Motutere got rubber stamped and I think this Council is a joke, but have a Merry Christmas anyway 18 Dec 2024
Cr Duncan of Taupo Ward reporting, as I see it anyway. This time on yesterday’s Council meeting at the Great Lake Centre: Approval of the new Motutere Reserve Management Plan which last week I gave a heads up to you about. And it was significant alright, with this proposal including to relinquish the last lakeshore campground on Lake Taupo and an iconic one at that.
So how did it all go? My summary: appalling and unsurprising. If anyone out there has the means to put up for a judicial review I reckon there are big enough holes to drive a truck through, and if still in Council after next election I may even take steps to make that happen. I am not even talking about the actual decision arrived at, but the way it was made in such a deficient and undemocratic manner.
I had a number of points to bring up, but Chairperson Mayor Trewavas didn’t allow me to get even half way through, and also did not entertain my interjection to Cr Taylors misrepresentation of myself as advocating for the private interests of the campground leaseholder (as if I somehow have a vested interest). Indeed apart from a few expressed thankyous, it seemed as if I was the only one apart from those on the Motutere committee with much of an opinion at all. Which is somewhat disconcerting, because back in September 2023 there was disquiet at the original staff recommendation to delegate the decision making to the Motutere committee alone (made up of Crs Taylor, Greenslade & Loughlin with three hapu representatives), and so it was a majority decision to put this to full Council consideration instead. But in the end it might as well have been left in the hands of the committee, because it appears that your current batch of elected members just wish to behave like compliant dummies and any contrary opinions will be side lined anyway. In fact it could be asked: why do we bother having any elected representatives in Council at all?
I recommend you watch the 28 min proceedings starting from about the 2min mark, and will add some of the points I didn’t get to make in the comments below (which include that the campground leaseholder could be being subject to extortion from Council staff): https://youtu.be/Blymoz-Qafc?si=m-FoK-hoTyVdhSKM&t=133
So anyway that’s it from me for the year, have a Merry Christmas and do remember that Jesus is the Reason For The Season – because in this broken world there is not a whole lot else to hope for.
Motutere: Historical redress, or Council largesse? 13 Dec 2024
Cr Duncan of Taupo Ward reporting, as I see it anyway. This is heads up for quite a significant Council meeting next Tuesday 17 December 1pm at the Great Lake Centre: Approval of the new Motutere Reserve Management Plan. This has been simmering for over a year with a select committee doing all the background work, comprising of three elected members and three Ngati Te Rangiita representatives.
We were given the staff report a few days ago, and the in-person submissions and deliberations of the committee from 27 Nov to 2 Dec are viewable here: . I can say there are some passionate and contending viewpoints, including that this land was either gifted, sold, or taken from its prior occupants. Intriguingly the staff report does not address this or several questions in my mind, including about the history and original purpose of the reserve formed sometime around or after 1926. Unfortunately, I have learned from past experience not to rely on our Chief Executive to supply answers prior to any Council meeting where we have to make important decisions.
One significant proposal is to relinquish the lakefront side of the campground for use as a public reserve, and this could potentially happen as soon as Council comes up with the money to do so. Developing this reserve includes new amenities for day trippers, catering for boat trailer parking, and provision of safer pedestrian access across State Highway One – all of this at ratepayer expense, and with seemingly no cost estimates being yet undertaken (I am guessing at very least six-figure sums). Against this we would be losing the crown jewel lakeshore part of the campground, along with its subsequent economic spinoff to the district (anecdotal estimates are $5-10M annually for the entire campground). I am also told this may be the last lakeshore powered campsite left in the North Island.
As a comparison, Queenstown Lakes District Council recently revamped and up-marketed their lakeshore campground and all with the blessing of Ngai Tahu, was that something considered? See:
It seems to me like next Tuesday could get interesting, and I expect the public gallery will contain some differing viewpoints.
Do you think we need another lakeshore reserve with unrestricted public access? Realise that we can have more parks and green spaces, but that they never come for free.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12)
Councillor Duncan’s Meeting Report of 27 Mar 2024
Item 5.1 – Motutere Holiday Park Lease (Youtube 2min 44sec)
I for one am not very satisfied by the way this whole thing has been handled, and this includes the related Motutere Reserve Management Plan (RMP) Review on which I have posted updates before. I felt quite put out because I was wanting to receive answers to several questions of mine before the meeting, but our CEO declined. Watch the recording and you may discern that having a reasoned discussion at a table of twelve is not always easy, and there is often not time to properly contemplate. In my opinion, doing things this way is not very conducive to the best decision making.
