Friday Whisperings of Change

28 November 2025

Hi folks its Councillor Duncan coming at you again for another Friday update, and you may have noticed I took a break last week. These Friday updates have become quite a habit since they started, and I have found that having a self-imposed editorial deadline is a great motivational tool to make them happen. But they can also be quite demanding if other things are going on (like working to feed the kids etc), and even at the best of times and even so rewarding, writing can at times be a painful act of creation (no AI used here). Now I don’t want to make any unkept promises, but I will commit to putting out these Council updates at least fortnightly until their usefulness fades or I really do get sick of them (except January when everything pretty much shuts down for New Zealand).

So starting with the biggest news of late – the governments proposed rejig of Regional Councils, and the possible future amalgamation of smaller ones like ours into larger Unitary Councils like happened in Auckland back in 2010. Minister of Local Government Chris Bishop says: “The government does not think local government is serving New Zealanders well and the time has come for reform”.

I have mixed views about this whole thing, because I have experienced the joys and the pains of local government in both this provincial small town and big city Auckland Unitary Council which is the direction this is definitely headed. Neither of them gets my first pick, and the old Waitakere City of which I used to be part or even the borough Councils before 1989 now seem a class above in terms of community representation and responsible spending. And despite repeated claims by the likes of Deputy Mayor Kevin Taylor that ‘the funding model for local government is broken’, I say it has rather just been mismanaged. Not only that, but I strongly suspect the corruption and collusion recently exposed at the very top of the New Zealand Police Force (and quite possibly endemic throughout the higher ranks) is happening in a lot of other public institutions in this country – local government not excluded. My grandaddy who was the first chairman of the Public Service Commission in 1946 is probably rolling in his grave.

To elaborate further, I expect that cronyism (definition: giving jobs to friends rather than to independent people who have the necessary skills and experience) is far less prevalent in larger organisations, although I have heard this country described as one big small town before so it will never be completely absent. And I reckon isolated Councils like ours are far more likely to become mini fiefdoms of the senior staff, simply because their employees have fewer job opportunities to escape without having to leave town. On the other hand, large unwieldly bureaucracies like Auckland Council can be impersonal and intimidating for the average person to thread their way through, and the theoretical efficiencies of scale may not come to pass because additional layers of management seem to always get added. So I am torn both ways – on one hand we have civilisation and due process but all the bureaucracy that comes with it, and on the other some more flexibility but all the small town crap.

So if you want my honest opinion based on my past three years experience, I think we may have been better off under a Waikato Super City. Certainly some of the dumber decisions of the past might have been avoided, like demolishing a perfectly good Council building and rejigging the streets of Taupo township without thinking where the traffic will go. So whilst I am usually a fan of smaller and nimbler and every small town Council will have its quirky differences depending on the latest election, this place has not given me the greatest confidence. At least with a larger bureaucracy everybody is in the same boat and gets the same thing – just like living in a place like Auckland, and just like at McDonalds.

Apart from that, this week we also have:

Council meeting 25 November: Watch it all here on youtube and you can find the minutes here, nothing too exciting except the setting up of committees for the new triennium. There are a few subtle differences from last term, and I took the opportunity (from 5min 17) to express my reservations that without these committees having the appropriate Delegated Authorities elected members will not have sufficient opportunity to try and rein in costs – or even be held accountable (noting that Delegated Authorities are yet to be decided). The deletion of an originally proposed Infrastructure Committee also removes potential oversight of anything other than just water services (which is to be covered by a separate Water Services Committee with independent chair) – so for example transportation projects get little coverage. In addition, I also noted the presence of a handful of un-elected representatives with granted voting rights – that is something I formerly campaign pledged against, so to be consistent with that I expressed my objection.

Pull the other karakia please: I recently made a bit of a fuss about the regimented format used in Council Chambers the past year or so, whereby everyone including visitors was expected to stand whilst the official Taupo District Council version gets recited in unison by elected members, and that the only permitted variations were in Te Reo. I never did get any satisfactory explanation as to how that all came about, and have for quite some time been concerned about its apparent exclusiveness. So after I submitted my own proposed way forward for karakias, last week we had a workshop presentation about it (unrecorded for public viewing of course) – and guess what? Here was me thinking all along that karakias are a spiritual thing, when all along they’re not!

We were told that karakias only became religious after Europeans hijacked them in their colonial way of doing things, and prior to that were never meant as prayers at all! Well blow me down if I found this all a bit hard to swallow, and from its very first line the Council opening karakia is hard to accept as just being secular: “Tuia ki te mauri o te whenua / Connect to the life essence of the land”.

Anyway to cut a long story short, it was decided by majority decree that going forward only the official Council (secular!) version will be recited, and we are thankfully dispensing with the obligatory standing. My own summation: This is at best a missed opportunity for openness to other belief systems, and at worst a cultural and spiritual imposition onto the rest of us. Somehow I don’t feel quite as enthusiastic partaking anymore, but I won’t be making any scenes like this Community Board member did in Whangamata.

We have some money in the bank, didn’t you know? After the electricity companies were sold off late last century, someone decided that Taupo District Council would look after the money on your behalf. It is otherwise know as the Taupo Electric Limited (TEL) fund, and here is Sophie M Smiths useful three-part series of what it is all about. My own simplified take: the $80M or so is a community owned fund, the dividends of which some other Councils gave away directly to their constituents early in the piece. Until very recently the TEL fund was tied down as a form of insurance against infrastructure (i.e. instead of paying premiums to insurance companies), but that obligation no longer applies. Yes there are some current policies in place to govern its application, but elected members could for example by majority vote change those settings and likewise give it all away if we wanted.

Sounds like a plan: If we copy Thames Coromandel who have set up a Mayoral taskforce aiming to cut rates in half, then because our current forecast is 6.7% we should be about bang on to capping it to inflation just as myself and our new Mayor have pledged. No word of any taskforce happening yet though.

That much, really? Taxpayer’s Union was recently harassing Christchurch City Council for allegedly spending $1.36M on Ngai Tahu consultancy services over a three-year period. That is less than Taupo District Council has set aside for the next ten years on that sort of thing, so I am guessing nobody has tipped them off about us yet.

