of a deal about Mayor John Funnell’srecent claim that Taupō’s debt would rise from around $900 to nearly $9,000 per rating unit if we get amalgamated into the proposed Western Waikato Unitary, but I don’t think it is a good idea putting out financial figures which are not like-for-like comparisons.
As reported in this recent article HERE, the $900 figure is an indicative net debt figure which takes Taupō’s substantial TEL investment into account. The nearly $9,000Western Waikato figure, however, is gross debt. Taupō’s own papers apparently put the like-for-like gross figures at approximately $4,320 versus $8,770 per rating unit. That is still a substantial difference and absolutely deserves scrutiny, but it is quite different from suggesting Taupō’s debt would increase almost tenfold. It also needs to be considered alongside proposals to ring-fence historical council debt so that existing borrowing remains attached, as far as practicable, to the communities that incurred it.
There is a wider issue here too. If we are going to offset Taupō’s investments against its debt when comparing councils, surely we should at least consider the assets and investments sitting on the other side of the ledger elsewhere. One interesting example is WEL Energy Trust , which currently has around $900 million of net assets. Under its Trust Deed, Hamilton City Council is the ultimate capital beneficiary of 63% of the Trust Fund, Waikato District 35% and Waipā 2%. Those interests are not equivalentto Taupō’s relatively liquid TEL investment. They are deferred until 2073 and subject to the Trust Deed and come with restrictions, so it would be equally misleading to simply deduct $900 million from the other councils’ debt. But assigning those interests no economic value whatsoever is not helpful either.
My concern isn’t to argue that Taupō would necessarily be financially better off through amalgamation – it potentially may not be. What I am saying is that, before broadcasting to our community that neighbouring councils see Taupō as a “cash cow”, or that our debt would increase tenfold, ratepayers deserve a genuinely consistent comparison: gross debt against gross debt, net debt against net debt, and a proper assessment of the assets, investments, infrastructure obligations and future liabilities that all participating councils bring to the table.
The Government has said it will assess the Head Start proposals and Cabinet will decide later this year which proposals progress to detailed design. Final decisions are expected in 2027 towards implementation for the 2028 local elections, so those detailed financial conversations are therefore still ahead of us. Taupō could have had greater involvement in shaping them earlier if we had remained engaged in the wider Waikato discussions, but after June we didn’t. So perhaps rather than making accusations about the motives of neighbouring councils, here is a question for Mayor Funnell:
Why did Taupō withdraw from those wider discussions in the first place, and what opportunities to influence the eventual outcome did we give up by doing so?
Because to me, that is the much more important question.
Ecclesiastes 11: 5-6 advises us not to cease striving to do good: “As you do not know what is the way of the wind, Or how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child, So you do not know the works of God who makes everything. In the morning sow your seed, And in the evening do not withhold your hand; For you do not know which will prosper, Either this or that, Or whether both alike will be good”.
This Friday update (being put out on a Saturday morning) is more rushed than usual and for two reasons: first that we have come to the end of a very long road where there’s really not too much more to say, and second that I headed out for my very first day of Winter snow and skiing. Because I only put these updates together starting Friday mornings and I have little inclination to carry it on in the weekend, and the mountain is always a wonderful place to be especially after a trying time as this, and I’m glad I went.
Wow, we decided. I mean at Thursdays Council meeting on Head Start of course, even though we really had already decided last Tuesday. To Backstop – or as some others are choosing to frame it – “put in an alternative proposal”. And I objected to all six resolutions, with only one exception and that was just to let Mayor John Funnell and his Deputy correct the grammar and punctuation. You can watch the full meeting HERE, and read the agenda HERE. For just my own little speech you can watch HERE (including the Mayor’s interesting acknowledgement afterwards that I endorsed his course of action?), and if you would rather read then below is the transcript including links to some of the referred models.
