Fridays Ship Sailed But Without Fireworks

14 August 2026

Ecclesiastes 11:9 with an encouragement to seek God early in your life before you make too many mistakes that are hard to fix: “Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, And let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth; Walk in the ways of your heart, And in the sight of your eyes; But know that for all these God will bring you into judgment”.

Okay lets talk about Daisy for a bit, who is the lady in the above picture and been appearing the past couple of weeks. She was born from the Head Start amalgamation chatter that has been going on the past three months, and really stems from the media team at Taupo District Council who likened it to a dating game. The fact of the matter is that last Sunday 9th August was the due date which Daisy didn’t get hitched up, the ship has now sailed and now she has to wait for the government to announce her arranged marriage with another partner(s). I am not completely against arranged marriages by the way, in fact I know they can work. Even if our culture doesn’t really go for it, given a choice what parent wouldn’t like to have some say in their children’s future partner? But anyway Daisy is probably going to be a regular fixture in my columns from now on, because in my mind she has come to represent the attitude of this Council quite well – a veritable princess who is trouble free, insular and self-important, and continually tipsy on the long-suffering Taupo ratepayer funded good life. And most importantly, I am having quite a bit of fun with AI doing it.

Duncandoestaupo.com: For people who choose to think

And its all over right, Head Start? Well I certainly thought so, at least for now, because 9th August was the specified due date and now we just wait for the government to respond in September…right? But it seems that Taupo District Council didn’t quite get the memo, because on Tuesday in Chambers we were still talking about it and already we have some strategy sessions set aside in our calendars starting next week! “What for?” you may well ask, and to be honest I really don’t know! There was some hearsay that the government might be granting a months grace for latecomers like us to still pull something together, but the latest as of this morning is that this will not come to pass. And the direction Mayor John Funnell is clearly wanting to still head is a Central North Island Unitary (i.e. with Ruapehu, Waitomo & Otorohanga) – which in itself is fair enough to at least further explore – but on Tuesday there was clearly expressed no commitment to even entertain the idea of negotiating with Waikato District Mayor Aksel Bech who is leading the Western Unitary Authority proposal which I think we will most likely be dragged into. On 11th August I publicly asked Mayor Funnell in my article entitled So then, who’s telling Porkies:

Why did Taupō withdraw from those wider discussions in the first place (involving the other Waikato Councils), and what opportunities to influence the eventual outcome did we give up by doing so?

So I guess we now have our answer in pretty transparent terms: Mayor Funnell is not prepared to even negotiate. My own take is that we have been painted into such a corner with his vehement political posturing of defiance (which I am interpreting as a deflection to us not coming up with the goods), that it is hard to backtrack now. Perhaps so, but maybe one shouldn’t say such words in the first place, and why should the rest of us have to pay for that? Or even, were they really his own words?

I’ll say just one more thing about Head Start and amalgamation before we move on: You didn’t have to be a Council to submit something to the government, even though that was the general stipulation and expectation. Ngai Tahu submitted a proposal of their own for the South Island which you can read about HERE, which perhaps is covered in more detail somewhere else than just that article. And I sent in my own Waikato Together along with a covering letter which includes my own perspective about Taupo District Councils quite intransigent position. So interesting times alright, and lets see if who dares really wins.

Okay finished with all that, is there anything else?

Why We Vote: On Tuesday we had quite an interesting one-hour workshop which you can watch HERE presented by Warwick Lampp our electionz.com contracted electoral officer, explaining the difference between First Past Post (FPP) which we have now in Taupo, and Single Transferrable Vote (STV). We have only until 12 September to decide as it will apply for the next three elections, or if a resident petition is received with 1414 signatures by 11 December to instigate a binding poll held by 28 March 2027 (estimated cost around $135K, or at least two fireworks displays). Quite interesting that we have this legislated referendum in place just like we had for Maori wards, although I am sceptical if people will be as motivated to pace the streets getting signatures for something as fairly mundane as this. A number of us Councillors including myself are quite warming to idea of change though, as it seems to present a more transparent democratic way forward with 16 other Councils already using it (read Warwick’s full presentation HERE, along with a simple demonstration HERE). One option I am favouring is to stick with FPP for now and include the binding poll with 2028 local election papers, and that way we can let the people decide at minimal cost. Of interest, Hamilton City just recently had a vote to change from STV back to FPP, but this has caused something of a controversy and there are already moves afoot to reverse it before the September deadline. Hamilton Councillor Sue Moroney is leading that particular charge and you can read more about that HERE.

