I don’t want to make too big of a deal about Mayor John Funnell’srecent 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 $9,000Western 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 equivalentto 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.
Ecclesiastes 11: 5-6 advises us not to cease striving to do good: “As you do not know what is the way of the wind, Or how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child, So you do not know the works of God who makes everything. In the morning sow your seed, And in the evening do not withhold your hand; For you do not know which will prosper, Either this or that, Or whether both alike will be good”.
This Friday update (being put out on a Saturday morning) is more rushed than usual and for two reasons: first that we have come to the end of a very long road where there’s really not too much more to say, and second that I headed out for my very first day of Winter snow and skiing. Because I only put these updates together starting Friday mornings and I have little inclination to carry it on in the weekend, and the mountain is always a wonderful place to be especially after a trying time as this, and I’m glad I went.
Wow, we decided. I mean at Thursdays Council meeting on Head Start of course, even though we really had already decided last Tuesday. To Backstop – or as some others are choosing to frame it – “put in an alternative proposal”. And I objected to all six resolutions, with only one exception and that was just to let Mayor John Funnell and his Deputy correct the grammar and punctuation. You can watch the full meeting HERE, and read the agenda HERE. For just my own little speech you can watch HERE (including the Mayor’s interesting acknowledgement afterwards that I endorsed his course of action?), and if you would rather read then below is the transcript including links to some of the referred models.
“I’ll start with a quote from the Minister Chris Bishop: “Our message to councils is simple: lead your own reform, or we will do it for you. Either way, change is coming”. These have been probably the most interesting 3 months in my time both this and last term, because it’s amazing how a bit of pressure can bring out the best of people, and also the worst. I think Waikato Mayor Aksel Bech taking the lead on something as constructive as the Western Waikato Unitary Model is extraordinarily commendable and an example of leadership in crisis. In contrast, I find it interesting that we are ending up fighting tooth and nail for more time, and our Mayor using I think, inflammatory and worst case scenarios. Perhaps it is a valid negotiation tactic I am unaware of. But I think with the benefit of history and hindsight may reveal who was right or perhaps even who was right for the wrong reasons.
The problem is I think we have been very much focussing on the form before the function, and become trapped in the financial data over everything and anything else. Because of that we had little to offer smaller potential partners like Ruapehu as they saw themselves losing out, and also to bigger ones like Rotorua because we only saw ourselves losing out too. The government tried to direct us towards catchment based models which we seem to have done anything but, instead thinking that small sub-regional would be better, neglecting to consider that being part of a large Unitary would enable increased influence to Wellington and better access to professional services. Trying to become a standalone Unitary Authority has even been floated as a viable option, which is not necessarily beyond us but would probably be expensive and therefore not very realistic.
I intend, indeed I feel obliged, to submit my own letter giving the government a fuller explanation of Taupo’s position, including that our community has not got strong views opposing the Waikato Western Unitary Council because it simply has not been informed enough to be able to give a proper opinion. And things like TEL and legacy debt haven’t been dealt with, simply because we haven’t discussed them as we decided to leave the negotiations early on.
So today Taupo is making our Head Start decision, but the matter won’t be resting there. We now have three quite similar proposals for large Waikato Unitaries floating round – the Western Waikato Unitary, a Waikato Region Council (WRC) model just recently shared, and my own Waikato Together model which was unfortunately not permitted to be presented in these Chambers for public view. I believe that in September the government will announce that we will be part of one of them, or a variation of them, and it will be a once in a generation opportunity to further develop our preferred future. To reassure our community that we will protect our financial and environmental wellbeing, and even improve community representation. We could decide to try and fight it, but I believe that would be a very big disservice to people of the Taupo District. Instead we should embrace the dialogue which will be taking place”.
So folks this Council is sending in our “proposal” on your behalf due this Sunday, but its really not that. We didn’t follow the rules of the game and are trying to invent our own and plea for more time, which is a hope indeed. I realise that we aren’t the only Council trying to do the same, but the referee Minister Simon Watts only just recently gave a yellow card warning that he wasn’t going to be putting up with any of that. What is it about Kiwis and our predilection to ignore rules and signs, and hope for reasonableness from the other guy? To clarify the situation even further, this from Hamilton Councillor Sarah Thompson about their own deliberations which resulted in not submitting a proposal:
“At the meeting, we were informed (through the mayor from a phone call with the minister the night before) that if we didn’t join Head Start by endorsing the Western Waikato Unitary amalgamation proposal (which includes Waikato District, Waipā, South Waikato, Hamilton and Taupō), then any future discussions about local council representation and reform for Hamilton would happen without us in the room. The same would go for Taupō which has also declined to be part of Head Start“.
One ring to rule them all: I have one more thing about the WRC: even though we know they will be disestablished by October 2028, they aren’t gone just yet. Waikato Regional Councillors voted last week to back a single region-wide Unitary council, and they are submitting their own proposal of which you can read a draft HERE. It is remarkably similar to my Waikato Together and even pointedly names subsidiarity as its basis (perhaps I even influenced them?). In any case – watch this space. I think there is every chance that the government could take it on board to implement and despite peoples expressed intentions to do something else. They could decide that the Waikato kindergarten needs some adult intervention, and to that argument I think the revealed antics in recent days all over the country must have given some ammunition. For example on Friday across the border, Rotorua decided to withdraw from being part of a seemingly done-deal proposal for a Bay of Plenty Unitary, mostly it seems on the extraordinary basis of an adopted informal policy to not include unwilling partners (Western Bays was declining). Nice guys don’t often win by being nice guys, don’t they realise that?
My questions for Taupo: Why didn’t Taupo District Council take the Waikato river catchment more seriously as the basis for any submission, despite the governments clear stipulation to do so? How come we were so apparently oblivious of the Western Waikato Unitary model until the 11th hour? And why couldn’t we pivot last Tuesday or even defer, to at least hear that proposal out before we decided to go Backstop? Folks, Taupo was always going to be a smaller player in the wider game, but I think this Council leadership never had any intention to even have that conversation and instead wanted to remain kings. They were in denial, we had our chance to be part of the wider Waikato conversations which were going on, but we inexplicably dropped out by as early as the end of June. I wrote about this a few days ago in Has Mayor Funnell Dropped the Ball? The answer to that in my mind is clearly “yes”, and although I wasn’t able to exactly pin down who did decide to withdraw, it was almost certainly made by one or more of the Mayor and his Deputy, perhaps also the Chief Executive, who decided on our behalf. Like I said in my speech above: “…it’s amazing how a bit of pressure can bring out the best of people, and also the worst”.
Anyway and apart from all that, I think that whatever we decided in these chambers is not likely to change the final outcome one iota. Its in the governments hands now, and many suspect perhaps they have a plan not prepared to deflect from much anyway. Yes the Local Government Act can give us some protection if we really want to resist, but the government has already mentioned that it intends to pass new legislation to get around that. If Labour get voted in November it could be a different story, but even that is not assured as they seem to have even bigger centralising tendencies although they could relent on this one. So overall, I give it at most about a 1 in 5 chance that Taupo District Council will remain intact after October 2028. Some of you may recall me calling for a revolution in the 2025 local elections, well I think I got that wrong and should have read my history better. Because in this country, the acts of revolution always seem to come from above.
Only a couple of other things and they are on the same topic:
For the latest on amalgamation proposals around the country: you can read HERE , but because its a week old is already out of date.
Councillor Wahine Murch wants us to: That’s right, go to the steps of parliament. Here we have the Mayors of Orotohanga and Waitomo in Wellington petitioning for their own standalone King Country Council. I have already told Wahine that I won’t be coming along, but if she can convince Deputy Mayor Kevin Taylor to protest as well then my world really has gone topsy turvy.
Fridays piece of 70’s nostalgia to keep eggs in your underpants, and dammit why the hell not?
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 thanOption 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’sKey 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 astandout 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 CouncillorDavina 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.
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
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:
To those who don’t yet understand those who do believe, here is a pertinent message from Anselm the Archbishop of Canterbury (1033 –1109 AD),
I had a question put to me earlier this week – where do I get the energy to do these weekly messages? It has become a disciplined form of manic energy every Friday morning to put it all together, but has become habit now and even though I know the readership is limited, I find it helpful to process the chaos of a lot of things going on at once. And in local government right now, there is quite a lot of that.
For whatever reason the government is hell bent on the Auckland Supercity model of which I am moderately familiar with. I am getting a sense more than anything though, that the politics and assurance of adequate local representation is everywhere the big question being asked. That will be a devil in the detail for whatever amalgamated entity we become part of, and for Taupo if we decide that we want to go a certain direction it will be largely based on fears and anticipations that local representation could be swamped by bigger brother problems of a city or other emphasis (as an aside, some are challenging the legal right of government to make these changes at all, but I have confidence in the powers that be to rejig the rules to suit themselves) . Sound about right to you? I have no personal favourites right now, except a wariness of being tied to another provincial kindergarten like here, or to an overbearing city bureaucracy. So will it be into the frying pan, or into the fire?
Taupo District Council put out a survey on the amalgamation to residents this week, with submissions due in just a few days time on 17 June. You need to know that this survey was released without the vetting of your Elected Members despite several of us requesting this to happen, and we were only informed of it a few hours before being put out. I have a few doubts about the survey which I will describe below, but more importantly it should highlight the mischaracterisation that just because we have elections every three years that does not correspond to the people you elect having meaningful oversight of the way this Council functions. I had a few depreciating words to say about due process contrary to the way this was railroad handled which resulted in our staff “Communications Manager” walking out of the room, but I do not put the ultimate responsibility on her – Mayor John Funnell is the one choosing to do things this way, with some prompting from behind I am sure. Last week I mentioned we had a steering group of several Councillors leading the way, but that idea has since been disbanded before it even started, and for no given reason other than I suspect one or two of its members were making things inconvenient. Yes it is a shambles alright, and I don’t know why our Mayor just doesn’t drop the pretense now and let his Deputy drive the boat. So right now for me, the idea of dissolving this Council isn’t sounding such a bad idea at all, and its just a pity we have to wait a whole two years for that to happen (timeline below).
About that survey: Unlike the Western Bay of Plenty District Council survey which gave a shortlist of five viable amalgamation options, our one only talks in quite abstract terms, like “Team up with a neighbouring council”. Along with the dearth of information about viable partner options, the submission process to this survey is completely unguarded from mischievous bias as no submitter identification is required – so people could be submitting from New Delhi to Timbuktu for all we know. This means that the survey results could be virtually useless, thereby making us vulnerable to legal challenge if we try to use results to justifying any particular direction we want to take. And my reading of a recent legal opinion by Simpson Grierson about this local government reform, is that any Council putting up a Head Start proposal without doing its due diligence with the community is exactly lining itself up for that – so the more risk averse Councils could well be giving up now altogether. Anyway I am not trying to discourage you from putting in your own submission and we really would love to hear from you, but please bear this in mind.
All that local woe aside, what are some other places doing? Well I have to say that there are some clearer heads than ours around, and recommend keeping an eye on how Rangitikei District Council are doing things like this excellent 14 min interview with Mayor Andy Watson. I quite like their Councils social media page too, perhaps that is something we could emulate? Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell seems to be angling for a Taupo-Rotorua-to the sea kind of place, which in the Waikato times our own Mayor John Funnell is reported as not being overly enthusiastic about. Apart from that I haven’t heard too much else through the grapevine, and it seems that a lot of these Mayors could be keeping these things close to their chest and not talking much to their fellow elects – just like here.
Okay, so what else can we call news?
Democracy restated, or democracy undermined? Minister of Local Government Simon Watts has caused quite a stir with his recent announcement to remove voting rights from unelected members on Council committees. Although it was undoubtedly stirred up by Far North Councillor Davina Smolders and aimed at the overtly undemocratic things going on up there, this will affect every Council in the country from the Far North to Bluff – because everybody has at least one committee with one or two of those. But some places are more prolific than others, and sounds of alarm from Rotorua and Hastings seem to me to ring a little hollow (with one exception now being questioned in Auckland?). I have pondered this question before actually, because on the one hand it could be beneficial to have a few engineers on board an infrastructure type committee instead of leaving it completely in the hands of the amateurs to decide. But overall I am quite convinced that this change will be a good thing (even engineers have bias), and it should highlight why elections are so important for getting in wise people who can see the big picture instead of stacking the deck with those who can’t. Elections matter, and that means voting matters too – will people ever learn?
Politics don’t just pontificate: On that note, aspiring politician from down south Zoran Rakovic wrote an inspiring piece about the importance to get organised or stay forever irrelevent. For somebody like me who prefers to write about instead of deal directly with troublesome and unpredictable, too often disappointing sometimes even downright nasty people – I will try to take this in.
Deep diving into the mystical land of “Operational”: I have had some quite inspiring news this week about how things work elsewhere. You may recall my often voiced words about financial accountability and local lack-thereof, as it happens they are doing something about it in Auckland and Hamilton and even better than I have come up with. Auckland has a Value for Money (VfM) Committee which has been going for around five years and is comprised of elected members tasked with overseeing the VfM programme via: reviewing council operations; identifying efficiency and savings opportunities; commissioning deep‑dive reviews; and monitoring implementation of recommendations. This year they have a target of $80M savings and seem well on the way to achieving it. Hamilton have just recently started up a new Procurement Committee chaired by Councillor Andrew Bydder, whom I caught up with last week and which he tells me is more or less attempting to do the same. How so very refreshing, how so indeed! These go further than even what I have been suggesting for Taupo District Council which has been stuck in the kindergarten keep-your-eyes-and-hands-off-operational-matters style of governance for so long, it is no wonder rates here are sky high and even though we are relatively trouble free unlike a city or coastal place falling to bits every time a storm hits town. Damn, maybe buddying up with a place like Hamilton isn’t such a bad idea at all.
Turangi bus one step closer, or even further away? Turangi Councillor Sandra Greensladegets in the news to advocate for a commuter bus for her town with mention of potential Ministry of Education hurdles. I am turning up to the Waikato Regional Council (WRC) meeting this coming Monday to see how it all unfolds, but I’ll give you a heads up clue right now – don’t expect anybody to go out of their way for you, if you can’t be bothered to lift a finger for yourselves.
Another crash outside Chem Warehouse: As reported recently in social media, picture on right. To answer your questions: 1/ Yes I am a traffic engineer 2/ Yes it needs a roundabout 3/ No it wouldn’t cost much. 4/ Because Kindy Council doesn’t let me near it.
Ombudsman on the way: To rescue us from opacity and behind closed doors governance, that is. Last month I lodged a complaint about the refusal of the Chair Te Wharau Walker Junior to audio-visual record the Turangi Co-governance Committee which the Ombudsman is currently looking into, and this Wednesday just gone Chair and Mayor John Funnell unbelievably did the same! I tell ya folks, the next two years is gonna feel like ten… But people of Turangi and everywhere else, I need to tell you: You are allowed to make your own audio or video recording of Council or Committee meetings, and nobody can stop you. The relevant section of our Standing Orders I give below, and note it is “notified” and not “asked”.
A Crux worth reading: I have heard us referred to as the poor man’s Queenstown before and perhaps they are right. But they do have some quality reporting going on down there worth a read, like this article here (you may need to email subscribe) where I love the killer line near the end which is just SO relevant to here:
“Under (new Queenstown Mayor) Glover’s leadership our councillors seem to have been conned into thinking that if they are all really nice to the senior council staff – everything will be fine. God help us“.
An important aside: I came across this commentator Nigel Anthony Gray who has a fairly solid social media following, and his article about the new anti-stalker laws seem a little worrying. Read more about them here if you like, and if he’s right then duncandoestaupo and the like could be headed for some jail time don’t you think?
“Rejoice always, without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you”.
Joy in all circumstances, yes it really says that – and that means both in times of pleasure and play, but also death and desertion. How can such a thing be possible? You need to know that its greatly about gratitude – for what you have and the people around you, even when they seem pretty miserable.
I was next going to try and say that some of the happiest people live in the materially poorest places on earth, but the below Gallop poll map seems to undermine that argument somewhat. It turns out that material prosperity does make a difference after all.
Perhaps I haven’t expressed it much before, but I do recognise the privilege being a Councillor for Taupo District Council. How on earth I managed to get elected being quite an outsider with relatively few connections in this provincial town still gets me (we migrated here from West Auckland in 2016).
BUT, and it is a big BUT – what is the point of having elections if staff effectively run the place anyway? Which would be fine if staff were perfect and always make the right decisions – BUT we all know that they don’t. Our new Mayor Funnell got elected on a platform of change, BUT I haven’t seen too much of that happening yet. Transparency and accountability are nice bywords, BUT to mean something they need to be followed up by actions. There is at least some of that starting to happen for the Waikato RiversJoint Management Agreement (JMA), but in some other areas like freedom of expression for Elected members we seem to be going backwards.
The below illustration based on Lord of The Rings was forwarded to me by a constituent that seems to illustrate the situation. Anybody have a wizards staff handy?
This week we did have some Council happenings, notably a lengthy full Council meeting on Tuesday where a few items of interest popped up and which you can watch Part one HEREand Part two HERE, with minutes and agendas available HERE. Like a broken record I took opportunity to again challenge the Mayor about political messaging in Council agendas (watch HERE) and also the absence of free expression for Elected Members (watch HERE and HERE). I am advocating to re-introduce the slot for general items which was deleted two years ago by the previous and nefarious MayorDavid Trewavas to shut down opportunities for dissent, and to which I have previously written to Mayor John about on 2 February.
On that last note I have at times been accused of grandstanding for the purpose of self-elevation, which I find a ridiculous claim. Council Chambers is supposed to be a place where Elected Members can express alternative views in a public setting – because what on earth is the point of having elections if members of the public get a greater say like they do now? I should be allowed to talk about the state of the Nation for a few minutes if I want to, or even the state of Council catered lunches. You elected us as politicians, and there are times we need to be able to say political things.
However, on the matter of political messaging I can announce a small win. My concern was about the agenda messaging inaccurately reflecting statutory obligations with regard to Maori Engagement. The Mayor gratefully undertook a review, and the wording will now be amended to more closely align with legislation and clarify Council’s position. I appreciate that response, and respect that governance is often about incremental improvement rather than dramatic gestures.
The current wording (introduced in 2021 as far as I can tell):
“Taupō District Council is committed to meeting its statutory Tiriti o Waitangi obligations and acknowledges partnership as the basis of Te Tiriti. This requires both parties to treat and work with each other in good faith and show good will to reflect the partnership relationship. We acknowledge these responsibilities are distinct from the Crown’s Treaty obligations and lie within a Taupō District Council context”.
The proposed revised wording, not exactly what I was asking for but an improvement nonetheless, to clarify about partnership and that Council is not a Treaty partner:
“Taupō District Council is committed to meeting its statutory obligations including in relation to Te Tiriti o Waitangi/Treaty of Waitangi principles, consideration of Māori interests and meaningful engagement with Māori. In meeting its statutory obligations, Council is committed to acting reasonably and in good faith and consistently with a partnership-based approach. Te Tiriti/Treaty principles include but are not limited to active protection of Māori interests, informed decision-making and enabling effective Māori participation in Council processes”.
Okay what about some other stuff?
JMA saga continues: In the second of the Waikato River Joint Management Agreement (JMA) workshops of a number to come, on Tuesday we had one titled: “Outline of Mandatory Matters” (you can watch it HERE), which went smoothly enough except for some minor disquiet caused by a few comments of my own that I will restate below. However, we did at least get presented with this helpful map to demonstrate the area this JMA is obliged to cover (noting that it doesn’t include Lake Taupo):
My first point was that we needn’t be here at all and could probably have been sorted out well over 12 months ago, if elected members from the last term had simply just decided to keep things simple and stick to the mandatory requirements. Instead there was a vote by slim majority in September 2024 to include the bone of contention extras, with Cr Kevin Taylor & Cr Yvonne Westerman being the two still present who voted for the extras but declined my request for a public explanation.
I also said that corporate Tuwharetoa Maori Trust Board (TMTB) is an entity that Council should only be warily entering into any significant partnership deal beyond that which is absolutely necessary. At least Councils have the Local Government Actwhich forces a minimum level of transparency and accountability, but these trust boards do not have the same guard rails to ensure they will act in the best interests of our district or even its own members. And if we are looking at examples of good governance, I don’t think the management of Five Mile Bay Recreational Reserve which has now been under occupation for over 5 years is a very shining example of why we should be entangling with outside entities like this any more than strictly necessary.
In a wider context and after my experience of the past three years, I say that a tragedy of the current Council process is that workshops like these are staff presentations only and with usually quite limited opportunity for questions. Once it comes to a full Council meeting for the decision making to actually happen, any serious debate is often quenched on the basis that it has already been worked through. I do hope that Mayor John Funnell will not let that happen this time round, and that he will push for background submitted questions by both Elected Members and the public to be properly responded to – which often enough in the past has not always happened.
Community engagement, or just stage management? On Tuesday we also had an item which has caused something of a furore in the Turangi and Mangakino sides of town (what is it about these small close-knit communities?) which managed to retain their current committee structures instead of the promoted less formal format – many people out that way are even asking: what was the problem in the first place? I personally won’t miss the stuffiness of the former Kinloch committee which saw boatloads of staff hauling out there for an afternoon every two months or so (they will soon be getting a less formal format), but Taupo Ward will be getting some new meet-up sessions which they haven’t had before or seemed to even want (what is it with these larger more disconnected communities?).
However in my mind at least, this whole exercise has been something of a red herring. Because the issue isn’t so much about public engagement – although that is still important – it is whether or not Council chooses to listen to what the public have to say and bend their will to it. I think there have been plenty of major decisions in the past where the public have been excluded (including the Taupo Town Transformation Project), but also where the public have been included but patently ignored. The Pukenamu Roundabout Project I hold up as a classic example of that, where the community engagement was actually very good and even perhaps a little over the top. But the almost universal request of Pukenamu Road residents to remain unconnected to the proposed new roundabout was rejected, seemingly on the very dubious basis that Council is not acting illegally. Why don’t we let the lawyers run Council and see how that ends up, eh? Anyway, there is still time to change our minds about that particular decision because it hasn’t been built yet.
Reporting back or not at all? At the end of Tuesdays meeting (watch HERE) I raised the issue of Elected Members attending outside conferences or events but not being formally required to report back. In my experience in the private sector this is virtually unheard of, and one outfit I worked it was mandatory to be presenting one of the conference papers to even be allowed to attend. Last term I put a Notice of Motionformandatory 250 word summaries (preferably also for public consumption), not only for information dissemination but also to justify the attendance and expense. Unfortunately there was not any more appetite for such transparency and accountability this time round either.
Waikato Waters continue to suffer:Councillor Hope Woodward is still banging on about the dire water quality of Waikato headwater lakes including Lakes Whakemaru and Maraetai, and she was motivated enough to recently undertake her own public survey and submit it to all sorts of agencies like Waikato Regional Council, Mercury Power Company and a host of others. You can read the survey results here, and it seems a lot of people are not very happy at all. The contents of Cr Woodwards letter is shown below:
Kia Ora Koutou, please find attached a report done in relation to a survey I initiated throughout relevant communities regarding the water quality in the upper Waikato region. I initiated this survey independently following advice from WRC that formal engagement would need to wait until the next fiscal year, funding dependent.The strength and consistency of the responses indicated that this issue warrants immediate action. This report is not intended to assign blame. It reflects community sentiment and lived experience. However, the scale of the responses makes it clear that residents and public expect coordinated leadership, transparent monitoring, and tangible action. I ask that this report is taken seriously and that agencies consider how proactive collaboration, communication and accountability can be strengthened going forward.Our lakes are central to the wellbeing and viability of our communities, particularly here in Mangakino and Whakamaru.Please confirm acknowledgement of this email and report. I look forward to further clarity regarding how this matter will be progressed. Ngā Mihi, Kaunihera/Councillor Hope Woodward Mangakino-Pouakani Ward
Maori Purpose Zones: Council is consulting on a couple of planning changes including this one which I did a brief item in August last year that you can read HERE which includes a link to the recorded staff presentation on the topic. The intention of these is to make it easier for communally owned Maori land to get developed, which is not a bad thing at all. The caption at right just reflect my thoughts at the time because I felt it was being foisted upon Elected Members without debate.
Anybody like Don Brash? Former leader of the National Party and a few years later, I think a reread of his at the time controversial Orewa speech of 2004 is a worthwhile exercise to see how very right he was on quite a few points. Hindsight can be a wonderful thing, but I wish more Kiwi’s were able to comprehend in real time.
Loyal but only to a point: On Sunday evening I attended a Loyal Party small gathering at Ploughman’s restaurant and met the forthright leader Kevin Alp along with his deputy John Alcock. I really like their idea of a universal 1% transaction tax and the abolition of all the other taxes (apparently the maths stacks up for it to work), but I am quite sceptical that enough New Zealander’s are so open-minded to put their vote Loyal’s way. I reckon it would just about take something like the French Revolution for that to happen very soon, and with the average Kiwi’s approach to life being roughly akin to our namesake bird – we will probably all go the way of the Dodo bird before that ever happens.
It can’t happen like that here: Napier Deputy Mayor gets the sack, but interestingly the Standing Orders at Taupo District Council are such that our Mayor is not able to unilaterally do that without majority support of the other elected members (snippet below). It needs majority support to get our own Deputy Mayor demoted and whether or not the Mayor agrees, and I don’t feel that enough of us are up for that quite yet.
Chaos reigns in South Waikato:Mayor Gary Petley of South Waikato District Council called time out on a full Council meeting yesterday because he didn’t want 73 yr old member of the public Bruce Simpson to video record the proceedings from the public gallery. Bruce runs his own youtube channel, and is insisting upon making his own recording because of confirmed incidents where segments of the Councils own recordings have been purposely deleted in the past (you can watch his 12 min explanation HERE). So the entire meeting was postponed for another time and with a full gallery of public present keen to listen in too. Ugh, what a drop-kick of a Mayor they have in South Waikato and no wonder there were catcalls of ‘chicken‘. Some politicians are such feeble people, why on earth do people vote for them?
Good on ya Bruce, and thank goodness Taupo District Council isn’t as seedy and untransparent as them. And by the way, there is nothing to stop members of the public making their own recordings in a TDC Council meeting – although technically you are supposed to first ask, and below is the relevant clause from our Standing Orders (I can only imagine that the circumstances to justify a directive to stop recording should be extraordinary – yet another unfortunate loophole that could potentially be pounced upon):
Cash may be king but not at Taupo Landfill: In Public Form on Tuesday constituent Tristan Baynham spoke out against the staff induced change of policy last year to mean that cash is no longer accepted at the Taupo Landfill for apparent Health and Safety reasons (watch HERE). Tristan put forth that this is a great inconvenience for some people and asked a fairly basic question that received no good answer – what was the problem in the first place? I am not sure if there will be serious consideration to reverting back, but I stuck my oar in for it.
Track made easier: To those lovers of nature like me and who also like a bit of a challenge, walking/climbing up Mt Tauhara just got a little easier. Somebody has dug deep, and constructed a new easy grade track for the first (and steepest) section to encourage those less inclined to mountain climbing and more just into the walking. So whoever you are, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude because now we will get even more people up this wonderful place for solitude, reflection, and strengthening of the body.
Fridays out there: I struggled to think up something to poignantly end this week, so how about this quality investigative piece on education in the modern age:
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.
“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?
Tomorrow, Tuesday 26 August from 1pm, your elected members of Taupō District Council will vote on a bundle of plan changes – some necessary and worthwhile, others quietly political.
One of them, Plan Change 47, proposes a new ‘Māori Purpose Zone’ – a separate planning framework for Māori land. Meeting agendas can be found here, and I will tell you now that tomorrows is a bit of a long read.
Let me be clear: I support removing barriers to Māori development. But I do not support doing so by bypassing public scrutiny, skipping alternatives, or building a parallel zoning regime.
Here’s the deal:
1️⃣ No other options – such as planning overlays or targeted infrastructure support (e.g. deferred Development Contributions)- have been presented to Councillors. That breaches Section 77 of the Local Government Act, which requires all practicable alternatives to be considered.
2️⃣ No exemption has been granted by the relevant government Minister to proceed. Yet Council is voting to proceed on it anyway – assuming legal approval will magically follow, or that it’ll be politically awkward to reverse later.
3️⃣ It’s being marketed as a ‘housing initiative’. But this is really about changing how planning rules apply based on group identity – not about increasing public housing, affordability, or urban supply.
Sound familiar?
Just like with the Joint Management Agreement (JMA) debate, elected members and the public are being told one thing – while staff quietly push something else entirely. Your elected members have had no workshops or meetings to properly discuss, and it is being bundled up with a pile of other stuff to help get it through.
Yes, this one will go out for public consultation – and that’s the right step. But: Will you be told the full story? And when submissions roll in: Will anyone actually listen?
I’m not here to make noise for the sake of it, but my instincts are telling me this is once again being railroaded. And in my experience of these particular Council Chambers, that often means there’s no room made for dissent, and no interest in real debate. Funny how all that changed when there was a lot of people in the room for the JMA decision a few weeks ago.
This isn’t about race. It’s about transparency, process, and one law for all. Isn’t that what we all want?
Addendum: For those interested, it looks like the Māori Purpose Zone was in fact discussed for about five minutes at a sparsely attended Council workshop on 27 May 2025. You can watch the recording here to see how it was presented.
Last week, a satirical rugby-themed meme about the JMA decision vanished from Facebook – and with it, the entire Lake Taupo account that posted it. For the record: I don’t know who they are.
The meme showed three Taupo District Council councillors in a rugby maul, ‘driving the JMA upfield’. No swearing, no threats – just political lampooning of the kind magazines like Punch had been doing for nearly 200 years.
So why did it disappear? Not because it broke NZ law, or even any of Facebook’s own rules. More likely:
Moderators in California couldn’t tell satire from ‘harassment’.
A couple of complaints reframed it as a personal attack instead of political criticism.
Facebook’s system defaults to ‘remove first, maybe review later’ – but small-town politics 6000 miles away rarely gets that ‘later’.
That’s the danger. In the middle of a local election that is turning out to be quite interesting, controversial but lawful political speech can be erased with a click – leaving voters with a sanitised version of reality. And don’t get me started on our local Facebook community groups, where moderators ban and delete posts and comments as they please (is it surprising that several months ago I was inexpicably banned from the Tūrangi Noticeboard, whose admin just happens to be partnered with a Mayoral candidate?)
To prove the point, I’m reposting the meme above and this time with harmless cartoon faces, alongside it a Punch cartoon from the 1870s. A reminder that lampooning those in power is a sign of a healthy democracy, not a threat to it.
So if you want uncensored local coverage, stop relying on social media’s shifting rules and sign up for my weekly updates in the below subscription box. No algorithms. No sudden deletions. No California filter. Just Taupō politics, as it really is.
And yes – if you’ve got satirical material worth sharing, please send it my way, and if it’s sharp enough I’ll post it. Democracy and this place called Taupo need more humour, not less of it. Because you know, that’s what life is also about.
Thank you to everyone who turned up or tuned in to last Thursday’s Council workshop on the draft Joint Management Agreement (JMA). The public gallery was packed, and clearly this issue has touched a nerve—not just locally, but nationally too. But before another week rolls over this issue, let’s pause and look closer—because the fine print always matters.
Let’s be clear: no final decision has been made yet. But what concerns me—and many others—is the way this process has unfolded. The 2025 draft agreement expands the scope of the 2009 JMA considerably, yet it was progressing quietly behind closed doors. Only when outside attention was forced upon it did this matter finally surface in a more visible way.
Unfortunately, some of the information now coming from Council leadership is adding to confusion. For example:
The Mayor erroneously stated in a recent media interview that the JMA would help clean up emergency spills into Lake Taupō. In reality, this is a Regional Council responsibility—just like the threatened gold clam invasion. These are pointedly not covered by the JMA, even though they easily could be if that were the goal. In fact, as a purported mechanism for keeping Lake Taupō clean and green, I have doubts that this JMA contributes anything too meaningful.
He also referred to Lake Taupō as a “private lake,” which is not only legally debatable but contextually misleading.
The Mayor claimed the 2009 JMA was never consulted on. Yet records indicate it arose from a series of public hui and community engagement processes connected to the 2005 plan change. It may not have met a strict legal definition of consultation, but it certainly reflected a more community-facing era.
Another point worth clarifying: It’s often claimed that iwi or Māori entities own 60–65% of the land in the district, including the lakebed. However, the most reliable figure available for communally owned Māori land is closer to 35%, even with Lake Taupō included. In terms of financial contribution, this equated to just 4.15% of total Council rates intake in 2023/24. That gap between land ownership and fiscal input is worth bearing in mind when we talk about “partnership”.
And then there are the words of one of our own councillors, spoken at the workshop itself:
“Can this documentation be weaponized? Absolutely.”
That should raise more than eyebrows. It should raise accountability.
Bottom line: If the public is confused, they should be invited in—not shut out. If the agreement is sound, it should stand up to scrutiny. But if it contains embedded obligations or shifts in governance, then we owe it to Taupō residents to test that publicly—before it gets signed, not after.
Council staff say that doesn’t need to happen. I disagree.
The JMA will be tabled for decision at the next full Council meeting on 31 July. Councillors will have three choices:
Sign the agreement by majority vote
Defer it until after the election
Open it up for public consultation
You can read the source material for yourself here:
duncandoestaupo.com 