Fridays Ship Sailed But Without Fireworks

14 August 2026

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 Start amalgamation 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 veritable princess who is trouble free, insular and self-important, and continually tipsy 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:

So then, who’s telling Porkies?

11 August 2026

I don’t want to make too big of a deal about Mayor John Funnell’s recent 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 $9,000 Western 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 equivalent to 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.

Has Mayor Funnell Dropped the Ball?

3 August 2026

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.

Fridays Angry Reflection

31 July 2026

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:

Fridays Final Coming Up

17 July 2026

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.

Fridays Council Blood and Guts

10 July 2026

So says the Prophet Isaiah to the exiled Israelites in Babylon in Isaiah 43:19 which is relevant to anybody who seeks a new beginning (makes me think of the Council mayhem now):

“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland”.

Some Councils have it simple like Hamilton & Waikato, they have few neighbours and their options are relatively few. Some like in the Wairarapa have even been talking about it for over a decade. Here in Taupo on the other hand, we are in the middle of eight neighbours (or is it nine?) with it never having come up before, yet in a total of just three months we are being asked to drop everything and come up with something new. Mission fairly impossible it has seemed to me from the very beginning, because not only have we got to decide but also to co-ordinate with our budding partners. For example South Waikato is putting out the option on left which includes Taupo but doesn’t match with any of our own options – however they didn’t bother asking us first (it is still a viable option, and I note they haven’t included the Backstop option as we have). Contrast that approach with Waikato and Hamilton City Councils which are more or less proposing the same. That doesn’t mean this process is impossible for us – in fact I think it presents quite an opportunity for positive change – but there is a distinct possibility we could get to the due date of 9 August with absolutely nothing to show for it. That’s not my preferred outcome and I will be somewhat disappointed if we end that way, but I’m just giving you the heads up. By the way, intrepid local reporter Bronson Perich wrote up a tidy article last week following our 30 June meeting to decide options, which you can read HERE.

The Labour party have finally come out and apparently said at a recent Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) committee meeting, that they are not advocating for any forced amalgamation of Councils. What that means if elected into power this October is anybody’s guess because they are of course politicians, so that’s not really news to speak of. But I have heard the Head Start process of amalgamation described as akin to taking a sledgehammer to fix a nut sized problem. I think we aren’t really the nut being targeted anyway because it was always more about the Regional Councils, but we still have in the form of Taupo District Council a pretty big nut that could do with cracking.

On that note there was a very good report just released on 30 June by the NZ Initiative entitled “Head Start Done Right” which you can read HERE and listen to the podcast about it HERE . This is a must read for anybody interested in local government, and a real slap on the wrist to the way this government is going about things. I think one of their statements is quite perceptive: “The core argument is that New Zealand does not have a local government problem. It has a centralisation problem, and the standard reform response, fewer councils with narrower functions, has been making the underlying disease worse. The Head Start pathway sits in that tradition. Unless the architecture is designed deliberately, the pathway will produce larger councils with the same problems but on a larger scale”. The report instead advocates for an alternative principle of subsidiarity, which is basically that any function gets exercised at the lowest tier of government capable of carrying it out i.e. local decisions made locally, which seems to be what most people are worried about. This is practised far more effectively in places like Switzerland and Germany, and New Zealand seems to be headed the opposite way. I don’t disagree with much anything stated in this report, but I still see this Head Start process as a way of designing it in, even if we get to become part of a Council much bigger. This is an opportunity for change, and I believe it can be done.

So how do we do a better Head Start for Taupo?

On Tuesday we had a very interesting presentation from Waikato Regional Council (WRC) where they also presented a suggested version for a Super Unitary Council which matches the Taupo District Council Option A.

The decision for which option to proceed will be made on 21 July, and at present there is little enthusiasm in Chambers for Option A. The main perception is a loss of local representation, however I for one quite like the sound of it. It’s not the Auckland Council version WRC have in mind, quite different actually. But only if we get strong local boards (or wards as WRC refers them) with decent financial delegations and ring-fenced whatnot. You can watch the full one hour presentation HERE, and for the WRC Unitary model watch from the 35:30 mark.

As I see it the main potential benefits of being part of a much larger entity are:

(1) Increased professionalism – because we simply don’t get enough of that in a provincial Council like ours; and

(2) A bigger voice to Wellington – because size really does matter in that regard and Supercity Auckland is an example of that.

It feels strange for me to be advocating for this because the reason I left Auckland 10 years ago was to escape the Supercity Council, but there you are and I have also worked out that Waipa District Council are favouring it too. This is an opportunity of a generation to make Council better and we want to get it right, so is this the best path forward? I believe it really could be, if its done right.

Below is the WRC suggested model. Basically we would get lumped in the Southern Local Area (SLA) along with Waipa, Otorohunga and Waitomo, where Taupo would get 4 out of 12 Councillors deciding what happens for our part of the district. Bigger decisions affecting the entire Unitary would be made at the Council wide level where our SLA interests would be represented by 2 Councillors out of 8. I did also ask the question about a single entity like TDC becoming its own Unitary Council which Rotorua already flagging it may want to go down that path – and the answer was it could be costly. As an aside if you want an example of the things a Unitary Council gets up to, this interview on the Platform with the Mayor of Gisborne gives a clue.

Ok so what else in the news?

Dinosaur expectations: For a read about last weeks Annual Plan rates hike you can again refer to this Lake FM article well written up by Bronson Perich. I think Mayor John Funnell is somewhat missing the point with this statement: “However, the unpalatable truth is that it can’t be brought down further without deferring or cancelling essential work that we’re committed to delivering”. The fact is that the word “essential” is quite a subjective term in local government, and is about as subjective as the food you’ll decide for dinner.

Mangakino Pouakani connects marae style: there was a representative group meeting yesterday at Mokai Marae which you can watch HERE and read the agenda HERE. It was convivial enough and the kai was good too, and being on a marae you can be assured that the committee meeting comprised much less than half the time of what we got up to.

Engagement costs you: On that note, a little while ago I submitted the following LGOIMA question to Council which you may be interested in: Can you please give me a breakdown of what the $0.5M set aside in the 2024 LTP for Iwi engagement was spent on 2024/25 and 2025/26 to date? You can read the full response HERE

Emissions cost you too: On that note again, the Minister of Climate Change Simon Watts has said that he wants councils to make climate-related decisions that are “proportionate, evidence-based, and represent value for money.”( read the news article here) . Given that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has just published the next generation of climate scenarios which eliminate the most extreme scenarios that have dominated climate research over much of the past several decades – so I guess that means we will soon be reconsidering the need for a new $3M gas flare for Taupo landfill?

Fridays musical pot at diversity in the UK, and I am assured the fight is very real over there:

Fridays Tail Wagging the Dog

26 June 2026

Bishop Desmond Tutu who received much venom speaking truth to power and was instrumental in saving South Africa from descending into bloodshed at the end of Apartheid era: “When people say that religion and politics don’t mix, I wonder which Bible it is they are reading”.

Hi people this week we didn’t have too much going on except that on Tuesday morning your Elected Members at Taupo District Council had a round table discussion about Amalgamation! Yes that’s right, although the government announcement was made way back on 5 May this was the first time we have actually got together for a few hours and mooted our own points of view – and next week Tuesday 30 June at 10.30am in Council Chambers there is an Extraordinary Council meeting (public can attend and is being live recorded) where we decide the way forward on the Headstart proposal due 9 August. We have only just received the agenda yesterday and I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but you can have a look yourself HERE and it includes a summary of the public survey results.

And what can I reveal from our unrecorded meeting on Tuesday? I expressed some dissatisfaction with the general way this is being handled, including about the open-ended public survey with no safeguards from mischievous intent. I also stated that amalgamating with a much larger entity than ourselves should at least lift the bar with regard to professionalism that this Council sorely lacks. I am no big fan of supercity sized bureaucracies like Auckland, but little old Taupo District Council has given me powerful reason to believe bigger can sometimes be better in so many ways. After all, the citizens of Auckland were up in arms about their historically high 7.9% rates increase for which Mayor Wayne Brown is receiving a lot of flack – yet Taupo doesn’t have all the significant infrastructure challenges of a city, and we have been tracking that way for years! We simply have no excuse for not doing better, and its YOUR FAULT for not holding those you elect more fully to account. On a side note to that, last week or so I attended a very interesting LGNZ Zoom discussion with the CEO of Auckland Council and an Auckland Councillor for Franklin ward, and a point of view was put across that the new community boards after 2010 were actually more effective at community representation than the old Councils before the amalgamation (I did ask, but unfortunately this interview cannot be shared). Other things to note from the Tuesday meeting: (i) there was little expressed enthusiasm for buddying up with Rotorua, which was interesting; and (ii) some senior staff clearly want to keep their jobs in Taupo. Perhaps the motives are altruistic, but with senior staff comments like (my paraphrasing): “..a lot of people are employed by Council, and if they get relocated to Hamilton that would mean a loss to the local economy and social cohesion”, you get my drift…

By the way, to date your Elected Members haven’t received any comparative data on the performance of our surrounding councils, so we are very much having to do our own homework on this (luckily we have the Taxpayer’s Union report which the Council financial manager is scathing of but has yet to provide any figures to dispute). If I were a betting man and knowing as I do that in my time virtually every major decision in this Council has been stage managed or manipulated by staff to some degree – my money would be on us ending up with anything other than Option A.

If I were really going to conspiracy theorise, would go so far to speculate that some staff could even be subtly attempting to derail the entire process (“because its all just too hard…”) so that we end up in the fallback position of Option D which is the Backstop option to sit tight and do nothing until 2031 – if that ends up being the case, we coulda saved a whole lot of time and hassle already… Anyway the meeting next Tuesday is intended to set the direction forward so should be worth tuning in, noting that these options have literally been prepared just days ago and whatever we decide is probably irrelevant if our proposed amalgamation partners aren’t on board. This is why I reckon that Mayors and CE’s should be keeping in constant communication and we have received some placatory responses that they are – but I suspect they aren’t.

Other stuff in the news?

Ground control to Major Tom: Yesterday there was a closed workshop session of the Chief Executive (CE) Review Committee of which only a handful of Elected Members take part (many other places involve full Council on these committees, but not here). Nothing earth shattering to report other than some subtle rejigs of CE Julie Gardyne’s Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) which as far as I can tell will not much affect ratepayer affordability, and the suggestion to introduce a KPI for the reduction of operational expenditure (e.g. by X%) as done some other places nobody was interested in. But I did have to gasp that even after repeating my dissatisfaction with the current Delegated Authority regime which does not require proper scrutiny of major financial decisions to happen, a few members of that committee were expressing that Taupo District Council is a standout model of prudent financial management! The rest of us on Planet Earth do simply not believe that!

The vote that changes Council? Next Tuesday 30 June there is also a full Council meeting at 1pm (as always you can read the agenda HERE) where I have submitted a Notice of Motion (NoM) Item 5.3 to amend the staff report template, but I am not expecting anything too momentous. I have worked out that presentation is just if not more important as the motion, and elected members have egos as fragile as eggshells to vote against anything if they are disturbed. It is based on a NoM sent to me by Far North Councillor Davina Smolders but tailored to a local flavour, and is intended to allow for more informed and transparent decision making e.g. options considered, opportunity cost, author qualifications etc. I think it will take more than just this NoM to turn this Council around but it is a start, and it will be interesting to hear the arguments against. As an aside, Davina tells me that up north they have Council meetings in fluent Te Reo for hours on end with English interpreters. Gaps in the conversation are strongly suspected to indicate when abuse is being hurled your way – fascinating!

Encouraging signs: Hamilton City Council is signalling a new way forward which includes $9.7 million of Development Contributions ringfenced to pay off debt, and an improvement of $20 million in net external debt compared to the draft plan presented in April. Well done Hamilton, even though you are a big bad city perhaps you would be a good influence to partner up with after all.

Golfer speaks out: On vaccine injury of course, with Michael Campbell talking about his own ordeal. And why is it that sports personalities have so much stock with Kiwi’s?

Were you there for Winter Solstice? Stonehenge Wharewaka was apparently the place to be, I wasn’t early enough in the morning this year but came across the witchy crystal ladies once. If you don’t have a clue what I’m talking about, you can read about it HERE

Fridays first reel by Duncan with Aunty Ann:

Fridays Spending Sprees Carry On

19 June 2026

God gives consequences to even His greatest servants and there are none without fault in the Bible, so what makes anybody think there won’t be any for you? Numbers 20 10-12: “And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock; and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?” Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank. Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”

Decision time is looming for the future of Taupo District Council, and how is it all looking to me? Controlled chaos is still how I describe this foisted and rushed amalgamation, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it is all bad. You see despite some of the things I might say – the negativity, I mean – I am an optimist at heart. Things might work out quite a lot better than now, and that is good enough for me. Are you an optimist or a pessimist, an idealist or a realist? Take your pick there is something in this for everybody.

I have pretty much had enough of this Kindergarten Council with its boorish culture of intransigency towards its governing members who are house trained to acquiesce, and although its a shame things have gone this far and smaller really can be nimbler – that certainly ain’t the case here. If the likes of Hamilton City want a piece of us we would be shortsighted to instinctively decline (and they are doing some great things to curb costs lately), and I certainly don’t think it would be healthy to get tied up with other backwater Councils of a similar vein to ours. It’s time we paint a new canvas with an improved outlook and a wider gene pool.

Smalltownitus is one name I give to how we are afflicted here. Everybody knows somebody connected with anything, so public commentary gets stilted because adverse reactions can really affect the bottom line. It’s only because I have zero business interests in this district which leaves me more or less uncompromised, and is one reason I think bigger can really be better for a small town as this. Last week I mentioned non-participation in the Headstart process as a pathway to remain independent – and it still is – but after reflecting on the ways of fickle central government I reckon its a pretty fragile hope, and it is now apparent that we could get chucked into somebody else’s proposal if the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) decide. So sitting on our backsides is looking a decidedly risky affair, and why stick up for a flawed status quo anyway?

There were no Council meetings of any consequence this week that I attended anyway, so what else is on the radar?

Missing the point: Taupo District Council is parading its recent AA credit rating as a win, and I am not saying it isn’t. But I think most of us will disagree with performance manager Sarah Matthews who claims: “This confirms we’re continuing to manage our finances prudently and have strong safeguards in place. In line with what the community asked us to do during our last Long Term Plan process, we’re investing for the future while keeping debt under control”. My own response to that is shown right.

Slack water? Last week I mentioned the Water Services Committee meeting on 11 June, my notes were very brief and below is the subsequent and quite pointed letter sent to us from retired engineer Phil Shields about the state of the reported stormwater system. You may want to read Mr Shields full letter HERE and to watch those particular proceedings again can do so HERE. I will leave you with this excerpt below:

South Waikato Pre-school: The week before last South Waikato District Councillor Zed Latinovic was censored on two Code of Conduct complaints in a kangaroo court of a proceedings which you can read the media article about here. I am acquainted with Zed and closely followed how it all went down, with experienced Rotorua Councillor Robert Lee turning up to represent Zed but them both walking out after being faced with a 15 min maximum time to present a defence case – and this after over $34K had been expended by the prosecuting independent investigator. You can watch the proceedings HERE on the Councils own media channel, which cost them a small fortune because it enables them to readily edit out the bits they don’t want people to see. I understand that Zed has probably little intention of complying with the stipulated punishment of: “written apology to council staff, further training and mentoring on his duties, council procedures and conduct as councillor”, and in his same circumstances neither would I (one of the upheld complaints was because in a Council meeting he naively used the term “creative accounting” to describe staff financial handling – yes really, it is that trivial). Ugh, I know Taupo District Council is a dog at times but that place makes us look like a shining beacon of democracy.

On the brighter side: Tararua District Council seem to be doing quite a good job with their amalgamation community engagement as their webpage indicates, and I gather they even had some town hall meetings early in the piece. I quite liked watching a short of their 10 June extraordinary meeting which you can watch HERE. One thing I noticed though, is that all the men were in suit and tie – do you think that’s important? Anyway, it is nice to hear that there are some not-dysfunctional small Councils out there.

Concealed election ripoff: I was finally able to confirm but only after the Ombudsman stepped in and it took over eight months, that Taupo District Council paid $235k to Electionz.com to undertake the recent 2025 local body election. I submitted a LGOIMA request for this information mainly because I had an unsatisfactory experience with Electionz.com with regard to their refusal to answer a basic question around indications of potential fraudulent voting (the Ombudsman could not help with that part, because as Electionz.com is a a private organisation it has no jurisdiction). I think it is interesting that such a significant sum can be effectively hidden within Annual Plan (AP) and Long Term Plans (LTP), not to mention the hundreds of other line items which are allowed no direct scrutiny by elected members (and the rushed AP & LTP process effectively precludes that anyway). But as far as I am concerned and because they unreasonably withheld important information upon request, for future consideration I would not be touching Electionz.com with a bargepole.

Guide to Amalgamate: The Taxpayers Union Guide to Amalgamation is now available and it makes for some good reading. Much of it is detail applicable after 9 August when fuller proposals need to start being prepared, but they are definitely against the rush which is being imposed and some of their wishlist items like waiting until a full review of the Auckland Super City experiment seem quite forlorn.

Oops better fix that: And the Taxpayer’s Union have been busy bees on something else too – they claim to have uncovered with Local Government Minister Simon Watts’ Local Government (Systems Improvement) Bill currently before Parliament and in the last stages, that it contains some pretty bad errors – and hopefully they are errors not by design. In effect it is being stated that the new Bill: “creates rights for Councillors that are inferior to those already enjoyed by ordinary members of the public under freedom of information law (LGOIMA)”. You can watch the Platform interview with Taxpayers Union Chief Executive Jordan Williams HERE. I think it is a shame that our society is starting to become so litigious and pedantic instead of the egalitarian she’ll be right, but when trust gets eroded as much as it has then this is where we end up. Anyway, here is my brief note to Hr Simon Watts below:

Community Transport Fund $500K: Yes really. Waikato Regional Council gives it away every year to worthy applicants, but it is something that clearly is not well publicised. In summary: “This fund aims to enhance accessibility and mobility for residents, particularly in rural areas where public transport options may be limited. The grant provides financial assistance to community transport providers, enabling them to offer essential transport services for health, education, and social purposes”. It occurs to me that this could be relevant to places like Turangi and Mangakino which do not have regular bus services, so if anybody out there is interested you can read about it HERE. There was also the WRC Transport Committee meeting last week where the item got discussed HERE, and I believe the next time applications are open will be February 2027.

Spending sprees continue: I got some more information about the roadworks on Titiraupenga Street in Taupo town central shown below, and it more or less confirmed what I suspect – not only are these works which I understand cost in the order of $600K a very big nice to do, but they don’t even address the biggest actual problem which is crashes at the Roberts Street intersection.

If I had been on the design team would have instead done something like below with none of the rest, costing a fraction of the above to build. We wouldn’t touch the kerbs, and we would address road safety (police reported crashes in the last 5 years shown inset, including two injury). Then again, I’m just a humble traffic engineer… Yet another reason why we need a Council where this sort of thing gets run past your elected members for permission first, and at very least for them to ask such basic questions as: “Why?”

Fridays wrap with Duncan’s novel 3 X car lane / 2 X truck lane compact roundabout to get things moving:

Fridays Lock-Me-Up-And-Throw-Away-The Key

22 May 2026

Exodus 18:17-23 with a message about wise leadership: “So Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “The thing that you do is not good. Both you and these people who are with you will surely wear yourselves out. For this thing is too much for you; you are not able to perform it by yourself. Listen now to my voice; I will give you counsel, and God will be with you: Stand before God for the people, so that you may bring the difficulties to God. And you shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and show them the way in which they must walk and the work they must do. Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. And let them judge the people at all times. Then it will be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they themselves shall judge. So it will be easier for you, for they will bear the burden with you. If you do this thing, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all this people will also go to their place in peace.”

Your friendly Councillor Duncan reporting in again, and change is definitely in the air. On Tuesday Taupo Mayor John Funnell has this week instigated a working group to steer the internal amalgamation discussions, comprising himself and Councillors Taylor, Murch, de Lautour and Greenslade reporting back to the rest of us at regular intervals. The particular make-up of this working group was not fully explained and some reservations were expressed that the rest of Elected Members not being invited to fully participate – but there there it is. The question of whether we will be early engaging or consulting with the community like Western Bay of Plenty District Council is about to do did also come up, but the answer was not very forthcoming – so for now I will take that as a no. I myself am keeping an eye on the headlines and talking here and there with Councillors in adjacent districts whom I am acquainted with, and am receiving some interesting perspectives sent to me from local people too. Time to start having some real conversations I reckon with only a couple of months to go, and Councillor Hope Woodward is already trying to kick that off on social media which you can watch HERE.

This week we had a couple of things going on. On Monday we had the second of our Taupo Airport Authority Committee meetings, held at the airport. I do have to say that of all the committees that I have been involved in the past three years or so, this committee has been by far the most convivial and one of the most engaging. It probably helps that the surroundings are so pleasant (the Lil Something airport cafe is easily my favourite coffee haunt in all of Taupo), where people talk to each other like adults and there is none of the politic bickering that seems to happen anyplace else. The newly elected Chair is Chris Grace who is a wonderful and recent retired gentleman of ex Pak n Sav fame, and he was also with us as a member last term. Other Elected Members apart from myself are Councilor Steve Mananui and of course Mayor John Funnell who is obviously taking a keen interest. I know the airport isn’t of huge interest to everybody, and there isn’t a huge amount of news to tell except that members are pressing to more quicky develop a Master Plan for the airport precinct and get some more income generated instead of relying upon fickle Air NZ who could potentially withdraw any time they wish (remember that Rotorua is only an hour away, which is closer than many Aucklanders to their own airport). There is also the untrivial matter of a main runway that may need a $5M or so rebuild in not so many years away – luckily we have a great deal with Ministry of Transport where they pay half the costs and we keep all the profits, long may that continue. These meetings are open to the public (who rarely attend, but this week we had around six people which was a record) with agendas as always available HERE. They are not audio-video recorded but I will request this start happening, because I reckon the airport precinct is a bit of a hidden jewel for the district and something that people should perhaps take more interest in.

We also had a Regulatory Committee meeting on Tuesday which you can watch here if you have an hour to spare. There was only a couple of items for us to get stuck into and make something of a meal of. First there was Item 5.2 Bombay Bistros successful bid to remove three parking spaces from Robert Street for their purpose as a dining area (outside the old Dominoes). You can watch the owners oral submission and the 25min or so debate from HERE. Which I think is fair enough to request, but which myself and Councillor Woodward objected to on the grounds this was a piecemeal approach on the fairly unsubstantiated basis that it will increase the vibrancy of the area – by that argument, why don’t we just remove all car parking from the CBD altogether? Apparently the adjacent businesses KFC and Lone Star are okay with it, but I say the entire street should have been consulted – which they weren’t – with Chairperson Councillor Rachel Cameron implying they would be biased anyway. I’m telling ya people, this sorta thing would not happen in a place like Remuera where shopper car parking spaces get treated like gold – so perhaps amalgamating with a place like Hamilton wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all.

Then there was Item 5.4 which was to inform us about an upcoming Taupo District Wide Reserves Management Plan Project which you can watch from HERE. This seemingly innocuous item I chose to take some issue with because of my past experience with the Motutere Reserve Management Plan Review the year before last which I have already written copiously about. The Reserves Act requires management plans to be kept under continuous review, but it does not prescribe expiry dates or require wholesale rewrites simply because a plan is considered “old” – and what is old anyway? One of the plans listed here dates from 2022, and others from 2015 and 2017, which do not seem especially old to me. I later came to the view that the Motutere review need not have proceeded at all, because not proceeding was itself an entirely realistic and practicable option which was not properly presented then and even more so with these now. So my first and foremost question was is: Why is this now being presented to Elected Members as informational only? These reviews cost staff time, consultant time, and community time. What specific problems are we trying to solve, that are so unworkable that targeted amendments cannot fix? Or are we just creating a process of planning for planning’s sake to create jobs for the staff to do? We also need to be very mindful of public confidence in these processes – whether they are transparent and whether their input will be meaningful. Consultation is supposed to be genuinely open-minded and capable of affecting outcomes, but not in a way that will be disproportionately influenced by vocal minority interests – as I believe did happen with Motutere. What is to stop that happening again? Anyway there is also a presented paper on this topic next Tuesday 1pm 26 May in the full Council meeting which I intend to speak more to. In the meantime I have also asked the Chief Executive to be provided the answer to this question in advance: Can you please tell me the expected cost including estimated staff time and any consultants for the Reserve Management Plan project?

Oh yes and there was that one other little thing about the Broadlands Road landfill which was also discussed in a confidential workshop Tuesday morning. Myself and Councillor Woodward requested beforehand that it did not justify the secrecy, and also agreed afterward about it too. To cut a long story short – the landfill is forecast to be full by end of 2027 with a new resource consent required to expand, and Taupo District Council have left things too late to get it all done and over with in time for Environment Court if objections are received to drag things on. And yes, any objections are likely to stem from the cultural objections of neighbouring land owners, which is why there have been around 14 hapu meetings at maraes about the place in the past few months to try and convince that it is in nobodies best interest if things take that path – starting 2028 we are talking roughly an additional $4M annual costs to truck out waste to places like Hampton Downs (so think an extra 4% rise in your rates). So this is quite a monumental cock-up in my opinion and I am spilling the beans – so go ahead, lock me up and throw away the key. Anyway we are not the only place having backroom conversations when we shouldn’t, as Rotorua Councillor Robert Lee has recently posted about on social media which you can read about HERE, and I agree with this 2025 unsuccessful South Waikato candidate sentiment below:

So what else is new?

Keeping it up Sophie: Local intrepid reporter Sophie M Smith put out a couple of articles of interest this week, the first being Part three in a series about the Council building where it is revealed that the lease hasn’t actually been signed off yet. Yes well, after taking office in October 2022 it was pretty much explained to us Elected Members that it was a done deal and all that needed to happen was approving the $5M office fitout, and the question of it being optional was certainly never raised as a possibility. So the question now given the proposed amalgamation just has to be – what are the ramifications if it doesn’t get signed? On the flip side, at least a 25 yr lease might ensure a Council staff local presence instead of a head office Hamilton… There is also Sophie’s take on Amalgamation and an item on the dubious state of some Mangakino wastewater storage tanks allegedly leaking into the nearby waterways with no forthcoming explanations.

Zebra the problem? Following the incident on 11 May where a pedestrian was struck outside Taharepa shops I am doing what any traffic engineer worth their salt would do and checking out if Council is at least partly to blame. That zebra crossing where it happened was only upgraded a year or so ago and I managed to dig up the independent safety audit where it was noted as a serious safety concern with a recommended speed hump(s) as a solution. Why that didn’t happen is not entirely clear, but I intend to find out because if they had been implemented the consequences may have been lesser.

Proper oversight or lip-service tick-boxing? Kaipara District Council are currently under scrutiny by the Audit Office for their procurement and contract practices. I have no idea what stimulated this but somebody has obviously talked so it will be interesting to see where that inquiry goes. Another space to watch.

How to fix Maori Trust Boards: Now this is a topic I have been thinking of delving into for some time now, but it seems that Whanganui Uri Unite is already making some inroads as this social media post amply shows with this intro: “Have a GOOD look at the names and connections across your current river entity and land entity: • Trustees becoming contractors • Family members employed across entities • Operational roles staying within the same circles • Contracts repeatedly landing with connected people • The same whānau names appearing everywhere you turn”... I am not saying that Tuwharetoa Maori Trust Board works like this, but can anybody properly in the know with their hand on their heart says it doesn’t?

Homeschoolers under threat: If you are a Taupo homeschooler you will undoubtedly already be aware, that the government is trying to throw a spanner in the works with a last minute amendment bill which is not innocuous at all and intended to introduce increased government scrutiny to people who choose to opt out of the state system. The amendment is shown left, and people like Cynthia Hancox are activating the resistance now for apparently the first profound change in homeschooling oversight since 1989. Although my own kids are nearly all through their schooling now, as a homeschool dad myself this is quite disturbing – so watch this space.

Fridays poem of the week, with Peter Hitchens response to a panel question the others dodged – does poetry matter to you?