If you may recall, last month I submitted a Motion for there to be a July 2024 deadline for any new lease to be prepared. This is because the current Australian owner has requested it be in place by then, in order to be able to satisfy his Overseas Investment Agency (OIA) financial obligations. This Motion was not supported by any other Elected Members excepting Councillor Shepherd.
In brief, all present members Elected Members voted by majority to adopt the staff recommended Option 3 below (Councillors Campbell, Fletcher, Park and Westerman voting against):
Council directs officers to begin the negotiation process for a proposed new lease on a without prejudice basis, in parallel to the reserve management plan review, with any decision on granting a new lease to be made once the reserve management plan is adopted.
On the face of it, this Option 3 seems reasonable enough because of some uncertainties of alignment with the RMP which is still being worked out. However, it gives no assured timeframe for any new holiday park lease to be put into place.
To my mind, if this Council values the current holiday park owners contribution to the District (and he is a very experienced operator who claims to have doubled turnover since he took the holiday park over in 2016), then we should be doing our utmost to keep him on. We should be negotiating a new lease now, and if possible granting it prior to RMP adoption along with the required additional public consultation, provided that is, we are able to iron out any potential discrepancies with the new RMP (this is what would have happened under Option 2). As far as I can tell and despite staff saying otherwise in the meeting, I believe this Option 2 could have been actioned under the old RMP well before now.
On the flip side, if we don’t really value the current holiday park owners contribution much at all, to keep things simple we should just wait for the RMP to be completed before trying to negotiate any new lease (this was what would have happened under Option 4).
By adopting the middle ground Option 3, I believe that Council is playing politics. If/when the holiday park owner is effectively run out of town because their OIA commitments cannot be met, then no-one will be held to blame because it will be said that everybody tried their best. How sad, too bad, who will want to buy the holiday park now… or am I just being too cynical? We will just have to wait and see.
Motutere Reserve Management Plan Review – Due Process or Discrimination…or Both? 19 Dec 2023
Taupo ward Councillor Duncan reporting. This is a follow up to my post of 12 October regarding my take on the Motutere Reserve Management Plan Review.
Things have progressed a little further, and while still trying to remain open minded, I am yet to amend my previous assertion that this is not a ‘land claim by other means’. I also believe there are elements of discrimination in the way it is being handled.
Further developments:
· In October I requested to see evidence that Taupo District Council did undertake due diligence before supporting Iwi’s previous Waitangi Tribunal land claim for Motutere Reserve, i.e. did Council confirm that there are legitimate grievances or reasons before offering support for the ceding of a community owned asset? I am yet to receive any information about this.
· In my 12 October post I stated that the Motutere reserve is Crown owned land, but it transpires that the stated owner on the Land Title is Taupo District Council. In my mind, the question of land ownership is a moot point given its recreational reserve status and legal right of public access. However, there may be cause to reflect on the situation at the Five Mile Bay Recreational Reserve, which is owned by a private entity but where this legal right of public access has been denied since 2020.
· I repeat that this process has the appearance of predetermination about it. Even though this review of the Reserve Management Plan does not go so far as the actual handing over of the administration of the reserve to another entity, some intent was clearly stated in the 7 February Council paper:
‘Ultimately the administration of the recreational reserve will transfer from Council to a new entity established by the hapu’.
· I still maintain that this process to review the Motutere Reserve Management Plan has not been properly justified. I can find no legislative obligation to review it at this point in time, and have never received a coherent answer to this simple question: What is wrong with the old plan that needs fixing?
· Although the lease does not expire until 2038, the Australian owner of the Motutere Holiday Park says that he needs this lease to be extended well past this date very soon in order to satisfy Overseas Investment Office (OIO) requirements – and it was his investment which developed it into the Top 10 destination that it is today. On 1 December he was informed by Council staff the following:
‘We are now clear that we would in fact have to consult with the community and hapū if we were to make any changes to the lease. In reality, that public consultation process and subsequent decision making by Council would probably take until the end of May or possibly June’.