“I’ll start with a quote from the Minister Chris Bishop: “Our message to councils is simple: lead your own reform, or we will do it for you. Either way, change is coming”. These have been probably the most interesting 3 months in my time both this and last term, because it’s amazing how a bit of pressure can bring out the best of people, and also the worst. I think Waikato Mayor Aksel Bech taking the lead on something as constructive as the Western Waikato Unitary Model is extraordinarily commendable and an example of leadership in crisis. In contrast, I find it interesting that we are ending up fighting tooth and nail for more time, and our Mayor using I think, inflammatory and worst case scenarios. Perhaps it is a valid negotiation tactic I am unaware of. But I think with the benefit of history and hindsight may reveal who was right or perhaps even who was right for the wrong reasons.
The problem is I think we have been very much focussing on the form before the function, and become trapped in the financial data over everything and anything else. Because of that we had little to offer smaller potential partners like Ruapehu as they saw themselves losing out, and also to bigger ones like Rotorua because we only saw ourselves losing out too. The government tried to direct us towards catchment based models which we seem to have done anything but, instead thinking that small sub-regional would be better, neglecting to consider that being part of a large Unitary would enable increased influence to Wellington and better access to professional services. Trying to become a standalone Unitary Authority has even been floated as a viable option, which is not necessarily beyond us but would probably be expensive and therefore not very realistic.
I intend, indeed I feel obliged, to submit my own letter giving the government a fuller explanation of Taupo’s position, including that our community has not got strong views opposing the Waikato Western Unitary Council because it simply has not been informed enough to be able to give a proper opinion. And things like TEL and legacy debt haven’t been dealt with, simply because we haven’t discussed them as we decided to leave the negotiations early on.
So today Taupo is making our Head Start decision, but the matter won’t be resting there. We now have three quite similar proposals for large Waikato Unitaries floating round – the Western Waikato Unitary, a Waikato Region Council (WRC) model just recently shared, and my own Waikato Together model which was unfortunately not permitted to be presented in these Chambers for public view. I believe that in September the government will announce that we will be part of one of them, or a variation of them, and it will be a once in a generation opportunity to further develop our preferred future. To reassure our community that we will protect our financial and environmental wellbeing, and even improve community representation. We could decide to try and fight it, but I believe that would be a very big disservice to people of the Taupo District. Instead we should embrace the dialogue which will be taking place”.
So folks this Council is sending in our “proposal” on your behalf due this Sunday, but its really not that. We didn’t follow the rules of the game and are trying to invent our own and plea for more time, which is a hope indeed. I realise that we aren’t the only Council trying to do the same, but the referee Minister Simon Watts only just recently gave a yellow card warning that he wasn’t going to be putting up with any of that. What is it about Kiwis and our predilection to ignore rules and signs, and hope for reasonableness from the other guy? To clarify the situation even further, this from Hamilton Councillor Sarah Thompson about their own deliberations which resulted in not submitting a proposal:
“At the meeting, we were informed (through the mayor from a phone call with the minister the night before) that if we didn’t join Head Start by endorsing the Western Waikato Unitary amalgamation proposal (which includes Waikato District, Waipā, South Waikato, Hamilton and Taupō), then any future discussions about local council representation and reform for Hamilton would happen without us in the room. The same would go for Taupō which has also declined to be part of Head Start“.
One ring to rule them all: I have one more thing about the WRC: even though we know they will be disestablished by October 2028, they aren’t gone just yet. Waikato Regional Councillors voted last week to back a single region-wide Unitary council, and they are submitting their own proposal of which you can read a draft HERE. It is remarkably similar to my Waikato Together and even pointedly names subsidiarity as its basis (perhaps I even influenced them?). In any case – watch this space. I think there is every chance that the government could take it on board to implement and despite peoples expressed intentions to do something else. They could decide that the Waikato kindergarten needs some adult intervention, and to that argument I think the revealed antics in recent days all over the country must have given some ammunition. For example on Friday across the border, Rotorua decided to withdraw from being part of a seemingly done-deal proposal for a Bay of Plenty Unitary, mostly it seems on the extraordinary basis of an adopted informal policy to not include unwilling partners (Western Bays was declining). Nice guys don’t often win by being nice guys, don’t they realise that?