Too many Council staff? A recent review by Deloitte suggests that Wellington City Council has 330 more staff than they need to, I wonder if we should get a quote from them to look over us too?

Now that would be an interesting conference: There is a Marxism conference happening in Melbourne April next year, which I think would be far more straight-talking and entertaining than a Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) bash. I don’t think I can convince our Mayor to send me along at your expense, but I recommend it to anybody who is interested in the future of this nation to attend – even if only for information gathering purposes.

What has The Treaty got to do with school anyway? On the most recent consternations being thrown around after the government threw out obligations to The Treaty of Waitangi out of the NZ School Curriculum, I think Sean Rush’s letter to his local Roseneath School Board stands out as a reasoned argument that schools should stick to their knitting which is to educate kids and to stay out of politics.

Climate Education or Misinformation? Nowadays it’s hard to tell, but if local esteemed scientist Dr Dick Reaney’s recommendation is anything to go by, then visiting professor William Happer of Princeton University will be worth listening to at this FREE event next Sat Dec 6th as per below. You will need to RSVP dickreaney@outlook.com to secure your place.

Fridays roundabout revelry: Four bendy-buses trapped themselves and others into a stalemate situation for about ten minutes recently at a roundabout in Alexander Kiellands Plass in Norway (right-click translate to English if you don’t speak Norwegian). One bystander: “I don’t know what I’m most impressed by: That they managed to get into the situation, or that they got out of it”.

Fridays on the Brink

14 Nov 2025

Councillor Duncan coming at you again on this Friday, now with a clearer insight that our new Council is fast slipping back into the party line of the status quo, and that I could be wasting my time for the next three years. But I do hope I’m wrong, and I have been wrong before.

How can I speak so soon, you say? Well perhaps you can call it my more finely tuned political senses, but when everything from strategic Chamber seating arrangements to loaded prospective committee engagements, to just the way key information is starting to be ambushed upon us – one could be forgiven for mistaking that Deputy Mayor Kevin Taylor had won the election instead of John Funnell.

I really wish the elected member induction sessions the past few weeks could have been audio-visual recorded, because they could be educational for both the public and newly elects should they wish to go back and rewatch. These included what must have been a very expensive four-hour session with a lawyer flown in from Wellington, who talked about things from how local government works to conflicts of interest (and yes, the JMA incident did get passing mention).

Taupo District Council has been the most dysfunctional Council I have ever been associated with in my 25 years plus of experience in local government, and I am not saying that just to be mean. I do not mean dysfunctional in the way of some other Councils which aren’t even able to make major decisions, but that it currently functions to serve its staff first and then only afterward constituents, and that the decision-making process is fundamentally flawed with any voices of dissent systematically getting bypassed or ignored. I did not get to communicate this in person to the other elected members, because despite our supposed ability to ‘free and frankly discuss’ in these sessions and our (kindergarten style) prompt cards intended to help us get along, true to form I never got to finish.

Okay enough complaining, so how do we actually fix these things? Like I set out in my three campaign priority pledges, things have to start happening from the ground up. That includes stuff as simple as ensuring things get put in writing all of the time, and handing some of the Delegated Authorities from staff to elected members as I submitted to them just yesterday (and the referenced sample here). I also believe that for transparency’s sake, a default setting should be that any meeting of elected members in formal Council meetings, Workshops or Committees will get audio-visual recorded (the only exceptions being by justified exclusion).

So right now it seems to me that the circus is on the brink of setting up to carry on largely as before, and anybody with any brains in my position would quite probably want to get the heck out of it as soon as they possibly can. But these are still very early days and I don’t want to be too pessimistic, and of course as a Christian I still do believe in Miracles.

Apart from all that, this week we have:

Fires galore but whose to blame? Well after last week’s devasting local fires and heroic efforts, I am quite interested if the raging fires in Tongariro National Park could have been prevented. Surely there are some lessons to be learned, and were perhaps any previous warnings being ignored? I am no expert in this field, but it is fairly obvious to me that fires can start from any number of means and are only to be expected to happen sooner or later. So let’s see if we get a decent debrief, or (yawn) if it will simply be down to finger pointing at the nefarious person who might have started it.

But at least the Turangi airfield seems to have loudly demonstrated its community usefulness after all, as per this LifeFM report with comments from airfield operator Mike Fransham. This follows the controversy following Taupo District Councils abrupt withdrawal of support last Christmas, when I do not recall this aspect of its potential benefits being very significantly flagged.

Lakeside landgrab? #2… I reckon it is a universal truth everywhere that having deep pockets can avert getting run over by the wheels of bureaucracy, and also grease it in your favour. But is that really what is going on with the Te Kopua Street reserve in Acacia Bay? Media coverage of this issue is ongoing with this latest LakeFM piece, and I am still somewhat perturbed how it came to be. So far all I can get out of staff is a promise that this will be relooked at next year along with a whole bunch of other encroachments, which doesn’t come across as very satisfactory to me.

Elected members needing protection? So says this item about a couple of wahine Maori elected members feeling insecure and receiving threats But I say it isn’t just wahine Maori who are feeling uncomfortable, and I believe that we are at a certain point of time in New Zealand society when some things are starting to come to a head. I think the Renumeration Authorities offer on Councils behalf of $4500 plus $1000 annual maintenance to pay for home security is a little high though, because my own didn’t cost nearly that much – perhaps I should seek an upgrade? I remember as a teenager receiving bomb threats from political activists on the family telephone, that is a story for another day but it did help me realise that public figures do sometimes attract unwanted attention.

My advice to elected members or anyone feeling vulnerable: 1/ Get your address out of the White Pages asap; 2/ install security lighting; 3/ install camera surveillance; 4/ consider worst case scenario of home invasion and what means you have at your disposal to immediately respond. Online haters can be blocked easily enough, and realise that people may say a lot of things on a keyboard they would never say in person (just like alcohol does). In South Africa people get used to living in wire fenced fortresses, I don’t want that to happen for New Zealand but we are definitely heading in that direction.

