23 October 2026
Disclaimer: I do occasionally use AI, but almost never in any of the text for these Friday updates.
John 12: 25: “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life”.
It’s all about trust, really – or lack thereof. That’s the loud and clear message that Elected Members of Taupo District Council received on Tuesday during our 2.5 hour governance session with seasoned politician Laurence Yule. Trust the staff; trust each other; trust that each of us are working in the best interests of the community (and please refrain from putting out public messages of disharmony); and not least trust we won’t spill the beans on things deemed confidential. Yeah right. I have been accused of many things, but this last stick was pointed directly at me – breaching confidentiality. I challenged for some examples to be given, but the only ones mentioned were an issue three years ago which I firmly rejected and documented back then with no formal kick-back; and a minor mistake over a year ago for which I apologised with no adverse consequence anyway. Yet seemingly on the back of this along with the insinuation that staff are withholding from us valuable yet sensitive material for fear of exposure, and despite that for years we have not had any blanket codes of silence – the mooted way forward for these Chambers is the introduction of regular blanket confidentiality sessions which cover whatever topics do get tabled. I’m telling ya people: it is all about trust alright, and I don’t trust this organisation because of a few select people in it. I say that trust is earned not imposed, and transparency about motives and intentions is important. Apart from that, we are not a private corporation but a public institution. But I perceive not everybody agrees with my perspective, so I don’t see things getting much better only worse if this arrangement happens – not to mention if its even legitimate or legal to exclude those who won’t agree. So I once again do say: please bring on amalgamation.
Anyway…let’s rattle through some other stuff going on:
Genuine mistake or strategy of sleuth? On Tuesday we had a confidential workshop which included about the Broadlands landfill consent application of which I am not able to divulge any details (and didn’t learn anything much new anyway), but sleeping on it came to a sudden revelation: the tardiness of the Council consent application (which I have moaned about before) is possibly not a blunder at all instead a deliberate strategy. And because of the spokepeople involved at our end (Councillors Taylor, Westerman & Murch), it is all starting to make a lot of sense. For the record I have no complaint about the transparency of Councillor Wahine Murch because she has been updating us rather well, but its the other two (who I understand have longer involvement) which motivations I now question. You see people, we are rapidly being cornered into a situation whereby Council will quite soon have to consider forgoing the desired 30-year consent extension for something much lesser – all because of the threat that Environment Court proceedings will not be wrapped up in time to avoid expensive trucking out of waste after December 2027 when the current consent expires. Hearings apparently take 12 – 24 months which if we had chosen to could have already begun, and I don’t foresee any significant hurdles to the consent being eventually granted. But who would want this circumstance we now find ourselves, you ask? Either way the ratepayer will likely end up paying large for it: whether its $3M a year to truck out waste a year from now, or if we have to go through the exercise of finding another receptacle in say just 20 years time and not the wanted thirty. My own speculation: What if your number one priority is maintaining cordial relations with partnered Iwi and their cultural predilections, with everything else coming second after that? Yep I’m calling it people, and whether by mistake or manipulation the result could be the same – you’re gonna end up paying. Now, what was that thing I was saying about trust?
Loooong Term Plan (LTP) goes on, and on… Yesterday we also had the last of the LTP capital items workshops which you can watch HERE if you really want, but at over three hours is quite a chore so here is an AI timestamped transcript for easy reference. Not something I chose to attend, but did send through to staff some questions.
Will you refuse to pay? Wellingtonians are refusing in droves all 30,000 of them, to pay the first water bill under their new regime which you can read about HERE. I reckon that unless the new Water Services entity for Taupo caps any increases to consumer inflation, we should think about doing the same. Even more so, because unlike Wellingtons failing aged infrastructure ours are relatively new. And as the apparent watchdog Commerce Commission says: “Right or wrong, affordability is not something that is within our mandate”, that means it’s all on you to keep a lid on things. Come 2028 you need to vote for candidates who will stick to it, but do you trust those who say they will?
Turangi gets the bus it maybe didn’t want: Yes its on the road now which you can read about HERE, not what we asked for so next year I plan to try harder.
“Chairmanship gone wrong”: Rotorua Councillor Robert Lee told to leave chambers and gets noticed which you can read about HERE and also Robert’s post about it HERE, for his questions about conflicting interests and lost $200K in Council income. I think the dodged and woolly responses show these were never really intended to be answered, so who do you trust more?
Non-fluoridated option for Taupo?? Below is the comprehensive and prompt response from Rotorua Lakes Council in regard to my inquiry about the non-fluoridated water supply option they gave residents after baddie Ministry of Health last year mandated they start fluoridating. Should Taupo do the same?
“Thank you for reaching out regarding our un-fluoridated water taps. Just to be clear Rotorua Lakes Council did not get around the fluoride directive, we followed the directive to fluoridate the two water supplies (Central and Eastern) required and we continue to do so. We do however have two locations where our customers can fill up water bottles/containers with treated water that has not been dosed with fluoride. One of these taps is located within one of our non-fluoridated water supply areas (Ngongotaha) so is just a tap connected to the potable water main in the area. The other tap is in our Central water supply area which has a 30 m³ tank on site and we use a water tanker to fill it up with treated water from Ngongotaha, this tank has a small pressure pump installed to provide the water through the tap.Total cost to install the tap at Ngongotaha which includes all labour and materials was $2,685. Total cost to set up the Central tap which includes all labour and materials was $15,307. Rough cost to date we have also spent on 23 loads of water from a water tanker for the Central tank is $17,250.I averaged the loads at $750 per load, each load is 12,000 litres per load for this specific company we use”.
Compromised sovereignty or just conspiracy: So says the Owen Report which you can read HERE if you are so inclined with some time on your hands: “The living people of this land are born into a management framework they did not consent to, assigned identifiers they did not request, enrolled in obligations they did not agree to, subject to enforcement by commercially registered entities they did not appoint, processed through courts they do not control, servicing with their labour bonds they did not authorise, providing through their legal fictions a democratic mandate they did not meaningfully give”. I’m giving it a miss myself, but just thought you should know.
Fridays future horror increasingly imaginable:
