This was a draft agreement for a partnership type arrangement with Tūwharetoa Māori Trust Board (TMTB) put to Council on 31 July 2025, which narrowly missed being signed off due to overwhelming public pressure close to the local body election happening only a few months afterwards.
A couple of weeks prior to the Council meeting on 31 July, I prepared a JMA for Dummies document to help people understand what it is all about, because the media team at Taupo District Council was pretending it was something it was not, and it was also being inferred that anything else than their own spin was simply misinformation.
After the meeting of 31 July, I put out a JMA debrief article to set out how it all went down and who voted for what. Basically, it will be up to the next Council after the October 2025 election to sort it all out.
One aspect of my own particular concern was that Māori ward Councillor Danny Loughlin did not recuse himself from voting on 31 July, even though he is also a board member of TMTB and thus significant party to both sides of the proposed agreement. It seems absurd to me that this did not comprise a conflict of interest, and I wrote a complaint to the Auditor- General which you can read about here. In summary their response was not very satisfactory, and I believe there is quite a gap in the legislation if this is allowable. I am still communicating about this and will take it higher if necessary.
duncandoestaupo.com 