Whipping it good: New Hamilton Mayor and former deputy school principal Tim Macindoe apparently isn’t taking any prisoners with the way he wants to run his Council, as this report in the Waikato Times sets out. I can tell you that is not the way things the new Mayor of Taupo is running things – nor would I particularly want him to – but who knows, perhaps he may change his mind over time. I still remember one of my intermediate schoolteachers fresh out of teacher training, whose demeanor was vastly different at the end of the school year when detentions became as common as the lollies she originally handed out.

What does this have to do with Council? I say that the latest scandal involving NZ Police has everything to do with local government, and I am not just saying that because we have an ex-senior policeman as our Deputy Mayor. In this report author Bryce Edwards argues that repeated abuses of office are not only systemic, but that the ramifications of the revealed corruption and collusion will extend well beyond just the NZ Police. I really hope they do, because this countries reputation as one of the least corrupt places in the world is in my opinion quite misguided. One journalists interesting observation:

Even men and women of apparent integrity found themselves along for the ride in 1930’s Germany, and they were people not so different from us. So the warning is clear – don’t just follow the programme because everybody else is.

I reckon that for Councils, one symptom of malaise is a lack of transparency and accountability. For Taupo, I say the demolishing of a perfectly good Council building and the appalling treatment of Council staff who refused the Covid-19 jab were very big mistakes to which we never heard any official acknowledgement. Because to truly learn from a mistake, acknowledgement first needs to happen.

Inspiring speakers influence: Young politician William Wood of Palmerston North recently gave an inspired speech at a Council debate to speak against the presence of un-elected representatives on Council committees (his argument won the day), something which both myself and Mayor John Funnell also pledged against. I must say though, William speaks as if he were in the house of Parliament than just little old Palmerston North City Council, and I expect he will go far in politics. Interesting sidenote: Unlike at Taupo District Council, elected members there are apparently permitted to attend and vote on committees even if they are not official members.

Friday quiz about a man with nothing left to lose: Marvyn Heemeyer – was he a villain or a hero?

NOTE: I probably won’t be doing the next Fri update until week after next

Fridays Flying Fancy

7 Nov 2025

Councillor Duncan reporting in again, this time it’s a much shorter piece because I have been distracted elsewhere. In terms of the new Council we really are only just starting out as elected members go through a few months of induction sessions to educate and remind what Council is all about. These induction sessions are quite important, not least because we also have a new Mayor who is fresh to local government – so I don’t think we will be making any major decisions before Christmas. It also offers a chance to start afresh with some new perspectives and throw out some of the old. I recognise that Taupo District Council has some dysfunction in terms of its transparency and democratic representation, so I want some things to be set right from the outset as much as possible (even the format of Karakia’s are getting a look in). My professional engineering knowledge was a big reason people voted for me in 2022, and I am still angry to have been sidelined from substantially contributing along those lines for the past three years – entirely due to the very small-town stuff of not pleasing the right people.

We are also in the throes of allocating elected members to various committees and working groups. In 2022 this was sorted out in less than an hour, but this time it is being evaluated whether we need new committees or even if some of the former committees should exist at all. So along with the quite special induction session we had the week before last, this time round the newly elected are getting quite a different experience. And by the way although a few of the committees are compulsory (like Risk & Assurance with an independent chair), many of the others are not and will depend upon local politics. For example in Auckland where transportation is a No.1 hot topic there will probably be armfuls of committees dedicated to transportation alone, but here in Taupo it will probably get lumped in with a bunch of other stuff like water pipes.

But some things remain the same, as the Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) induction day in Rotorua on Monday did remind. Although some of the presenters were good enough and the chance to meet elected members of surrounding districts is always appreciated, the clear political bias of LGNZ still shone through with a very one-side presentation relating to the Treaty of Waitangi obligations of local government. Rotorua Councillor Robert Lee even had the microphone taken off him before he could ask a few challenging questions that one of the presenters (a staff member of Rotorua Lakes Council) clearly knew was coming. So my desire for this Council to remain affiliated to that particular club is quite muted, and there is good reason that around half the country (by population) decline to partake.

This week and there isn’t much:

Lakeside landgrab? By now many of you will have heard about local agitator Jane Arnotts attempt to highlight a reserve encroachment on Te Kopua Street in Acacia Bay, if not you can read about it here in this Waikato Times article and listen to Jane’s 8 min radio interview here. I still haven’t got to the bottom of how it all came about, but it appears that despite community consultation several years back about a proposed land swap which was rejected, Council staff subsequently and in practical terms let it happen anyway. I have visited the site myself and met Jane in person, and she doesn’t seem the type to give up very easily – so this story hasn’t ended yet.

Making a point about something: These Dunedin newly elects weren’t just wearing scarves to keep out the southerly wind chill, because their swearing in all happened indoors. Any guesses to which team they support?

Unelected representation: This Invercargill Councillor also tried to make his point by opposing the presence of unelected Manua Whenua representations to Council at their inaugural meeting. The presence of unelected members to Council committees or working groups also has relevance here, because even though they might not have delegated decision-making authority these committees can still significantly influence the Council decision making process. Given my own campaign pledge to oppose this sort of thing (i.e. unelected appointments to Council committees with financial or regulatory powers), I am now at least questioning the eligibility for voting – and this does not just apply to Manua Whenua, but all sorts of outside representatives.

Because nobody spoke for the trees: A streetload of trees on suburban Wylie Street in Rotorua got the big chop and despite local objections and afterward furore (see pics before on L and after on R). Although we have had a few mishaps in Turangi the past year or so, I would like to think that in Taupo this sort of significant decision would involve elected members – which did not happen there.

Fridays politically correct message: This is the sort of thing that we see in some of our institutes of higher learning nowadays, one can only imagine what someone time transported from 1970 would think.

Fridays Getting Sucked In

24 October 2025

Councillor Duncan back at you again, and a few people have asked me lately if it is exciting to be re-elected. My answer is that it is about as exciting as having a new baby – I can put on a smiley face for posterity, but not really looking forward to the sleepless nights and nappy changes. But let’s see if things roll different this time, and there are promising signs that things could turn out better than before.

The past two days gone newly elected got to partake in some quite stimulating induction sessions to educate (and remind) what Council is supposed to be all about, and this time round was quite special. We had an ex-mayor from another district come in and run some Q & A sessions along with meeting test runs, and all of the old-hands appreciated we were getting something quite different from what has happened before. It did start off feeling like a family councilling session because of the last term and election travails, and you can probably blame me most of all for that (perhaps also for how this special treatment even came about). I don’t know exactly who arranged it all, but much kudos to whomever did.

But don’t let oneself get too sucked in – I say to others and have to remind myself. Because when things start feeling too cosy, if you want to make a real difference then the battle is already lost.

Just as sure as one plus one equals two, if rates don’t get reined in close to the consumer rate of inflation then the working and middle classes will continue getting smashed. That much is real and we had all better understand it.

As an aside, identifying and defining a problem is the very essence of Critical Thinking. If it doesn’t happen, we could for example end up spending $10M on a water plant upgrade just because some legislation or other says we should – but without bothering to measure the tangible benefits to end users. Or end up with too many road cones. So let’s keep constituent’s best interest first, and do some more of that Critical Thinking.

This week we also have:

Didn’t we do well: Voter turnout for the Taupo district was an impressive 55%, I am not sure if that is any record around here but compared to Auckland’s 35% with closer to 20% in some of its wards – people in Taupo are thoroughly engaged. This article by NZ Initiative tries to piece together why the disparity, with the faceless anonymity of cities being cited as one factor (e.g. in the provinces you are much more likely to meet elected members on the street). But the author also critiques the general failings of local government, and suggests the Mayoral powers granted to Auckland’s Wayne Brown get made available to other Councils – and I tend to agree.

Trojan Horse Code of Conduct: BloggerZoran Rakovic breaks down the governments DRAFT Code of Conduct for local government elected members, and it isn’t very pretty (Zoran ran for Selwyn District Council this year but unfortunately missed out by a smidgeon 80 votes). His conclusion about Section 8 which is to do with Treaty of Waitangi:

“Clause 8 hijacks process to enforce ideology. It crosses the line between governance and governmentality. It substitutes obedience for representation. And so it must be removed. Not softened. Not edited. Removed. Entirely. We have replaced democracy with dogma. We have built a church inside the council chamber. And we have hung the Treaty not as a taonga, but as a warning. You must believe. You must obey. Or you will be called… unfit to serve”.

This is sounding like a convincing deal breaker to me, and who wants to sign up to that? Anyway, the wheels of parliament turn fairly slow in this country, so we will just have to cross that bridge when we come to it.

Housing for the elderly? Dr Wilkinson in this NZ Initiative report questions the viability of government owning rental accommodation, he says: “On the evidence, it is plausible that both taxpayers and tenants could be better off if the Government were less dominant as a landlord and if its subsidies empowered tenants by giving them a greater choice of landlord”. In the past three years I have seen some shaky indicators for the long-term viability of Council social housing, including lesser access to government subsidies which private providers can get. When this question next comes up for this Council, I predict it mightn’t be an easy decision to make and could well be unpopular.

Friends in high places? Sophie M Smith’s latest interesting piece is entitled Dummies Guide to the council hotseat series : The Things We Said We Wouldn’t Take. I personally think politics and governance are not the place to be making friends, because compromise to one’s own reason for being there can inevitably follow. The alternative is school playground antics, which I reckon is pretty much what we have had going on in Taupo for quite a long time. I hope that will change this time round.

WELCOME TO THE MACHINE: As we kick off this new triennium, I thought to upload my four Councillor Chat articles which I posted Jan – April 2024 about how Taupo District Council operated last term. Again, I am hoping things will be different from now on but only time will tell by how much.

Taupo gets the miss: Governments latest release on Roads of National Significance misses us out altogether – aren’t we important enough? In all honestly though, when in 2012 the Taupo Bypass happened I was a little surprised because I thought big stuff like that only happened in the Golden Triangle of Auckland – Hamilton-Tauranga. So I suppose that means we better start writing to our local MP Louise Upston if we want that much better road to Turangi.

Friday call to arms: This 1989 single by band The The took a few years longer than it should to get my attention, but isn’t it such a wonderful premonition of where young people find themselves now?

Fridays Ending and Still Pending

17 October 2025

Okay it’s been a tumultuous election alright, and some good things have happened. We have a new Mayor (yay) who is pledging to cap rates at inflation as much as possible, and he also believes in proper representative democracy of the people and at the Council table. Good. Let’s see how many towers have to fall to make that happen.

On the other hand, we still don’t have the final results and six candidates are still waiting until possibly as late as next Wednesday to find out if they are in! I get that there may have been some late voting going on, but it seems to me that the contractor we employ to do these elections Electionz.com may have understaffed themselves – and I have a few uncomplimentary to words to say about them further down. To put into some context though, this was a fairly unique election in the history of New Zealand local government, and my own relatively puny electoral efforts of 2022 would undoubtedly not have sufficed this time round. Maori wards took a tumble, but I reckon that isn’t such a bad thing for everyone including Maori as I have previously mentioned.

Not to speak too highly of myself, but I would myself have been a little surprised to not get re-elected given all my efforts to make it more transparent the past few years. However, I would not have been entirely disappointed because I know there are going to be some hard yards ahead. So I thank those who voted for me and feel both a sense of privilege and perdition.

Otherwise the make-up of the rest of Council doesn’t seem to have substantially changed, which I find somewhat intriguing. Because although a clear mandate for change has been delivered by voters for the top job at Taupo District Council, this hasn’t been much followed through for the rest of Councillors. I still find the vagaries of voters hard to understand, and feel for those unsuccessful candidates who put so much effort in trying to insert themselves into what seems to be an exclusive club once you’re in. In any case, I am optimistic that from this day onwards Council Chambers will be less of a banana republic school playground than before.

Okay so this week we also have:

Money does matter: Michael Laws of The Platform On The Rout Of LGNZ Mayors reckons these next three years of local government could be the toughest ever – and I think he could be right. LGNZ President and Mayor of Selwyn District Sam Broughton was quite convincingly chucked out of office and acknowledges it was all about rates increases that his constituents would accept no longer.

I reckon that Michael is quite probably on the right track but not entirely, when he says:“The only way that you can reduce rates in this country is to cut local government staff”. I also want to know how much we pay consultants and contractors, and have come across indicators that this Council pays out quite a lot compared to others. Because only together can that metric be properly weighed.

How did he do it? Most unpopular Mayor in the country (according to the Taxpayer’s Union) Gary Petley of our neighbouring South Waikato seems to have slunk back in again just barely, and because of scattered opposition. Assuming these results are final, poor old South Waikato for the next three years then and hopefully the opposition will get a little better organised for 2028.

Minority influence: Political commentator Pee Jay, unpacks the Tiriti o Waitangi section in the proposed new Code of Conduct for elected members of local government, saying: “This “Code of Conduct” is nothing but a Trojan horse for further race-based privilege, influence and, ultimately, control afforded to Maori!”. Read it yourself here to see if you agree with his summation.

From on high: Christine Rankin gives her take on re-election on this Platform interview. She presents much better than someone like me, so I am glad voters decided to give that lady a job.

Thanks for turning up at all: Political commentator Chris Trotter says it is surprising that so many voters bother turning up to local elections at all, because many believe it is Council bureaucrats who decide things anyway. I reckon people aren’t so stupid, because that impression is very largely true. That is why my 2025 Campaign Priority #2 is to: Take Back Control of Council, and this term I will be doing my best to make it happen.

Electoral antics continue...It occurred to me quite recently that it is not out of the question that some voter fraud could have been occurring via theft of voter papers from letterboxes. So I decided to ask Warwick Lampp of Electionz.com our contracted provider, who confirmed that submitted Special Votes would override any posted ballots. I subsequently asked to receive the data for any such double-ups by ward, to see if there were indications this could have happened. This was Warwick’s unexpected and tiresome response:

“These details are a part of my Electoral Officer reconciliation process for every council’s final result process, which is not publicly available, nor discoverable. It is part of my internal process as EO, and is not provided to the Council. The person to enquire to about this is me, and only me. FYI, I have reminded you many times already, the Electoral Commission has no oversight of council elections, so there is no point you enquiring of them. If you do they will refer you back to me. Likewise, I am not subject to LGOIMA, so no point in sending me or the council a LGOIMA request”.

How is that a contractor to Council seems to think that the normal rules of consumer or electoral transparency doesn’t apply to them? For my response to Warwick which I batted back you can read here, and I say it is no wonder that there are urgent calls for the Electoral Commission to undertake these elections directly. To be continued…

Corruption of Council can happen to YOU: Here we have Selwyn Huts in Selwyn District near Christchurch, where a united community and a determined councillor secured a 30-year lease extension after years of costly wrangling and showing that constant vigilance of your Council is essential. Some more info on this topic is available here.

Meanwhile things are looking decidedly dodgy over in…New Plymouth where outgoing Mayor Neil Holdum slipped straight into the top job at their new water entity, and all apparently decided the day before the election. The New Plymouth District Ratepayers Alliance are not very happy with Taupo export of a Chief Executive Gareth Green who was heavily involved (also recall the GST on rates blunder), and are riling up natives for a voluminous complaint to The Ombudsman about it. I say good luck with that, because my own experience with The Ombudsman is that they invariably guard the best interest of bureaucrats like themselves above all else.

Rates set to surge ahead, unless…The right people stop it happening. The past three years Council rates have surged 2.5 times inflation nationwide so says this article by The Centrist. Yet another reminder (as if we should still need it) that someone has to draw the line in the sand and not budge on it. Is our new Mayor up to the task? Only time will tell.

Community first safety second: Recently re-elected Waitakere Ward Councillor Ken Turner gets out and about clearing some drains and without the road cones palava, reminds me of the old days when I had to duck a few passing cars in my time and it never did me any harm. Is this the sort of thing we expect Taupo Councillors to get up to as well?

Good catch: Former building designer Lucy Walsh fined $10,000 for forging documents for Central Otago dwelling . Sounds like Central Otago District Council were doing their job before things got too far, wish that could have happened in Taupo a couple of years ago…

Low mow option: Wellington trials reducing mowing schedules for less used parks and reserves can save money and improve biodiversity too. What a wonderful initiative, and I reckon we should think about doing the same here. And whose idea was it to cut the grass anyway, surely not those English settlers?

Don’t end up like England: As Sophie M Smith’s latest piece on protecting this land intends to tell us. I think it helps that for one thing we have a large ocean between us and other nations, because illegal migration is one of the big issues faced by places like the UK. We also need to remember that if it weren’t for the English we would not have things like Common Law or property rights, and this place would have been a whole lot worse if colonised by the French or anyone else for that matter.

Also recall that it was the Royal Navy which enforced the end of the slave trade on the high seas in the 19^th century entirely at their own expense, and for which the world owes a great debt. For these things we should not be forgetful or ungrateful. Yes do lets’ guard this place of ours called New Zealand / Aotearoa or whatever we want to call it, and right now I see the threat is not so much from without but within.

Could be a lot worse, we could be Hamburg: I have been subscribing to an anonymous German academic blogger named Eugyppius for about five years now, and his prolific writing has been inspirational. His latest piece you can read with the title speaking for itself as to its bent: Climate lunatics in Hamburg pass referendum committing Germany’s leading industrial city to deindustrialise completely in 15 years . I reckon New Zealand has been headed down the same nutty path for quite some time now, but hopefully we will learn from the painful lessons experienced elsewhere like Hamburg before we go as far.

Day course on the Treaty of Waitangi this coming TUESDAY if anyone is interested, I am sure there will be more points of view than just this presenters but you can attend for just $30 if you like.

Friday funk of optimism: The lyrics are about a city after dark so have nothing in common with the music video or even Taupo, but it’s inspirational enough for me:

Friday’s Flickering Fantics

3 October 2025

Councillor Duncan here with just eight more sleeps until ~~Christmas~~ Election day, and things certainly feel as if they are winding down. Even though only as of yesterday only 27% of eligible votes have been received, going from past years we are probably around halfway there already. I don’t believe there are any more official candidate events planned, but in the meantime you can still visit my Campaign page here to remind what I am standing for (probably I should from time to time also).

This week of Councilly happenings we have:

Candidate dropped for being Jewish: Takapuna local board candidate Karin Horin was dropped from her ticket after some of them were receiving unsavory messaging about her Israeli background (i.e. because she believes her country of origin has a right to exist). I think if that is the way her team members choose to behave then Karin is much better off without them, but it is a fairly sad indictment on her adopted land of New Zealand that Kiwis can be so easily intimidated.

Shaking more sense out of a baby: You know, I think this government isn’t doing so bad after all. Recall a fortnight ago I reported to you about its introduction of some commonsense solutions for rural water suppliers, and a few weeks earlier about the initiative to reduce road cones (with New Plymouth recently being commended by the Minister)? Now we have this recently announced government shakeup on earthquake-prone buildings, with the Ruapehu Mayor quite excited this will also include the Chateau. Anyway, it looks like smaller provincial Councils in particular won’t be having to kill their towns to save them quite as much as before.

Ratepayers Pledge signatories still lagging: I find myself repeating here, but signatories are still very few and far between for Taupo candidates as you can see for yourself here. Thus far for the capping rates to inflation issue we have only Zane Cozens, John Funnell, Ann Tweedie, Rebecca Stafford (update to web page pending) and myself. On the other side of the fence, Taupo ward candidate Rachel Shepherd managed to get some free publicity in the Taupo & Turangi News this week after someone stickered one of her billboards right outside her own house (who would be so bold?), and Mayoral candidate Kevin Taylor keeps portraying that capping rates to inflation are a pipe dream. So whatever happens then, it is looking like an uphill battle to keep our more vulnerable people in the community off the street in times to come.

Pot of gold in Rotorua? Rotorua Mayoral candidate Robert Lee gets harassed by Mayor Tania Tapsell and a one-sided audience for being just a little too conservative in a candidate debate last week. Current Councillor Lee was singled out as the only one voicing opposition to Rainbow Storytimes in libraries (Rotorua had an event cancelled March 2024 which was much publicised), and for doing so I suspect probably gained him kudos with a lot of constituents. That issue hasn’t been tested in Taupo, but I am sure will come up sooner or later.

Nobby’s parting words of wisdom: Departing Mayor of Invercargill Nobby Clark spends 12 minutes talking about Councils and the role of elected members, and he is someone I choose to listen very carefully. He mentions the very expensive and culturally pleasing wastewater land disposal projects to which he has given stern warnings to government ministers (i.e. just like the $20M project proposed for Turangi and also relevant to Rotorua as this informative 8 min snippet describes). In addition, he bemoans the absence of skillsets at the Council table such as governance, finance, infrastructure and legal, and goes so far to endorse the government appointment of experts in these fields in lieu of some elected members. This idea has occurred to me before and it would undoubtedly be an improvement to now, but I am wary of the political influence from afar that this could exert.

Maori wards to be or not to be? Local Traceylee Horton put on a table talk evening on Monday that was well attended by members of the public including a few candidates like myself, and although their arguments weren’t compelling enough for to me to tick the box (you can read my take on Maori wards here), at least there wasn’t any aggravation which can sometimes accompany this topic. Hopefully a recording will be posted soon on one of the Taupo Facebook group pages.

Showing who’s the boss: Rotorua Mayoral candidate Robert Lee recently had his campaign launch presentation removed from youtube after Council staff reported breach of copyright for using snippets of Council meeting recordings even though these are in the public domain. Rather than wait for the electoral officer to tardily respond after the election is all over, Councillor Lee is asserting electoral interference and instead uploaded the clips to a different platform with links from his website here. Good on ya Robert for giving it the stick, there’s some leadership qualities on display right there.

Aoteainertia? Interesting blog entitled Aoteainertia by John Mclean, who gives a compelling view as to why this country are seemingly stuck in the doldrums. Not everyone will agree with everything said by a long shot, but I for one am not convinced he is far wrong.

Ducks for Sale: We missed out on their paddleboat steamer, but I see now that Rotorua’s Duck Tours are up for sale. Anyone interested in scooping them up for Taupo? Our lake probably chops up a little more than theirs and we wouldn’t want any mishaps, but I reckon they would be an interesting addition.

Valedictory moments: The last full Council meeting of this term was held on Tuesday which I didn’t manage to attend and there was nothing much of importance discussed anyway, but a highlight was the approx. 25min of valedictory speeches by departing Councillors John Williamson, Kirsty Trueman and Karam Fletcher (you can listen to them from 3:50 min here). I managed to get un-named dishonorable mention in Councillor Williamson’s speech as a warning about peddlers of misinformation and disharmony, so I guess we won’t be missing each other too badly.

I reckon it is a bit rough that only those three got to say their official farewells, because who knows how many of the rest of us will be back after 11 October? Anyway, I delivered my own parting few words as per below:

It’s sometimes been a blast,

We haven’t always seen eye to eye,

But that’s the die been cast.

The next lot don’t know what they’re in for,

Perhaps it’s just as well,

I might not be here otherwise,

Giving you all…

Friday fact unfortunate: As I have been reflecting on these past three years in Council, the following quote passed my notice and just seems so appropriate.

Campaign Priority #2: Take Back Control of Council

17 September 2025

Councillor Duncan here, recalling my three campaign priorities:

#1 Restore Democracy

#2 Take Back Control of Council

#3 Cap Rates to Inflation

Today I want to talk about #2 Take Back Control of Council – and I mean from the staff, of course. Because right now a big reason that your rates keep on going up and up is because Council staff dictate what needs to happen and why, and the elected members go along with it (even if grudgingly at times). I am not saying that the staff are always wrong, but I am saying they will always find reasons to spend more money than we really can afford.

I say that elected members need to get some balls and not just let staff pull the strings.

For this to happen:

Change of leadership. Elected members need to get their act together and not just act independently, otherwise staff will continue to run the shop as they have been for too long already. That will require elected members to wisen up and practice teamwork to look out for not just their own priorities but also each other’s. Because things like that do not happen in a vacuum, without the right leadership at the helm I don’t think it’s going to happen. Departing Mayor of Invercargill Nobby Clark puts it quite well in this 10 min interview.

Staff need to be directed to follow the Local Government Act and start providing elected members with the full range of reasonably practicable options. This simply has not been happening to date, and a few examples that stand out to me include the Motutere Reserve Management Plan Review which wasn’t even necessary, and the more recent Joint Management Agreement (JMA) where elected members were led down the garden path as if there was only one way to do it. Being provided with practicable options was something I attempted to table last year through an acknowledgement of an important Wellington case, but was yet again shut down by a leadership that wasn’t prepared to entertain the notion that it wasn’t already happening. Yeah right.

Delegated Authorities need to change, and for infrastructure spends in particular. At present elected members get to sign off on Annual and Long Term Plan budgets at the beginning of each financial year, but detail is very skimpy for the hundreds of line items with often just a few words and a big $$ figure beside them. In my own professional field of transportation it is extraordinary for Council staff to say, go off and build a multi-million dollar intersection upgrade without reporting back for approval of governance – yet that is exactly what happens here in Taupo. What is most agitating for me as an engineer who is hot on value for money infrastructure, is that I know some projects could have been done for a fraction of the price.

More independent professional reviews. At present we are almost only ever presented with papers prepared from the staff viewpoint, and that can be anything from engineer or planning reports to legal opinions. Unless you happen to be a lawyer or engineer yourself, it can be very hard to push back on staff recommendations because of the accountability that goes with it. Professional independent advice does cost money, and my own preference is for elected members to be able to source their own. I reckon we could start with $10K per elected member, and that would be a bargain if it helps to get some more circumspect thinking to happen.

Do transparency for real and not just pretend. That means audio-visual recording every Council or committee meeting that involves elected members as many other Councils already do (unfortunately there was no support last year when I tabled this to happen). It also involves elected members telling the public what is actually going on and not just carrying forth the staff censored spin as I believe happens too often around here. I have been doing that the past year or so, but am fairly exceptional and other elected members need to start doing the same.

For the main campaign page to explore all three campaign priorities please head over here

Friday and its raining

12 September 2025

Councillor Duncan reporting in with the past weeks Council happenings, or at least the ones I noticed anyway.

The assassination of Charlie Kirk isn’t exactly of local news relevance – or is it? In my view the tolerance to hear someone else’s views, or even to let others hear them, has waned quite significantly since around 2019. Violence has been a way of solving problems for a very long time, and against those in leadership roles especially. Are we so far off from having the same happen here? I am not so sure.

This week we have:

In case you missed them: my candidate 90 sec interview, and I also put out some information on my campaign priority #1 – Restore Democracy. Next week will be #2 – Take Back Control of Council.

Rotary rhetoric, or are they just relics? The Rotary event on Monday 8 September was well attended, and if you have two hours on your hands to hear a little more about candidates you can watch here. Otherwise, to the question: “Describe the purpose of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and how it affects your local government role?” this was my 70 second response. I did also prepare answers to several other questions about Rates Caps, Local Waters done Well, the Joint Management Agreement (JMA) and Maori wards, and you can find my written responses to those here.

There seemed to be a fixation on questions about Maori wards which I found a little odd given it is a public referendum question to decide in October, and the strict Y/N format of the questions at the end deteriorated things a little. Overall I think it wasn’t too bad an effort by Rotary who put it all on, and it would have been challenging to cater for so many candidates. But a couple of things did stick out for me: first that I am in a very small minority who openly say they would breach confidentiality – I think new candidates need to appreciate in matters of greater public interest that justifiable exceptions can be made, and also to challenge every time something is being held as confidential. And Cr Loughlin’s mentioning that staff could go to jail if they fail to adhere to legislation – I have not heard of that happening before in New Zealand, ever.

Mirror on the wall: Robert Lee mayoral candidate for Rotorua poses an interesting question about the Treaty of Waitangi, and what it means for Councils. Like me, he says: not very much at all. Having said that, the Kaipara District Council legal opinion which downplays Treaty obligations to Councils was recently rejected by a South Island Mayor

Why aren’t they signing? The Taxpayer Union pledge isn’t attracting signatures from too many Taupo ward candidates as you can see here, although for some reason they haven’t included Maori ward candidate responses (if you are in one of the other wards, you need to ask here). I find it a little strange that two of the front running mayoral candidates will sign, but only a few of us others. I am reading that as a bit of a disconnect to actually getting rates down, because any time you give The Council Machine an inch it will always take a mile.

Joint Management Agreement refresher: To piece together all my posts and info on the JMA, I have put together a special JMA page here. On that note, have a listen to Shane Jones inferring that some kind of woke virus has infected regional councils including our own Waikato one.

Race-based or just r**ist? New Plymouth Councillor censored for stating that a race-based procurement policy is r**ist. I am not sure if TDC have a similar policy for preferential treatment, but one of these days I intend to ask.

Why do we need Councils anyway? So says this guy, but I think it’s probably easier to run away in a housebus.

Works in progress but we are just about there now: Here are my candidate statements to Policy.nz, which don’t quite match the three campaign priorities I am putting out now because these were submitted several weeks ago.

Legal costs mounting? I reckon an interesting metric to compare Councils would be legal costs per ratepayer (including payouts), because I have a sneaking suspicion that Taupo District Council could be near top of the list. Just looking back to the John Hall debacle of 2023 where hundreds of building consent producer statements got signed off fraudulently over a several-year timeframe, I never did get satisfactory answers to my questions at the time. Like say: how many of these were simply vetted for quality purposes (because sloppy engineering practice is a much bigger problem than fraud)? Or even: have the processes since been improved to prevent it happening again? But the walls of The Council Machine went up very quickly with self-preservation at No.1, so I gave up trying.

Power back to the people: Auckland Transport to be stripped of most of its powers, with Minister of Transport Chris Bishop saying: “These changes mean that Auckland Council’s elected members will be directly accountable to the public for most transport decisions that affect the daily lives of Aucklanders”. I reckon the same needs to happen for elected members in Taupo, who for too long have been treated as tick-boxers for significant transport issues affecting the entire district. We just need the right leadership to get elected in.

Friday insider peek at… TRAFFESSIONALS, your local shop for traffic engineering advice:

Campaign Priority#1: Restore Democracy

10 September 2025

Councillor Duncan here, and I think it’s about time to introduce my three campaign priorities:

#1 Restore Democracy

#2 Take Back Control of Council

#3 Cap Rates to Inflation

Today I’ll talk a little about #1 Restore Democracy and what I mean by that. First of all I am talking about democracy in Council Chambers, because if we can’t get it happening in there of all places it is hardly worth the bother of having elections. For this to happen:

Cease and desist the cynical use of Standing Orders to shut down debate and discussion as has been happening the past three years and probably much longer. Some examples of that include Local Waters Done Well, Motutere Reserve Management Plan Review and the Northern Access Transport Study. That requires a change of leadership.
Amend that rotten change to Standing Orders which was made by elected members in October 2024, which effectively mutes the dissent of any single elected member who can’t get prior approval by at least one other before tabling an item for public discussion. To change that back requires 75% of elected members to agree.
Cease and desist the manipulative management of microphones during Council meetings. That requires common sense.
Cease and desist the censoring of elected members by staff in Council media outlets. That requires a directive from leadership for staff to stop their meddling. Following an incident in July 2024 when I submitted a Councillor Korero item for the Taupo & Turangi Times that was rejected on the basis of alleged ‘dishonesty and misinformation’, I since refused to submit any others.

But I am also talking about a better democracy for constituents as well, and greater transparency of what your elected members get up to – because right now they can take the salary and basically resurface only once every three years. For this to happen:

Publish the voting and attendance records of every elected member on every issue that comes before Council for a decision, similar to this initiative of a Councillor in Christchurch recently.
Elected members to present 250 word minimum summaries every time they attend a Council funded event of more than half a day duration. These can be published monthly and will be useful in justifying not only the expenditure, but also the value of belonging to organisations such as Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) which host regular events around the country.
Council to undertake random surveys of constituents on singular burning issues of the day, rather than only rely on annual plan submissions which can be overwhelming in their numbers on every topic under the sun.
Consider having the monthly full Council meetings in the evenings so that the average working person can attend.
More frequent town meetings, and in my opinion residents could be the ones organising these and demanding Council representation.

I believe these things will increase transparency and accountability of what goes on in Council Chambers, and they will also better motivate both Councillors and members of the public to take part in a democracy much less worse than we have now.

Anyone else got some suggestions? I bet there are more good ideas out there.

For the main campaign page to explore all three campaign priorities please head over here

The Bottom Line on Conflicted Interest – is YOU

2 September 2025

Earlier this month, I submitted a formal letter of complaint to the Office of the Auditor-General regarding a potential conflict of interest involving Councillor Danny Loughlin. My concern was that as a Board Member of the Tūwharetoa Maori Trust Board (TMTB), he had failed to step back from the Council table during the Joint Management Agreement (JMA) deliberations on July 31, 2025. That, to myself and many others, clearly crossed a line of acceptability. Mayor Trewavas declined to intervene, and the Chief Executive even refused my request for independent legal opinion ahead of the meeting. I see those responses as irresponsible, bordering on reckless disregard.

Let’s be clear: if Councillor Loughlin was simultaneously a director of a construction company bidding for a Council contract, they would almost certainly be required to recuse themselves. In fact it would be laughable if they didn’t.

So how on earth can a sitting Councillor, who is also a Board Member of a corporate entity proposing to engage in direct partnership negotiations with the Council, be reasonably considered free of any conflict of interest – financial or otherwise – when both organisations stand to benefit from the arrangement? After all, isn’t that always the reason to have any agreement at all??

My complaint was about a non-financial conflict of interest given his governance role and Iwi affiliation, and my 4 August 2025 letter can be found here.

Last week the Auditor-General responded, you can read it here. The short version: ‘It’s not our job to rule on non-financial conflicts’.

So at the end of the day it is up to politicians to police themselves, and there isn’t anything anybody can do about it. That is, apart from shaming people as Mayor David Trewavas attempted to do with me on 28 June last year in the final edition of the Taupo Times local newspaper:

“While Cr Campbell has repeatedly made his engineering qualifications known to the community, he and every councillor was elected to represent and advocate for their community, not provide specialised advice in their particular field. That would represent a significant conflict of interest, one that this councillor has repeatedly failed to grasp”.

Perhaps next term instead of trying to helpfully contribute on a topic on which I know more about than Council staff, I should instead put forth a partnership deal with my own company and vote YES to it (that is, if I get elected in October).

A broader pattern?

Councillor Loughlin isn’t the only elected member facing public scrutiny around potential conflicts of interest. A recent article by Sophie M Smith raises community questions about Councillor Yvonne Westerman’s position, particularly given her professional background in property and real estate – an industry that naturally intersects with Council decision-making.

While no formal allegations have been made, perceptions of conflicted interests continue to surface (for example, there are reports of seeing her business signage on properties listed for sale that are owned or managed by Council). Real estate, of course, is one of the few industries that could be seen – rightly or wrongly – as benefitting from early insight into proposed District Plan changes. That perception alone underscores the need for greater transparency.

So then, the bottom line is really … YOU

There are very few public spaces where this kind of blurred line between public duty and private allegiance would be tolerated. But local government seems to be the exception, and no-one including other elected members have any real power to force recusals

This is not about attacking individuals, but as public figures they shouldn’t be above receiving that either. It’s about ensuring that our decision-making remains above reproach, especially in politically and culturally sensitive areas. If the rules aren’t fit for purpose, then perhaps it’s time they got changed.

The Auditor-General mentioned at the end of their letter that they are developing some practice material around Treaty settlement entities like TMTB, which is all good and fine. But it sounds like that’s all they will be: Guidelines. I think we need something harder than that: Rules.

Until that happens:

It’s on YOU to vote in some people who you think can tell right from wrong, and will represent YOUR best interests and not just their own.