My questions for Taupo: Why didn’t Taupo District Council take the Waikato river catchment more seriously as the basis for any submission, despite the governments clear stipulation to do so? How come we were so apparently oblivious of the Western Waikato Unitary model until the 11th hour? And why couldn’t we pivot last Tuesday or even defer, to at least hear that proposal out before we decided to go Backstop? Folks, Taupo was always going to be a smaller player in the wider game, but I think this Council leadership never had any intention to even have that conversation and instead wanted to remain kings. They were in denial, we had our chance to be part of the wider Waikato conversations which were going on, but we inexplicably dropped out by as early as the end of June. I wrote about this a few days ago in Has Mayor Funnell Dropped the Ball? The answer to that in my mind is clearly “yes”, and although I wasn’t able to exactly pin down who did decide to withdraw, it was almost certainly made by one or more of the Mayor and his Deputy, perhaps also the Chief Executive, who decided on our behalf. Like I said in my speech above: “…it’s amazing how a bit of pressure can bring out the best of people, and also the worst”.
Anyway and apart from all that, I think that whatever we decided in these chambers is not likely to change the final outcome one iota. Its in the governments hands now, and many suspect perhaps they have a plan not prepared to deflect from much anyway. Yes the Local Government Act can give us some protection if we really want to resist, but the government has already mentioned that it intends to pass new legislation to get around that. If Labour get voted in November it could be a different story, but even that is not assured as they seem to have even bigger centralising tendencies although they could relent on this one. So overall, I give it at most about a 1 in 5 chance that Taupo District Council will remain intact after October 2028. Some of you may recall me calling for a revolution in the 2025 local elections, well I think I got that wrong and should have read my history better. Because in this country, the acts of revolution always seem to come from above.
Only a couple of other things and they are on the same topic:
For the latest on amalgamation proposals around the country: you can read HERE , but because its a week old is already out of date.
Councillor Wahine Murch wants us to: That’s right, go to the steps of parliament. Here we have the Mayors of Orotohanga and Waitomo in Wellington petitioning for their own standalone King Country Council. I have already told Wahine that I won’t be coming along, but if she can convince Deputy Mayor Kevin Taylor to protest as well then my world really has gone topsy turvy.
Fridays piece of 70’s nostalgia to keep eggs in your underpants, and dammit why the hell not?
Taupo Mayor John Funnell’s quite alarming statement on Saturday presents a single interpretation of a financial model prepared by Taupō District Council’s Chief Financial Officer. It reflects an assessment of the available financial information, and using a common financial methodology concludes that Taupō would be financially significantly disadvantaged under a Western Waikato unitary authority. Some are calling it scaremongering, and with the Mayor using terms like “hostile takeover” and saying that rates will increase tenfold – I tend to agree.
What that model does not do is examine every possible implementation of amalgamation. As the Councils Financial Officer has now confirmed to me, its purpose was to compare the financial position and performance of councils, not to predict every possible amalgamation scenario. Alternative financial structures such as legacy debt arrangements, targeted rates and staged financial integration may have been discussed as part of the broader options analysis, but were not modelled as separate financial scenarios. These distinctions matter. A comparative financial model is a valuable contribution to the debate, but it should not be mistaken for proof that every possible form of amalgamation would inevitably produce the same financial outcome. And it cannot be said to be taking all things into account. For example I have heard that Councils involved in the Western Waikato proposal have a $1B energy trust of which they are due to inherit a significant part in the year 2073, and I doubt if that was factored in. The fact of the matter is that the Mayor is presenting one possible outcome as though it were inevitable, when it simply isn’t.
However, my biggest concern is not the model. It is that we appear to have surrendered our opportunity to test assumptions, challenge conclusions and influence the proposal from within. I have now learned that Taupō District Council withdrew from discussions on the Western Waikato proposal over a month ago. If that is correct, we voluntarily gave up our seat at the table while other Councils stayed to continue the conversation. In any negotiation, being involved is almost always preferable to commenting from the sidelines, yet that seems to be where we have landed ourselves now.
I am asking Mayor John Funnell why Taupō withdrew from those discussions, and why Elected Members were not advised at the time. I believe our community deserves the answer to that question, before we decide if he has dropped the ball and is now trying to blame the other players.
Ecclesiastes 10:20:“Do not curse the king, even in your thought; do not curse the rich, even in your bedroom; for a bird of the air may hear your voice, and a bird in flight may tell the matter”.
Council let you down this week folks, and leadership matters. If nothing else you glean from the happenings this week, take at least that.
Yes its been a rough and tumble few months alright and we are nearly at the end of the road. But Auckland didn’t get a chance to decide their future in 2010 nor the amalgamations of 1989, and a bit of pressure isn’t always a bad thing. August 9th is the deadline for Councils around the country to submit their Head Start proposals to government to consider for a new reset of local government, and Taupo District Council came up with…nothing. Tuesday was decision time (watch the meeting HERE, and for the agenda HERE) and was advertised as a debate but there was to be no debate, because Mayor John Funnell said that at the very outset. My own 10 minute Waikato Together proposal was disallowed to be presented in public view, and only a handful of Taupo District Council councillors had bothered to look at it even though it was submitted last Friday. Instead we were subjected to two hours of the staff presenting their point of view, with the following so-called ‘debate’ introduced by the chairperson Mayors stifling comment of “you get the chance to make one comment only before we go to the vote” for arguably the most important opportunity of this Council for probably 40 years (watch that moment and my own statement immediately following HERE). So at the end we decided to effectively do nothing except send to government a sternly voiced note of disapproval. Because we already run a tight ship much better than the rest, and amalgamating with anybody else would only make us worse. Yeah, right.
Incidentally we also had Mayor Aksel Bech of Waikato District Council and Mayor Mike Pettit of Waipa District Council in the room, who travelled all the way down to answer questions in case they were asked regarding their Roto ki te Moana / Lake to the Ocean proposal which also includes Taupo, South Waikato and Hamilton City (read about that HERE). Theirs is an impressive submission developed along similar lines to Waikato Together, addressing function first before form and including emphasis on local voice with things like strengthened community boards. It also precisely fits the government mandate of designing around the catchment areas, and a Waikato river model would hardly be complete without Taupo. Except it was never tabled or circulated for elected members to properly consider, even though I have just learned our Mayor received it as long ago as 22 July. I talked to Aksel afterwards and he was understandably perplexed, in fact I don’t even think he really believed what he had witnessed – that we had disregarded their proposal without even discussing it. I had to explain to him that yes, that is really what just went down.
Folks there are of course a few other vagaries to all this, and of course I am just giving you my own point of view. But the past few days for me have left me angry simmering that this Council has acted in such a foolish way. It is being now spun as bravery, but nothing could be so farther from the truth. All that Taupo District Council has done the past three months is circle around the problem without coming up with any solution. All that is being defended is the status quo, which by the way also means that staff get to keep their jobs.I can tell you this decision is absolutely not in the districts best interest, because now we are at the whim of the government to decide. But I am not all sad about it, because there is scant chance this Council will escape as a Waikato river catchment unitary clearly won’t be formed without Lake Taupo being included. I believe that will very likely to be made happen since South Waikato recently voted to join the Lake to the Ocean proposal, and that makes the requisite majority of Councils agreeing for it to be eligible to succeed. So we could have been an enthusiastic part of the solution, but will now instead get treated like a recalcitrant teenager being dragged along for the ride.
Although this Council’s behaviour should be seen as a massive failure of leadership, there will still be opportunity to reset the way things operate in a constructive way. But is going to take the adult government stepping in, and hopefully by next election 2028 Taupo District Council will all be swept away. Cos folks let me tell you if we don’t learn soon that is gonna be the case (and they said we would hear in September), I don’t very much feel like sticking around.
Okay apart from all that, what else is going on?
Spinning your wheel: Tuesday we also had a Council meeting where nothing too much earth shattering did go down (you can watch HERE with the agenda HERE). Item 5.4: “Financial Stewardship, Efficiency and continuous Improvement Update” was a politically timely item relating to our non-participation in the Head Start process and reads pretty much exactly as it sounds – a self-congratulatory report on all the things that staff are doing to try and keep a lid on costs, and righteous justification where it can’t (watch from HERE). There was nothing in there about Elected Members getting more direct say in the big financial decisions as they go down, which just highlights the current philosophy at this Council of keeping governance out of so-called ‘operational matters’, when governance is in fact responsible for it all. So in other words it is attempted political explanation rather than offering much of a solution, and it also doesn’t explain why some other Councils have been able to keep rates under the rate of inflation but not us.
How we vote: Item 5.6 at the same meeting brought up the question of whether we want to stick with First Past the Post (FPP) or change to Single Transferrable Vote (STV) for the 2028 election (watch from HERE). Even though I am hoping there won’t be a Taupo District Council left by then, it could potentially be applicable and Elected Members have until mid September to decide. But we won’t be talking to you about it unless you come to us first, because although I reckon we have time to consult the public the Mayor decided not. Anyway in the meantime we have scheduled our Electoral Officer to come for a workshop on 11 August which I presume will be open for public to attend or watch online, so we can all get clued up about the difference because it is not well understood – and there is a mood for change.
Landfill slipperies: Thursday we had the first public open workshop regarding the Taupo landfill consent application going forward (watch HERE). We have had several workshops behind closed doors before on this topic from early in the year, unjustifiably deemed as confidential as per the usual pattern intended to conceal any hints of controversy (wait…didn’t our new Mayor have an election platform of transparency?). Anyway my takeaway is that the only real objections of any substance are cultural and relate to the proximity of nearby Mount Tauhara. If we don’t get the consent renewed to expand the landfill by December 2027 then we will have to truck it out instead, and that’s gonna cost all of us some big bucks every week. The consent process can be time consuming so there is every chance this could happen – so in hindsight we should have started much sooner. I also brought up the solution used overseas as an alternative to landfill: incineration. Taupo resident Richard Hoadley has expressed great interest in this topic for some time and even got a quote from the UK for something less than $5M that could handle our 30,000 annual tonnes. But staff member Brent Aitken backed up by Deputy Mayor Kevin Taylor is inferring them as snake-oil salesman, and I am not acquainted enough with the subject to be able to dispute. But I can tell you that I am not the only Councillor not 100% convinced this is not a real alternative, and this is exactly the reason why I think Council should have a set aside fund for Elected Members to use to pay for independent expert advice. If I were the Waikato Regional Council (WRC) reviewer of this consent and knew my stuff, I would be demanding that all practicable options do get presented – but I don’t have too much faith that WRC reviewers will be that.
Beware of power grabs:Auckland Transport is migrating to become part of Auckland Council later this year, and even though Local Boards were apparently expecting to have some say in the number one city problem of transport, already the powers are at play. As Councillor John Gillon is pointing out here, someone in Auckland Council yesterday decided to redesignate roads all over the place as Arterial thus remain for only regional committees to decide. Being a transport professional from that region I am familiar with a lot of their street network, and I can tell you they have every cause to complain (North Shore shown on left with the new arterials in blue). People, stuff like this always happens in organisational rejigs and it is all to do with power.
Why I don’t use AI Slop: Except for when I do. Here is a wonderful explainer why proper writers won’t use AI, written by one of my favourite blogger authors who I am sure has greatly influenced what I do.
Fridays explainer because its important you know about Susie:
Over the past few months New Zealand has found itself discussing the biggest changes to local government since the Auckland reforms in 2010, and before that the nationwide reforms of 1989. To date most of the debate has been about boundaries and who merges with whom, but I think that’s the wrong question. Before we decide who should govern together, we should decide how regional government ought to work.
That’s what Waikato Together is about, and it’s the rules of the game which matter most not the players. The traditional model of Councils is that the smaller fish are inevitably the losers, and that bigger is invariably only better for the largest town or city centres. We don’t want that. The basis of Waikato Together is subsidiarity, which sounds like a complicated word but it’s actually very simple. It means that decisions get made at the lowest rung as possible, by the people who have to live with the consequences.
Watch the ten minute presentation below to find out more, and for the slides see HERE
In times of chaos I find myself turning to my favourite book of the Bible Ecclesiastes 9:10-12: “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going. I returned and saw under the sun that – The race is not to the swift, Nor the battle to the strong, Nor bread to the wise, Nor riches to men of understanding, Nor favor to men of skill; But time and chance happen to them all. For man also does not know his time: Like fish taken in a cruel net, Like birds caught in a snare, So the sons of men are snared in an evil time, When it falls suddenly upon them”.
Finals – I am talking about the soccer world cup on Monday of course, so who’s your pick Spain or Argentina? I myself don’t have a predetermined favourite, I just want to see a clean exciting game. A bit like this Council amalgamation thing going on right now really, but a problem is that the ground rules weren’t clear from the outset including goal and sidelines. And there isn’t even just one ball either, we are all just running around kicking about our own. And by the way if you hadn’t gleaned from recent social media messaging by some other Councillors, Taupo is very much headed towards the Backstop option of not submitting a Head Start proposal at all, because its all seeming just too hard. In some ways it would be nice to go back to the 850 or so borough councils that we used to have before 1989 (along with a decent Public Service), but we are way too far down the track to go back to that. So I am seeing this as a very great missed opportunity to do things a lot better.
Which brings me to describe what I believe is going on here: a Collective Action Problem whereby everyone acting in their own perceived interest produces an outcome that is worse for everyone collectively. Another analogy along the same lines: Prisoners Dilemma. You see, I have been talking to a handful of Councillors in the Waikato region, and the thinking is more or less the same – Hamilton doesn’t really want to get shackled with rural problems, and almost everybody else doesn’t want to get dominated by the electoral demographics of big place Hamilton. Fair enough you might say, because your district Councillors are after all only elected to represent their own local communities. But the problem is that Hamilton does actually subsidise the rest of the region when it comes to Regional Council responsibilities. So although Councillors aren’t acting irrationally, the problem is that they can be behaving against theirs and ours best overall interest. It also won’t help that many Councils like ours have staff leading the process, who can’t help but want to keep their jobs close to where they live now. By the way Federated Farmers have a preferred model for amalgamation which you can read about HERE – and they pointedly aren’t happy and want to separate rural district Unitaries from the urban.
Much of the debate surrounding local government reform has focused on what communities might lose, and this is understandable because Councils are elected to protect the interests of their own communities. However, this can make it difficult to consider opportunities that may benefit the wider region while still protecting local identity and democratic voice – that was really the role of the Regional Councillors whose role by October 2028 will be defunct. The challenge is therefore not simply whether reform should occur, but whether it can be designed well enough that communities have confidence they will not lose the things that matter most to them. We are talking urban versus rural, small towns versus big, and not forgetting Maori interests too.
One of the strongest arguments in favour of larger Unitary councils is their ability to engage more effectively with central government on matters of regional significance. Since Auckland’s amalgamation in 2010, the city has been able to present a single strategic voice when negotiating major infrastructure and investment projects with Wellington. The most notable example is the City Rail Link, a jointly funded multi-billion-dollar partnership between Auckland Council and the Crown, supported through a formal governance and funding agreement. Auckland has also been able to negotiate integrated transport planning, housing initiatives and, more recently, New Zealand’s first City Deal with central government. While larger size alone does not guarantee better local outcomes, it can provide greater strategic influence, stronger negotiating capability and improved access to nationally significant investment opportunities. These are genuine advantages that any future Waikato or Central North Island unitary authority could seek to capture, while ensuring that strong local representation and community decision-making are not diminished. It also makes more sense for dealing with region-wide environmental issues.
But could a large Unitary address the aforementioned trepidations around different community and area interests to still reap the big size benefits? There are definitely means and ways of doing it which I won’t go into now, but it certainly is looking as if it will be up to the government after 9 August to decide for Taupo. In the meantime a link to the excellent Lower Hutt Mayors proposal put out last week (read the full proposal HERE) which includes things like a first principle of subsidiarity (a big word which basically means local voice), legacy debt ringfencing, and careful delegated decision-making for Community Councils as below.
In addition, below is a clearer copy of the Waikato Regional Council (WRC) suggestion which I posted last week, and under that another sample model they developed.
Backstopping with no proposal at all and an attached letter of complaint to the Minister as this Council is most probably headed, to me does not correspond to a positive way forward or valid form of resistance which I expect it will be framed. It is basically saying that the status quo is just fine, which if you read my posts should know by now it most certainly ain’t. Recent talk in Chambers has been around us being more financially secure than any of our prospective partners – to which there are some grains of truth – but it has all been at your expense, so do remember that. And as for being kept properly informed about the Head Start process as we go, compare what you have been able to access about Taupo, say compared to these analyses in Northland and Wairarapa. But it isn’t quite over yet.
In other news:
Backpedalling to look cool: Mayor John Funnell put out a statement this week about having a relook at the Annual Plan (AP) just signed off a few weeks ago, because I think he has worked out that some other Mayors like Waitomo and Wellington took their election promises more seriously than he. Waitomo mayor John Robertson said he instructed the council’s Chief Executive to ensure rates rises kept in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which is pretty much the most basic Key Performance Indicator (KPI) I think there should be. The main reason I refused to vote my agreement to the AP is the absence of regular and proper scrutiny by governance of Council spending including capital works, and going back afterwards to double-check after they have been approved like this is a very poor substitute.
Recall my numerous attempts in Chambers from Christmas onwards to discuss the revision of financial delegations from the current setting whereby the Chief Executive has virtually unlimited spend discretion? That would mean proper reporting on large items over $500K, and the recent Roberts St / Titiraupenga St works are a classic example of works never justified to elected members before they happened. Mayor John was so disinterested in that topic of delegations that he would not allocate any time in our induction sessions or even allow me to present 5 min in a public forum! So to me this is sounding very much like a hindsight act of desperation and the words sound very hollow indeed. I will have a quick look to see if I can find any potential savings, but the above spreadsheet snippet is an example of the sum total of information we are now being given – “line by line”!
Taupo dodged a bullet too: Far North Councillor Davina Smolders points out some home truths about some un-costed co-governance deals her Council up there is attempting to push through the back door. Just as well we have whistleblowers like her prepared to do the hard yards, remember last years Joint Management Agreement (JMA) and who saved you then? That one ain’t over yet either, but I am guessing it will kick back up soon.
Sam Neil died in vain or vein? Knowledgeable Guy Hatchard has some very un-mainstream views about the death of well-known actor Sam Neil and hopes it will draw attention to the medical mishap at play. Worth a good read if you aren’t up with the play.
Fridays people pushing back hard: Here we have some Council bureaucrats in the United States trying to push their narrative down resident throats, but they just ain’t having it. People of Taupo, you have been getting this done to you for such a long time.
duncandoestaupo.com 