This statement is backed up by some legal advice which, in my opinion contains some contestable assumptions, including about obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi and partnership with hapu. If this legal advice is to be accepted at face value, then I say that it amounts to a form of discrimination, and that certain groups of people are being granted undue direct influence on the way this Council runs its business.
It is my belief that there is no legislative obligation under the Reserves Management Act 1977 which says that the lease period for this campground, which is officially included in the approved 2004 Motutere Reserve Management Plan, cannot be extended immediately and without consulting anybody. Note that the campground owner has been requesting this lease extension since 2016 and has always been receiving the same response – not unless hapu agree. So I say that this man is effectively being run out of town by the executive decree of Council staff.
Final submission date is 15 January 2024, or you can come along in person to one of the remaining engagement events 19 Dec, 20 Dec & 5 Jan refer:
Apart from that, I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year indeed.
Motutere Reserve Management Plan Review – Council business as usual, or ‘land claim by other means’? 12 Oct 2023
Taupo ward Councillor Duncan reporting. It used to be that the Waitangi Tribunal was the basis for settling historical grievances. However, we seem to have moved into a new phase of ‘post Waitangi Tribunal’ settlements whereby Councils and Government Departments are opting to ‘return’ land to iwi entities without specific grievances first being considered by the Waitangi Tribunal, or even afterwards if the claims are not successful.
There is every reason to believe this is happening at Motutere:
· Motutere Recreational Reserve is Crown owned land of around 32 hectares (ha) which includes 6 ha of land leased to Motutere Bay Top 10 Holiday Park.
· Taupo District Council is the reserve administrator, which means it decides how the reserve will function and also if any ground leases will be renewed. The reserve also includes a small wastewater treatment plant which is owned and operated by Council.
· The reserve was in recent year’s part of a Waitangi Tribunal land claim which was with the full support of Taupo District Council. This claim was either withdrawn or rejected by the Crown for reasons unclear, but quite probably related to the fact that some portions of the reserve were purchased or gifted to the Crown rather than ever been confiscated from the original occupiers.
· There is a 2004 Reserve Management Plan (RMP) in place. This document sets out how it will be managed and function, and there is no specific requirement for it to be updated except at the discretion of Taupo District Council. What is it about the 2004 RMP that needs fixing? I for one cannot tell. But on 7 February 2023 Mayor and Councillors did approve without dissension: ‘…that public notice of Council’s intention to develop a reserve management plan for the Motutere Recreation Reserve be issued’. One clear direction outlined in this item, was that: ‘Ultimately the administration of the recreational reserve will transfer from Council to a new entity established by the hapu’. A more predetermined outcome is hard to imagine, and a decision that I now much regret assenting to.
· Motutere Bay Top 10 Holiday Park includes over 150 semi-permanent holiday park users, many have been attending for several generations of whom a large number did travel from around the country to an August council workshop about the RMP to express their disquiet. Although the lease does not expire until 2038, the Australian owner says that due to Overseas Investment Office (OIO) requirements and within the next couple of months, he needs the lease to be extended well past this date in order to keep the park financially viable – and it was his investment which developed it into the Top 10 destination that it is today. When the holiday park was purchased in 2016 it is understood that the previous Council CEO committed in good faith to subsequently negotiate the extension of the lease, but Council was soon afterwards saying that any lease extension was subject to local hapu consent. Council has no obligation legal or otherwise for hapu consent as far as I can tell, and it has thus far not been forthcoming.
· On 26 September 2023, Mayor and Councillors agreed to form a six person committee to oversee a revised RMP for Motutere (Councillor Duncan dissenting). This committee includes three Councillors and three representatives of hapu, with their recommendations to be put to Council for approval in the next 12 months. The holiday park people submitted that they deserve representation on this committee too, but this request was denied.
Some Councillors including myself are not convinced this has been properly handled. Many, if not most, of the holiday park people are unsettled and with good reason – the future of their iconic holiday place is certainly in doubt. As a tourist attraction for the region and one that has attracted overseas investment, we should all be concerned.
When we Elected Members were inducted onto Council, we made a public declaration that we would act in the best interests of the Taupo District. I can see how this ‘land claim by other means’ might be in the best interests of a select few, but I can’t see how it is in the best interests of the Taupo District. What do you think?
duncandoestaupo.com 