New Years Fireworks CANCELLED: To be absolutely clear – this was not brought before elected members to decide or discuss, either this term or last. This is a staff decision to save around $50K based on a previous directive to curb costs. So I am just as surprised as anybody to have this sprung upon us, but unfortunately not very surprised at the poor way this has been handled. I myself am fairly ambivalent about fireworks, but I know they bring joy to many people and there are those who drive a long way just to come and see them. The bigger question for Mayor John Funnell, is: Why does he let the ship be so steered in this way, to just let a bureaucrat decide?

How to spend $3M in one place: Okay many of you have probably been aware of some works happening just downhill of the Napier Road / Kiddle Drive roundabout (you know, that one which Council installed around 2020 for $2M). Some of you might even know that it was to replace the 30 metre timber footbridge which was starting to fall into space, but do any of you know that by the time it is finished we will have spent $1M to replace it? My interest in this was recently triggered by the following resident contact:

“Initially was a repair of the bridge and stabilizing bank underneath. Was quoted for by several local companies but TDC accepted out of town quote. Napier Rd started collapsing during process. That company wasted so much money on something that wasn’t going to ever work. Now another company has taken over and the road has had to be stabilized with rods so first lot of works was a total waste of money. Traffic management must have cost a fortune. The company that Initially advised the council the foot bridge was not a good choice have been called in to sort the shambles out. It’s been going on for so long and has been a poor council decision from the start. Would love to see a cost trail!! It would be terrifying”

So I am now starting to ask questions like: “Wasn’t there any other way?”. For example, I sketched up the below in PURPLE for an alternative walking link which I am confident would work. My rough order estimate (and this is more or less my line of work): $200K at very most. Folks, that’s an awful lot of fireworks we could have burned instead, more than enough for a good show every last Friday of the month. Yet another example of why we need your Councillors Elect to be given mechanisms set in stone that will give real and proper oversight of what your money gets spent on, because after all we are the ones who sign off and are responsible for it all.

SuperGold Users Under Threat: Okay I attended a meeting of the Waikato Regional Council (WRC) Public Transport Committee special workshop meeting this week to discuss some proposed revision in fares. Nothing too much affects Taupo which we can do anything about anyway, except for the proposed deletion of peak hour travel for SuperGold Card users (by peak hour, we are talking around 7-9am and 3-6pm), excerpt shown below. Anyway this is just a proposal at this stage to be publicly consulted the next couple of months, so any affected oldies better get their acts together to submit a response if you are one of those affected (keep an eye out for news release by WRC). The government only gives SuperGold subsidy for off-peak travel, which I figure makes sense for congested cities but hardly for the more empty buses we have around here.

Gee whiz really: I have fielded a few questions lately about the fate of the $80M TEL Fund which Councillors discussed a week or so ago in a closed workshop, and have been telling people to wait for the official news release – well, you can now read it HERE. But if you want to save a few minutes valuable time just read this snippet of it here: “Council held a closed workshop last month to receive legal advice on how it can affirm and protect the TEL Fund for its intended purpose. There are a few different avenues that can be explored to preserve the fund, but each comes with different advantages and disadvantages, including costs. Work on the matter is continuing”. In other words, we are hedging our bets and watching our words because the lawyers are telling us to be careful what we say.

More garbage from Sophie: For local investigator Epitome of Coolness’s latest post on tracing the $5M question of Taupo rubbish read HERE. I do hope she starts looking at incinerators too, because that would mean we won’t have to dig a bigger hole by precious Mount Tauhara. And what about that wheelie bins idea we had a few years ago…

Help Wanted: Mayor John Funnell is wanting some help by the sounds, and is prepared to use your money to make it happen. Anyone interested you have until 23 August to apply HERE , and a few of us Councillors are already typing up our CV’s in hope of a decent pay rise.

Oh yeah nearly forgot: We had a Water Services Committee meeting yesterday which you can watch HERE, but not many shots were fired except at wet wipes and a confirmation from the Commerce Commission that yes, it is indeed the job of this committee not theirs to ensure that ratepayers get value for money.

Fridays we shall remember them who did this to us, and you better be careful if there’s a next time:

So then, who’s telling Porkies?

11 August 2026

I don’t want to make too big of a deal about Mayor John Funnell’s recent claim that Taupō’s debt would rise from around $900 to nearly $9,000 per rating unit if we get amalgamated into the proposed Western Waikato Unitary, but I don’t think it is a good idea putting out financial figures which are not like-for-like comparisons.

As reported in this recent article HERE, the $900 figure is an indicative net debt figure which takes Taupō’s substantial TEL investment into account. The nearly $9,000 Western Waikato figure, however, is gross debt. Taupō’s own papers apparently put the like-for-like gross figures at approximately $4,320 versus $8,770 per rating unit. That is still a substantial difference and absolutely deserves scrutiny, but it is quite different from suggesting Taupō’s debt would increase almost tenfold. It also needs to be considered alongside proposals to ring-fence historical council debt so that existing borrowing remains attached, as far as practicable, to the communities that incurred it.

There is a wider issue here too. If we are going to offset Taupō’s investments against its debt when comparing councils, surely we should at least consider the assets and investments sitting on the other side of the ledger elsewhere. One interesting example is WEL Energy Trust , which currently has around $900 million of net assets. Under its Trust Deed, Hamilton City Council is the ultimate capital beneficiary of 63% of the Trust Fund, Waikato District 35% and Waipā 2%. Those interests are not equivalent to Taupō’s relatively liquid TEL investment. They are deferred until 2073 and subject to the Trust Deed and come with restrictions, so it would be equally misleading to simply deduct $900 million from the other councils’ debt. But assigning those interests no economic value whatsoever is not helpful either.

My concern isn’t to argue that Taupō would necessarily be financially better off through amalgamation – it potentially may not be. What I am saying is that, before broadcasting to our community that neighbouring councils see Taupō as a “cash cow”, or that our debt would increase tenfold, ratepayers deserve a genuinely consistent comparison: gross debt against gross debt, net debt against net debt, and a proper assessment of the assets, investments, infrastructure obligations and future liabilities that all participating councils bring to the table.

The Government has said it will assess the Head Start proposals and Cabinet will decide later this year which proposals progress to detailed design. Final decisions are expected in 2027 towards implementation for the 2028 local elections, so those detailed financial conversations are therefore still ahead of us. Taupō could have had greater involvement in shaping them earlier if we had remained engaged in the wider Waikato discussions, but after June we didn’t. So perhaps rather than making accusations about the motives of neighbouring councils, here is a question for Mayor Funnell:

Why did Taupō withdraw from those wider discussions in the first place, and what opportunities to influence the eventual outcome did we give up by doing so?

Because to me, that is the much more important question.

Fridays Head Start… but really, it was a Stall

7 8 August 2026

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?

Fridays Angry Reflection

31 July 2026

Ecclesiastes 10:20: “Do not curse the king, even in your thought; do not curse the rich, even in your bedroom; for a bird of the air may hear your voice, and a bird in flight may tell the matter”.

Council let you down this week folks, and leadership matters. If nothing else you glean from the happenings this week, take at least that.

Yes its been a rough and tumble few months alright and we are nearly at the end of the road. But Auckland didn’t get a chance to decide their future in 2010 nor the amalgamations of 1989, and a bit of pressure isn’t always a bad thing. August 9th is the deadline for Councils around the country to submit their Head Start proposals to government to consider for a new reset of local government, and Taupo District Council came up with…nothing. Tuesday was decision time (watch the meeting HERE, and for the agenda HERE) and was advertised as a debate but there was to be no debate, because Mayor John Funnell said that at the very outset. My own 10 minute Waikato Together proposal was disallowed to be presented in public view, and only a handful of Taupo District Council councillors had bothered to look at it even though it was submitted last Friday. Instead we were subjected to two hours of the staff presenting their point of view, with the following so-called ‘debate’ introduced by the chairperson Mayors stifling comment of “you get the chance to make one comment only before we go to the vote” for arguably the most important opportunity of this Council for probably 40 years (watch that moment and my own statement immediately following HERE). So at the end we decided to effectively do nothing except send to government a sternly voiced note of disapproval. Because we already run a tight ship much better than the rest, and amalgamating with anybody else would only make us worse. Yeah, right.

Incidentally we also had Mayor Aksel Bech of Waikato District Council and Mayor Mike Pettit of Waipa District Council in the room, who travelled all the way down to answer questions in case they were asked regarding their Roto ki te Moana / Lake to the Ocean proposal which also includes Taupo, South Waikato and Hamilton City (read about that HERE). Theirs is an impressive submission developed along similar lines to Waikato Together, addressing function first before form and including emphasis on local voice with things like strengthened community boards. It also precisely fits the government mandate of designing around the catchment areas, and a Waikato river model would hardly be complete without Taupo. Except it was never tabled or circulated for elected members to properly consider, even though I have just learned our Mayor received it as long ago as 22 July. I talked to Aksel afterwards and he was understandably perplexed, in fact I don’t even think he really believed what he had witnessed – that we had disregarded their proposal without even discussing it. I had to explain to him that yes, that is really what just went down.

Folks there are of course a few other vagaries to all this, and of course I am just giving you my own point of view. But the past few days for me have left me angry simmering that this Council has acted in such a foolish way. It is being now spun as bravery, but nothing could be so farther from the truth. All that Taupo District Council has done the past three months is circle around the problem without coming up with any solution. All that is being defended is the status quo, which by the way also means that staff get to keep their jobs. I can tell you this decision is absolutely not in the districts best interest, because now we are at the whim of the government to decide. But I am not all sad about it, because there is scant chance this Council will escape as a Waikato river catchment unitary clearly won’t be formed without Lake Taupo being included. I believe that will very likely to be made happen since South Waikato recently voted to join the Lake to the Ocean proposal, and that makes the requisite majority of Councils agreeing for it to be eligible to succeed. So we could have been an enthusiastic part of the solution, but will now instead get treated like a recalcitrant teenager being dragged along for the ride.

Although this Council’s behaviour should be seen as a massive failure of leadership, there will still be opportunity to reset the way things operate in a constructive way. But is going to take the adult government stepping in, and hopefully by next election 2028 Taupo District Council will all be swept away. Cos folks let me tell you if we don’t learn soon that is gonna be the case (and they said we would hear in September), I don’t very much feel like sticking around.

Okay apart from all that, what else is going on?

Spinning your wheel: Tuesday we also had a Council meeting where nothing too much earth shattering did go down (you can watch HERE with the agenda HERE). Item 5.4: “Financial Stewardship, Efficiency and continuous Improvement Update” was a politically timely item relating to our non-participation in the Head Start process and reads pretty much exactly as it sounds – a self-congratulatory report on all the things that staff are doing to try and keep a lid on costs, and righteous justification where it can’t (watch from HERE). There was nothing in there about Elected Members getting more direct say in the big financial decisions as they go down, which just highlights the current philosophy at this Council of keeping governance out of so-called ‘operational matters’, when governance is in fact responsible for it all. So in other words it is attempted political explanation rather than offering much of a solution, and it also doesn’t explain why some other Councils have been able to keep rates under the rate of inflation but not us.

How we vote: Item 5.6 at the same meeting brought up the question of whether we want to stick with First Past the Post (FPP) or change to Single Transferrable Vote (STV) for the 2028 election (watch from HERE). Even though I am hoping there won’t be a Taupo District Council left by then, it could potentially be applicable and Elected Members have until mid September to decide. But we won’t be talking to you about it unless you come to us first, because although I reckon we have time to consult the public the Mayor decided not. Anyway in the meantime we have scheduled our Electoral Officer to come for a workshop on 11 August which I presume will be open for public to attend or watch online, so we can all get clued up about the difference because it is not well understood – and there is a mood for change.

Landfill slipperies: Thursday we had the first public open workshop regarding the Taupo landfill consent application going forward (watch HERE). We have had several workshops behind closed doors before on this topic from early in the year, unjustifiably deemed as confidential as per the usual pattern intended to conceal any hints of controversy (wait…didn’t our new Mayor have an election platform of transparency?). Anyway my takeaway is that the only real objections of any substance are cultural and relate to the proximity of nearby Mount Tauhara. If we don’t get the consent renewed to expand the landfill by December 2027 then we will have to truck it out instead, and that’s gonna cost all of us some big bucks every week. The consent process can be time consuming so there is every chance this could happen – so in hindsight we should have started much sooner. I also brought up the solution used overseas as an alternative to landfill: incineration. Taupo resident Richard Hoadley has expressed great interest in this topic for some time and even got a quote from the UK for something less than $5M that could handle our 30,000 annual tonnes. But staff member Brent Aitken backed up by Deputy Mayor Kevin Taylor is inferring them as snake-oil salesman, and I am not acquainted enough with the subject to be able to dispute. But I can tell you that I am not the only Councillor not 100% convinced this is not a real alternative, and this is exactly the reason why I think Council should have a set aside fund for Elected Members to use to pay for independent expert advice. If I were the Waikato Regional Council (WRC) reviewer of this consent and knew my stuff, I would be demanding that all practicable options do get presented – but I don’t have too much faith that WRC reviewers will be that.

Beware of power grabs: Auckland Transport is migrating to become part of Auckland Council later this year, and even though Local Boards were apparently expecting to have some say in the number one city problem of transport, already the powers are at play. As Councillor John Gillon is pointing out here, someone in Auckland Council yesterday decided to redesignate roads all over the place as Arterial thus remain for only regional committees to decide. Being a transport professional from that region I am familiar with a lot of their street network, and I can tell you they have every cause to complain (North Shore shown on left with the new arterials in blue). People, stuff like this always happens in organisational rejigs and it is all to do with power.

Why I don’t use AI Slop: Except for when I do. Here is a wonderful explainer why proper writers won’t use AI, written by one of my favourite blogger authors who I am sure has greatly influenced what I do.

Fridays explainer because its important you know about Susie:

Fridays Final Coming Up

17 July 2026

In times of chaos I find myself turning to my favourite book of the Bible Ecclesiastes 9:10-12: “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going. I returned and saw under the sun that – The race is not to the swift, Nor the battle to the strong, Nor bread to the wise, Nor riches to men of understanding, Nor favor to men of skill; But time and chance happen to them all. For man also does not know his time: Like fish taken in a cruel net, Like birds caught in a snare, So the sons of men are snared in an evil time, When it falls suddenly upon them”.

Finals – I am talking about the soccer world cup on Monday of course, so who’s your pick Spain or Argentina? I myself don’t have a predetermined favourite, I just want to see a clean exciting game. A bit like this Council amalgamation thing going on right now really, but a problem is that the ground rules weren’t clear from the outset including goal and sidelines. And there isn’t even just one ball either, we are all just running around kicking about our own. And by the way if you hadn’t gleaned from recent social media messaging by some other Councillors, Taupo is very much headed towards the Backstop option of not submitting a Head Start proposal at all, because its all seeming just too hard. In some ways it would be nice to go back to the 850 or so borough councils that we used to have before 1989 (along with a decent Public Service), but we are way too far down the track to go back to that. So I am seeing this as a very great missed opportunity to do things a lot better.

Which brings me to describe what I believe is going on here: a Collective Action Problem whereby everyone acting in their own perceived interest produces an outcome that is worse for everyone collectively. Another analogy along the same lines: Prisoners Dilemma. You see, I have been talking to a handful of Councillors in the Waikato region, and the thinking is more or less the same – Hamilton doesn’t really want to get shackled with rural problems, and almost everybody else doesn’t want to get dominated by the electoral demographics of big place Hamilton. Fair enough you might say, because your district Councillors are after all only elected to represent their own local communities. But the problem is that Hamilton does actually subsidise the rest of the region when it comes to Regional Council responsibilities. So although Councillors aren’t acting irrationally, the problem is that they can be behaving against theirs and ours best overall interest. It also won’t help that many Councils like ours have staff leading the process, who can’t help but want to keep their jobs close to where they live now. By the way Federated Farmers have a preferred model for amalgamation which you can read about HERE – and they pointedly aren’t happy and want to separate rural district Unitaries from the urban.

Much of the debate surrounding local government reform has focused on what communities might lose, and this is understandable because Councils are elected to protect the interests of their own communities. However, this can make it difficult to consider opportunities that may benefit the wider region while still protecting local identity and democratic voice – that was really the role of the Regional Councillors whose role by October 2028 will be defunct. The challenge is therefore not simply whether reform should occur, but whether it can be designed well enough that communities have confidence they will not lose the things that matter most to them. We are talking urban versus rural, small towns versus big, and not forgetting Maori interests too.

One of the strongest arguments in favour of larger Unitary councils is their ability to engage more effectively with central government on matters of regional significance. Since Auckland’s amalgamation in 2010, the city has been able to present a single strategic voice when negotiating major infrastructure and investment projects with Wellington. The most notable example is the City Rail Link, a jointly funded multi-billion-dollar partnership between Auckland Council and the Crown, supported through a formal governance and funding agreement. Auckland has also been able to negotiate integrated transport planning, housing initiatives and, more recently, New Zealand’s first City Deal with central government. While larger size alone does not guarantee better local outcomes, it can provide greater strategic influence, stronger negotiating capability and improved access to nationally significant investment opportunities. These are genuine advantages that any future Waikato or Central North Island unitary authority could seek to capture, while ensuring that strong local representation and community decision-making are not diminished. It also makes more sense for dealing with region-wide environmental issues.

But could a large Unitary address the aforementioned trepidations around different community and area interests to still reap the big size benefits? There are definitely means and ways of doing it which I won’t go into now, but it certainly is looking as if it will be up to the government after 9 August to decide for Taupo. In the meantime a link to the excellent Lower Hutt Mayors proposal put out last week (read the full proposal HERE) which includes things like a first principle of subsidiarity (a big word which basically means local voice), legacy debt ringfencing, and careful delegated decision-making for Community Councils as below.

In addition, below is a clearer copy of the Waikato Regional Council (WRC) suggestion which I posted last week, and under that another sample model they developed.

Backstopping with no proposal at all and an attached letter of complaint to the Minister as this Council is most probably headed, to me does not correspond to a positive way forward or valid form of resistance which I expect it will be framed. It is basically saying that the status quo is just fine, which if you read my posts should know by now it most certainly ain’t. Recent talk in Chambers has been around us being more financially secure than any of our prospective partners – to which there are some grains of truth – but it has all been at your expense, so do remember that. And as for being kept properly informed about the Head Start process as we go, compare what you have been able to access about Taupo, say compared to these analyses in Northland and Wairarapa. But it isn’t quite over yet.

In other news:

Backpedalling to look cool: Mayor John Funnell put out a statement this week about having a relook at the Annual Plan (AP) just signed off a few weeks ago, because I think he has worked out that some other Mayors like Waitomo and Wellington took their election promises more seriously than he. Waitomo mayor John Robertson said he instructed the council’s Chief Executive to ensure rates rises kept in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which is pretty much the most basic Key Performance Indicator (KPI) I think there should be. The main reason I refused to vote my agreement to the AP is the absence of regular and proper scrutiny by governance of Council spending including capital works, and going back afterwards to double-check after they have been approved like this is a very poor substitute.

Recall my numerous attempts in Chambers from Christmas onwards to discuss the revision of financial delegations from the current setting whereby the Chief Executive has virtually unlimited spend discretion? That would mean proper reporting on large items over $500K, and the recent Roberts St / Titiraupenga St works are a classic example of works never justified to elected members before they happened. Mayor John was so disinterested in that topic of delegations that he would not allocate any time in our induction sessions or even allow me to present 5 min in a public forum! So to me this is sounding very much like a hindsight act of desperation and the words sound very hollow indeed. I will have a quick look to see if I can find any potential savings, but the above spreadsheet snippet is an example of the sum total of information we are now being given – “line by line”!

Taupo dodged a bullet too: Far North Councillor Davina Smolders points out some home truths about some un-costed co-governance deals her Council up there is attempting to push through the back door. Just as well we have whistleblowers like her prepared to do the hard yards, remember last years Joint Management Agreement (JMA) and who saved you then? That one ain’t over yet either, but I am guessing it will kick back up soon.

Sam Neil died in vain or vein? Knowledgeable Guy Hatchard has some very un-mainstream views about the death of well-known actor Sam Neil and hopes it will draw attention to the medical mishap at play. Worth a good read if you aren’t up with the play.

Fridays people pushing back hard: Here we have some Council bureaucrats in the United States trying to push their narrative down resident throats, but they just ain’t having it. People of Taupo, you have been getting this done to you for such a long time.

Fridays Council Blood and Guts

10 July 2026

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ok so what else in the news?

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

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

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

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

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

Fridays Fabulous France

3 July 2026

The last stanza of Rudyard Kipling’s “If“:

We plod on, we do plod on, in this beast called local government. Sometimes I really wonder how I ever got entangled. A big reason I chose to become self employed ten years ago was to escape the office politics, so why on earth did I choose to do this? Although no human endeavour is ever completely pure of self-serving interest and gaslighting excuses, I have never encountered it on such a grand scale before. I have found it pays to remind myself that anytime in Council should feel an alien experience where normal forms of human encounter do not apply, because the day it doesn’t is the day you have succumbed. Anyway below is how it all went down, and just as well we have the football.

Amalgamation fumblegation: On Tuesday we had our first Council meeting where we discussed the Head Start pathway which you can watch HERE and read the agenda HERE. Just an hour before, we were introduced in the backroom to some spreadsheet analysis our financial manager Sarah Matthews has undertaken and only now shared. We were told that we would receive some comparative analysis by early June or around a full month ago, but this was the first we have been presented with and only minutes before the debate. The spreadsheet contains information that is publicly available and apparently took some time to prepare, and is being held by Mayor John Funnell as so crucially important towards future negotiations that it needs to be kept secret. My own point of view about that is somewhat different: that it contains many assumptions and its comprehension in layperson terms is definitely questionable. For example there is a dubious assumption that larger entities will be more efficient, and a fairly obvious lesson that it may be unwise to shackle oneself with others already heavily in debt. But I say that irrespective of all that, the ringfencing of debt and the TEL fund are still valid bargaining chips – otherwise is it fair for Taupo ratepayers to pay for Hamiltons rapid development? This Head Start process is a large piece of work being required very quickly, and I think it is wrong to be backroom manhandling – but that is how Mayor John Funnell wants to play the ball. The only reason I am not publishing the secret spreadsheet for your viewing anyway, is that I don’t think its important enough to cause even more friction in Chambers than there is already. Ugh, is it living in a small town?…

So one thing I am really quite wary of with any amalgamation is that the small town small mind predilections of Taupo District Council will be magnified even larger (e.g Option 3), and that is one positive thing in favour of say hitching with a city like Hamilton. In hindsight, instead of staff I think we should probably have engaged a consultant for a more objective point of view like Wairarapa Councils did (although to be fair, they have been talking about amalgamation for over a decade). I asked AI to compare with some other Councils Head Start progress with the output shown below… you get the picture.

One thing I did attempt to highlight in that Tuesday meeting is that the Backstop Option D to stay independent is still a very practicable option, and we could become our own Unitary Authority like Rotorua is apparently considering (there are many more options than just four, but these are what was narrowed down to). I say that unless the Local Government Act gets changed, constituents of the Taupo district still have much protection to just being swept away in something ill-defined and un-consulted. The only public consultation undertaken for this very significant decision has so far been rushed and bereft of useful information – in other words it was not “meaningful”, and that has significant legal implications as this Simpson Grierson advice does point out. So we could probably stay put until 2031 in the meantime which anything could happen – but do we really want for that?

While we are on the topic of comparisons, the above secret financial analysis by Council staff is all very well – but what about condition of the infrastructure? Because although financial modelling does help assess the affordability of various arrangements, infrastructure due diligence helps identify the condition and future obligations of the assets that would be inherited under those options – so both perspectives are important to informed decision making. I put a few hours into this question in the past few days and using AI managed to prepare this quite comprehensive summary of all our potential Council partners. What do you think? I have not verified each and every source, but it is looking very useful to me and I will be asking for staff to carry it on.

NOTE: This assessment is a desktop review of publicly available information relating to the infrastructure assets and asset management practices of councils included in the Head Start structural reform scenarios. Sources include Long-Term Plans, Infrastructure Strategies, Asset Management Plans, Annual Reports, and other publicly available technical documents. The assessment is intended to complement the Head Start financial modelling by providing a comparative overview of infrastructure condition, future renewal risk, and asset management capability. It is not a detailed engineering audit and does not rely on internal asset management databases, condition survey data, or other non-public information.This document was prepared with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to support document review, comparison, drafting and presentation. All findings should be independently reviewed and validated against primary source documents before being relied upon for policy, financial or engineering decisions.

Anyway on the basis of the above effort, I should be expecting some plaudits from the Mayor don’t you think?

Okay in other news less depressing but only just:

Didn’t you vote for something different? We also had a Council meeting Tuesday later that day where the Annual Plan got approved with my own and Councillor Hope Woodward’s voiced disapproval (you can watch HERE and read the agenda HERE). My concern is not so much the final number of 6.6% which is just 0.1% less than the orginal forecast, but how we arrived at it. This Council is simply not exercising sufficient oversight of its own expenditure. We rely too heavily on staff to identify savings, rather than elected members being given proper opportunity to scrutinise spending and explore different ways of doing things. That is reflected in the excessive financial delegations given to the Chief Executive in 2022 (watch my previous video on that topic HERE), a culture that too often treats operational matters as being outside the governance role, and the frequent refusal of information requests from individual elected members. In my view, governance is about setting direction, holding the organisation to account, and ensuring value for money for our ratepayers. We are not doing enough of that, and for that reason I did not support this Annual Plan nor the last three I have voted against. Before asking our community to pay more, I believe we have a duty to demonstrate that every reasonable opportunity to reduce costs has been rigorously explored, and that goes for everything from pedestrian islands to multi-million dollar gas flares for a landfill. We do not meet that standard by a very long shot.

Screaming from the hilltops: On that note we also had a Long Term Plan (LTP) workshop which you can watch HERE, and I voiced some frustrations including that staff are given carte blanche licence to present their own subjective viewpoints with Elected Members wishing to say anything contrary getting 5 minutes only (even members of the public get more latitude in a public forum). But I have to acknowledge Councillor Rachel Cameron’s filling in for the Deputy Mayor’s absence to present a pleasant facade of responsible governance leadership.

Taupo Airport goes live: Thanks to my request the Taupo Airport Authority (TAA) Committee meetings are now going live, with its first from Monday gone which you can watch HERE and read the agenda HERE. The most notable thing mentioned was the uncertain state of the airport runway which could require a lot of $M’s to repair and which even garnered a Waikato Times article about it. We are still awaiting further findings about it, so watch this space.

Taupo connects but only just: We had a Taupo ward Councillor Connect forum on Wednesday night at Waitahanui Community Hall which you can watch HERE if you’re keen, but only about six people turned up and the topics discussed weren’t too mind bending. What is it about smaller communities like Mangakino that get more people interested in things like this?

Middle of the pack nothing to be proud of: The Taxpayer’s Union Rates Dashboard 2026 is now out where you can see for yourself how Taupo stacks up against the rest. We aren’t the worst by a long shot but certainly not anywhere near the best.

Un-natural justice: Last week or so Rotorua Councillor Robert Lee gave a comprehensive breakdown of the Code of Conduct (CoC) process of Elected Members as evidenced by South Waikato District Councils abhorrent $34K persecution of Councillor Zed Latinovic for a raft of negligible so-called offences. You can watch HERE for Cr Lee’s lengthy presentation to a packed community meeting. Fun facts: Investigators are paid by Council so that means by definition they are far from independent, and CoC’s weren’t a thing until 1998. Imagine being in a courtroom where the prosecuting lawyer has unlimited resources and is also the defacto judge, with your own defence being limited to just 15 minutes and without a lawyer unless you pay yourself – and you will get a feel for Zed. In other words: the CoC process gives official licence to ratepayer funded hit-jobs on Elected Members the Mayor doesn’t like, and it deserves to be scrapped.

Bird flu coming near you: Yes its true Council are preparing and I’ve even heard them talk about it, watch HERE if you want to know more about it.

Since its World Cup: For one of the most politically incorrect and hilarious football diatribes of all time by a disappointed Iraqi supporter watch HERE

Fridays French fabulous of the week: