Fridays Here See Ya Next Year

19 December 2025

Last post of 2025 from me Councillor Duncan, as Council Chambers has a well earned break until February. I think the newly elected will have had a taste now of the flavour of things to come, and given the challenges already being lined up I am reasonably confident a few are already wondering what they have let themselves in for. My urgent advice for the newly elects:

Try to get along with the others as best you can, but don’t compromise your reason for being there and if you are not sure of that quite yet then please contemplate over the break.

To be fair, it probably took me at least 12 months to figure out just what I was there for.

Yesterday 18 December we had the first Joint Management Agreement (JMA) workshop which you can watch here, and also the last Council meeting of 2025 on Tuesday 16 December which you can also watch here if you haven’t already (for the agenda see here). Tuesday was a fairly marathon session, and that wasn’t even counting the confidential items afterwards which took about another 90 minutes. A constituent came up to me afterwards saying it was the liveliest meeting he had watched in the past 12 months, and he has watched every single one – so that is certainly encouraging. Still a few teething problems with the video recording, but our good people are taking onboard the feedback and making the adjustments that they can. I will go through the issues of the week in a rough order of importance:

JMA Workshop or just a Public Relations Whizzbang? You tell me. I don’t think I really learned much about the JMA that I didn’t already know (and for what I do know you can read here), but the attending lawyer Paul Beverley was pleasant enough and at least we saved a few $$ by zooming him in instead of flying up from Wellington. But he hedged a few of the fielded questions alright, including the not trivial one of just what is mandatory and what is not, and the burning question of ‘how much is this really going to cost?’ we never managed to get to. I did hassle Paul about his on recorded statements that “Māori have a deep and innate relationship with natural resources” which to me implies that the rest of us do not, and I must say his response that it was ‘legislated and incontrovertible’ did catch me off guard – but he has offered to provide details and I am now awaiting his response. However what really strikes me about this whole JMA thing is that things are still so murky. I reckon it is about time we start referring to the Plain Language Act of 2022 which is designed exactly so that public agencies have to ‘improve the accessibility of certain documents that they make available to the public’. For one thing, I reckon we need a bunch of Case Studies so that people can better appreciate the real effects to the average person. Like what about Farmer Fred putting in a new paddock or septic tank, or Suburbanite Sarah living in the catchment area who wants to erect a new garage? To be continued in 2026…

MONEY, its a crime, share it fairly, but don’t take a slice of my pie: Item 5.9 from Tuesday – Allocation of Taupō District Council’s Governance Remuneration Pool (watch here from 1:34:36): This will probably have been one of our more awkward debates of the term, because on one level it is all about elected members squabbling over their salaries. The gist of it is that the Remuneration Authority gives this district a fixed pool of $569, 734 for the 2025-26 financial year, which minus the $159,517 set aside for the Mayor, is subject to agreement of elected members as to how the rest gets shared around. Back in 2022 I recall this happened as smooth as butter, but a few of us old hands from that time are wiser now and saw this matter as much more important than meets the eye. My suggestion for any of the more well to do elected members to donate their salaries to the kitty was not taken up.

My own commentary on this item was regarding the Deputy Mayors piece of the pie, because that is the only difference between the three options we were presented with. My contention was that the proposed Options A & B (1.68 and 1.6 times the base Councillor salary respectively) unfairly overstates the Deputy Mayors roles and responsibilities and understates the rest of us, so I advocated for Option C at 1.4 times the base Councillor salary of around $40K(you can read a transcript of what I said here) – which still represents a substantial premium of $14K above the 2022 figure. When it came to voting on the recommended Option B, four of us objected (Crs Campbell, Rankin, Greenslade & Woodward) – possibly not all for the same reasons as described below – and the motion was passed.

During this debate Turangi Councillor Sandra Greenslade expressed quite vociferous opposition to a proposed community engagement structure which could see the disbanding of the Tongariro Representative Group, and Mangakino Councillor Hope Woodward reiterated her concern with that same possibility for the Mangakino-Pouakani Representative Group as well (there were also two submitters during the public forum at the very beginning of the Tues meeting). What has this got to do with elected member remuneration, you may quite reasonably ask? Well it actually does affect salaries, because last term the Chairpersons of these committees did receive an additional $4k per annum for the additional responsibilities. Now there is a larger conversation still to be had as to the potentially revised format of these committees, because there is a feeling among staff and some Councillors that a less formal community engagement format could be more effective and less draining on staff resources. That discussion was originally intended to happen on Tuesday for leading into some community engagement during the month of January, but was scuppered after it was realised that elected members weren’t all on the same page about it.

So the cart seems to have got before the horse somewhat, and perhaps it would have been better to agree on salaries after this matter of community committees/forums got sorted out. The only opinion I have on this topic is regarding the Kinloch Representative Group which I have been involved with and reckon could do with some adjusting, and it also seems odd that no other community in the Taupo ward has an elected member and staff engagement committee except for them. Anyway it is probably quite healthy to bring attention to it now before any decisions get made early in the next year, and who am I to argue that early warning flags cannot influence the way things turn out?

However in the wider picture of things, there is not much doubt that elected members of this district who take their job to heart are quite underpaid for the good work that they do. With a base salary of just $40K and all the sweat and tears that can come with it, one really has to be a certain type to want to take it all on. And because I can be a bit of a numbers nerd at times, looking further afield I did make made quite an interesting discovery. It turns out that unless anything has drastically changed elsewhere, at a recently negotiated salary of $155,254 the Rotorua Deputy Mayor Sandra Kai Fong will be the second highest paid in the country, with only the Deputy Mayor of Super City Auckland getting paid more. So how on earth does little old Rotorua justify that? Good question. Maybe she has to fill in a lot for second term Mayor Tania Tapsell as she gallivants about the country promoting her district, or maybe its because Ms Kai Fong was a lawyer in her previous occupation and needs it to support her lifestyle?

Kinloch artistic opportunity or a blot on the landscape? Item 5.2 from Tuesday – Reclassification of Kinloch Reserve (watch here from 22:30): This is for the purpose of a new water reservoir to alleviate local water shortages in summer, and the item was passed unanimously. We did have several objectors, one via zoom who did submit quite a comprehensive objection on grounds that included visual amenity and loss of local habitat for wildlife. However this site was chosen by staff after some quite careful consideration, and we were unable to poke any holes in the logic behind its selection. I reckon it poses quite a good opportunity for local artwork if the Kinloch community so decide…

Political messaging in Council reports? Item 5.5 on Tuesday – My challenge to overt political messaging in Council documents (watch here from 1:04:12): The item was only relating to some new road names in the Kokomia subdivision to which nobody had any issue, but I used the opportunity to pop in a burning question which has been bothering me for quite some time. The following statement was first inserted into Council documents around the time of the 2021 Long Term Plan, and gets repeated in virtually every agenda item we get presented:.

A constituent recently challenged this terminology, and even passed on some feedback about it from Minister of Local Government Simon Watts. Diving into it a little deeper myself, it is quite apparent that the Local Government Act only mentions the Treaty of Waitangi and nothing about Te Tiriti, and there is certainly nothing about ‘partnerships‘ either. When I questioned this sort of thing a couple of years ago, the only response I received was: “go do some reading“. Well I can tell you that I have now done my reading, and it is fairly apparent to me that this is a form of political messaging which is every bit as misplaced as if we were repeatedly broadcasting Act Party slogans. I am a little curious how the language did get slipped in, but either way I will be requesting elected members to review – because to me the language implies a settled political position which does not reflect the full diversity of views within this Council or our wider community.

Don’t misbehave or else: Item 5.11 from Tuesday: My request for ALL workshops and committees to be audio-visual recorded during the term was quite well supported by other elected members (watch here from 1:51:46). This is not just for the purpose of tidy public record keeping, but also for the protection of those attending. I am aware of a few unsavoury incidents in the past 12 months involving both members of the public and elected members, and rather than just hearsay there deserves to be some measure of accountability which this could provide. In this day and age when all it takes is a phone and a tripod, there really is no excuse not to.

Apart from all that local stuff, just a few other things:

Can we do the same for Lake Taupo? Taranaki Lake Rotomanu is to be drained in an attempt for scientists to check it out after a gold clam infestation, but I don’t think that is an option here. Is it only a matter of time before a gold clam invasion eventuates? Because unless something is pointedly done to stop it happening, I can’t quite see it any other way.

Is the new Mayor of Napier misguided, or a bad boss, or what? Mayor Richard McGrath’s executive assistant has resigned, saying she can no longer work for him due to his “disregard for Treaty principles”. I wonder if she ever checked to see if that clause was in her employment contract?

See, bad things do happen: Voter fraud by theft of postal voting papers resulted in an electoral result for a Community Board being overturned in South Auckland. The numbers weren’t extraordinarily high, but the evidence that the fraud happened was apparently compelling. I am not sure how the instigator of the review made it happen, because when I made my own enquiries to simply affirm that the same was not happening in Taupo, our Electoral Officer told me to politely get stuffed and that he had legislated immunity to be able to do so. So next time around, I will be asking our Mayor to shop around for another electoral provider (they are a private enterprise) – and get a better contract.

Rates Capping coming in time to save us? Sort of, but not really. Government is allowing until 1 July 2029 for them to fully kick in, so until that happens I suppose that means that Councils like ours can continue to strip you naked with outrageous rate increases (perhaps we might get some slaps on the wrist though). However, an interesting question did pop up at a recent webinar with Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) – What about the Councils which have been diligent up until now (that is, if there are any), but are now requiring new infrastructure to cater for the growth they are now facing? Doesn’t that position them unfairly compared to the less disciplined Councils which already have their setting too high? The answer to that question according to DIA though, is that these are early days and that is a question for later down the track.

Not the panacea its made out to be: Recall that the Turangi Wastewater Plant is being lined up for a $20M land disposal solution instead of the current arrangement whereby the outflow goes back into Lake Taupo via wetlands? It turns out the land disposal option being currently used by Rotorua Lakes Council in Whakarewarewa Forest isn’t working out so well, and although the stated reasons in this article mention cultural I have heard from other sources it may also include nitrogen saturated soils. Rotorua Councillor Robert Lee is also saying this is being dealt with by yet another ‘secret unelected committee‘ – which I have gleaned are quite numerous over there.

Road cone hotline to close: The government instigated hotline to report road cone overuse is shutting down, as they are saying it has apparently served its purpose. However, Councils are not obliged to be fully compliant with the more reasonable and recently introduced NZTA guidelines until 1 July 2027, and I think we are still a long way from taking a good long hard look at things. If we added up how much this country spends on traffic management, I reckon we could well be into the 10’s of $M for every saved life or seriously injured road worker – because after all, that is the point of traffic management. Unless we discover a few more gold mines to plunder, things need to change.

$100B is a lot, isn’t it? Geoff Parker says the $100B Maori economy is a misnomer, and he makes a pretty good case I reckon with remarks such as: “The suggestion that New Zealand must treat Māori as ‘true partners’ in planning, investment, and infrastructure is a political claim disguised as an economic one”. I am certainly not the most financially literate person around, but I do know that book value is not equivalent to productivity or even prosperity – and what really is the ‘Maori economy’ anyway?

Reality check to climate scaredy-cats I didn’t attend myself, but I am sure this 105 min presentation at local Suncourt Hotel by visiting US scientist William Harper will have been very interesting. For others like me who missed it, you can watch it here.

Fridays fire up your imagination: Remember that the reason for the season isn’t somebody called Santa Claus, and please don’t disturb me when I’m writing up these:

Friday Whisperings of Change

28 November 2025

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

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

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

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

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

Apart from that, this week we also have:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fridays on the Brink

14 Nov 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

Apart from all that, this week we have:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fridays Flying Fancy

7 Nov 2025

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

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

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

This week and there isn’t much:

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

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

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

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

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

Fridays Ending and Still Pending

17 October 2025

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

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

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

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

Okay so this week we also have:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday Fingers Crossed

10 October 2025

Okay tomorrow is Election day, and I hope people have been listening because otherwise the last two years could have been a complete waste of my time. As your on-the-spot Councillor I have tried to illuminated the workings of Taupo District Council as best I can with the tools at my disposal, hoping to educate you about what needs to change and why. Some of you have listened, but it remains to be seen if enough of you have understood or care. And seriously folks, I really do not want to sit at the table of a semi-banana republic Council for another three years.

That doesn’t mean some of the elected people cannot be stupid some of the time (because that would be too much to ask, and even I am not perfect), but just enough of them to not behave stupidly enough of the time to make more sensible decisions than has been happening.

So if nothing else, please just think of me.

But even with a best-case scenario that we get a near complete makeover of elected members, it is going to take an extraordinary effort to effect the real changes that are needed . Some of these I mention in my Campaign 2025 page, and it is going to require much more than just me, myself and I to make them happen – in fact it is going to require your help too. Because even with someone like me in there, there is no way that this Council (or any other Council for that matter) will be transparent and held accountable all by itself.

It just ain’t gonna happen.

I say what this town needs are reliable and trusted community news sources, ones which are constantly on Council’s back and won’t take no for an answer. A decade or so ago that used to be the role of the mainstream media, but I don’t envy the likes of local newspaper Taupo & Turangi News for making a go of it in this challenging climate of competing news sources. Even though LakeFM and local Sophie M Smith have made some valiant efforts in 2025, and even me, we can’t be expected to do it all by ourselves. And it shouldn’t have to require messaging through the likes of Hobsons Pledge to get local messages out at short notice, as happened with the JMA. Some other towns already seem to have more of it happening in this space, such as Whatoninvers for Invercargill and Crux for Queenstown.

So my question is: Who’s going to make it happen from here on in?

Okay apart from that lengthy intro, this week we have:

WARNING to newly elected members: Don’t be dummies and sign the government revised Code of Conduct put in front of you in the next few weeks, or at least not until it gets drastically changed. Submissions closed a couple of weeks ago and you can read my own here, but The New Zealand Initiative submission along with that from the Free Speech Union align that they don’t much like it either. In its current form it could have a chilling and crippling effect on elected members to properly function, and I say is yet another supposedly well-intentioned government initiative that has been hijacked by minority interests.

Westwards ho: West Auckland candidate Ken Turner talks for 15 min why he won’t sign the Taxpayer’s Union Ratepayers Pledge to cap rates to inflation, and given Aucklands present commitment to some very large infrastructure projects like the $B Central Rail Link (CRL) he may have a point – but what is the excuse for Taupo? He also has a few things to say about Council’s ‘Reputation Department’, and I’ll let you guess what he means by that.

Giving New Zealand away: In a recent article Sophie M Smith gives a nice summary of Agenda 2030. Coming from a city background as I do, prior to the 2000’s it had always an uphill struggle to make new cycleways and busways happen because New Zealanders have always been wedded to their private motor vehicles. As well justified as those things are in a city context especially (the cycle and busways I mean), I cannot help but think that things like Agenda 2030 and climate fearmongering were always intended as a disingenuous way of changing the political environment to effect those often necessary changes – many of which are now realities in 2025. But I say that a flawed ideology is no way to run a country, and it is costing all of us dear. Although probably a little outdated by now, I reckon Ian Wisharts ‘Air Con’ (2009) covers it quite well.

Good enough should be good enough: A constituent was in Whanganui lately and sent me through a few pics of what looks to be some very cost-effective urban roundabouts as per this pic here. It has always been obvious to me that a small provincial Council like ours should be laser focused on doing good enough infrastructure not rolls-royce, so I was greatly surprised after moving here to find the opposite seems to apply. If I get into any position of influence after tomorrow, I will be trying hard to turn things around.

Another reason to keep fingers crossed: Governments overhyped but softly changes on the electricity sector mean that your power bill doesn’t look like it will be getting any smaller in the foreseeable future, so even more reason we get some better people elected in Council who can actually do something about your cost of living.

Your $$$ going to a worthy cause: Read Part Two about Mayor Trewavas expenditure account by Sophie M Smith. I recall being present at the mentioned Mr Brightside bar during the 2023 LGNZ conference, but don’t recall ordering any food – so damn, there was my missed chance for a freebie. But it is so true that things like credit card expenditure get a mention in some policy guidelines or other, but often don’t actually get checked up on or followed through. Central and Local Government will have their armies of policymakers, and the lack of practical application I partly blame on the general demise of the Public Service in this country.

Off a ducks back? Ruapehu candidate gives up their campaign due to abuse received. I can’t say that I have faced that sort of thing to any serious degree, apart from online stuff of course which I can mostly shrug off. But not everyone has as thick a skin as me, and I have gleaned at least one candidate in our district has faced much worse. I have said before that politics can sometimes resemble the primary school playground – and I still mean it. Feelings will get hurt, and if you can’t handle the jandle then perhaps it’s not for you.

Complicit cop-out: Last week, Taupo District Council shared this informational video – apparently produced by Gisborne District Council – that describes Māori wards as “one way Te Tiriti o Waitangi can be honoured at a local level”. I raised concern to our Electoral Officer Warwick Lampp that this kind of language is bias by omission, because it subtly suggests that not supporting Māori wards would dis-honour the Treaty – which is an unproven and politicised claim. I say it is analgous to publicly messaging that violence can make you feel better, but leaving out the bits around consequences and non-violent alternatives. Council Chief Executive Julie Gardyne refused my request for the video to be removed from the Council website, because guess what – she is deferring to the Electoral Officers decision which is not to intervene! Local media reporting isn’t exactly providing very balanced coverage on this issue either, as this Taupo & Turangi News article last week about a one-sided panel discussion on this topic demonstrates. Not that I am biased or anything (?!), but I am speaking as an independent and not as a ratepayer funded supposedly neutral source of information.

Other Electoral antics: Okay so the Electoral Officer declining to intervene on ratepayer-funded electoral bias should probably not surprise, given the recent revelation that it took ACT MP Cameron Luxton petitioning the Electoral Commission for them to remove a link to Local Government New Zealand’s (LGNZ) blatant pro-Māori ward messaging, and also declining to intervene after Council staff deleted Rotorua Mayoral candidate Robert Lee’s campaign material which included some informational snippets of youtube material available in the public domain. My opinion: The Electoral Commission does not know how to do their job which is to administer a fair and unbiased electoral process, and in future will need firm instructing from above. In the meantime, the status quo powers get to retain their influences.

Careful who you vote for: Claims that foreign states are targeting your local Councillors including through sister city arrangements just like we have going on here in Taupo. Last year or so Councillors Rachel Shepherd and Anna Park went off on a media unreported week-long lark to China (mostly funded by the Chinese city of ??), and I am sure some good will was received – but is that all they brought back?

Speaking of Rachel…Recall I reported on the vandalism of candidate placards last week? Well it looks like that beacon of balanced argument organisation Hobson’s Pledge decided to post up their own revised headline to assist people’s understanding, as shown on left.

Duncan talks: Here I talk for about an hour in an interview with Tristan Baynham of the Taupo Ratepayers Group about a whole bunch of Council stuff from rates caps to speed humps to fluoride.

Ann talks too: Here we have Taupo ward candidate Ann Tweedie talking for about 15 min with RCR interviewer Paul Brennan about her aspirations in Council should she be so lucky to be elected (or is that unlucky?), and like me she is big on capping rates so will be getting my tick.

Ha ha funny- NOT: In his latest post on Facebook Mayoral candidate Kevin Taylor doubles down on portraying that he will be the People’s Advocate against the scary changes of Central Government coming in the future. I find it hilarious that ex-policeman Kevin positions himself like this, because he is absolutely the last person I would be expecting to push back on authority instead of asking how high they want us to jump. More concerning though, is that he probably does believe it.

Truth is what you say it is: A thoughtful post about the history of this land and the Treaty was put out by local Sophie M Smith, entitled It Wasn’t Ours to Begin With. I don’t completely buy it though, because for one thing our recreational access to the lake is a clear obligation under the 1991 Resource Management Act and is not just down to Iwi generosity as she portrays. Aside from that, did Maui really get the lot as soon as he touched it, mountains lakes and all? Methinks there is a little more to it than just Sophies article says, and for a good context we need to look further back than just 1970 or even 1870 – perhaps 1770 is more realistic.

Sensible Speed Limits: A 60 km/hr speed limit past the Motutere campground is getting a revisit by NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA), when it really shouldn’t have been put back to 100 km/hr in the first place earlier this year. I haven’t quite worked out if it was NZTA’s intransigence at the time and/or the fairly tepid advocacy by this Council to push back, but at least something is now happening and you can make a submission here due 17 November. There is also a proposed 60km/hr stretch for Hawera and submissions for that close 29 October.

Rotorua ratepayer money down the drain: Here Rotorua Councillor Robert Lee briefly describes how $2.5M was given away along with $300K/year and all in the name of…honouring the Treaty? I thought they always said it came free.

Condolences: Taupo ward candidate Belinda Walker tragically and suddenly lost her 19 year-old son last week. All politics aside no-one ever deserves that to happen, and all sympathies extend.

Friday piece of flippancy: I have suspected for quite some time now, but is it really true?

Friday’s Flickering Fantics

3 October 2025

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

This week of Councilly happenings we have:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It’s sometimes been a blast,

We haven’t always seen eye to eye,

But that’s the die been cast.

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

Perhaps it’s just as well,

I might not be here otherwise,

Giving you all…

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

Campaign Priority#3: Cap Rates to Inflation

23 September 2025

Councillor Duncan here, recalling my three campaign priorities:

#1 Restore Democracy

#2 Take Back Control of Council

#3 Cap Rates to Inflation

You can read about #1 and #2 here, but today I want to talk about #3 Cap Rates to Inflation which seems like a pipe dream to some, with abounding comments like:

Councils don’t run on bread and butter like the rest of us you know, what about the price of concrete?

What about catering for future growth?

Won’t our infrastructure fall to bits if we don’t put enough money into it?

The list can go on, but the fact of the matter is that if rates increase as per their current trajectory, anyone who doesn’t have a second fortune stashed away is going to be run off their own properties by the time they reach retirement. I am sure many have already.

One only has to look at the last few Long Term Plan (LTP) forecasts to see that an optimism reigns which takes no account of future uncertainties, and the self-imposed limits are continually being ratcheted upwards up from a mere 3% in 2018 to 7.7% in 2024 (and these get regularly exceeded anyway). Do people realise that Council staff will always find reasons to spend more money than we can actually afford, and it is legitimately and legally on elected members to reign things in? But that hasn’t been happening in Taupo for quite a long time.

What about doing fewer niceties? We can all probably think of a few things in the district that needn’t have happened, from the very expensive Council building saga from 2017 to the present day, to the Taupo town centre transformation project which many people still complain about, to the 6km of wire rope barrier on SH1 between Taupo airport and SH5 where there were no previous safety issues to speak of (okay that was NZTA and not Council). And yes, maybe even Boom Boom the dinosaur sculpture too.

What about doing stuff cheaper? Most of the Council debt goes towards infrastructure, and I know in my own professional field that smarter design can achieve a good enough result for a fraction of the price. For example these Compact Urban Roundabouts I developed a few years ago occupy much less road space than conventional designs which can make a big cost difference. So it is not all just about the price of asphalt, and having a guy or gal who knows just the right place to tap the hammer can be invaluable.

For one thing, I will tell you that the proposed $20M land disposal scheme (plus running costs) for the Turangi wastewater treatment plant is an absolute nicety. It has been portrayed to the public as necessary for environmental reasons, when that simply is not the case. It is being pushed along for cultural reasons alone, and goodness knows how much has been expended on consultants and staff time in the past five years plus. I wouldn’t mind so much if the constituents of Taupo were being properly informed, but that hasn’t been happening.

And what about that new bridge over the Waikato River we apparently so desperately need? I cover that in some detail here, but basically this Council spent $300K on a consultant last year to produce a lengthy study that not only didn’t even seriously consider options which could negate building an additional bridge altogether, but also failed to assess when the current bridge needs replacing. I found the sheer arrogance of the elected member leadership on this project to be quite astounding, and the workshop when it finally did happen in July 2025 nearly a year afterwards was a true gaslit gala of smoke and mirrors.

What about consultants? According to the Taxpayer’s Union Ratepayer Report of 2023, Taupo District Council spent over $50M on consultants and contractors the previous financial year. In comparison, Invercargill City Council and Kapiti Coast District Council with similar populations and staff numbers each spent less than $5M each on the same. So what’s going on? I haven’t been able to verify what these figures exactly do represent, but the Taxpayer’s Union are standing by them. Asking the same question again in 2025, I was told by our Council Chief Executive that this information is too laborious to readily access – and that seems strange to me, because this is an important metric that should be regularly reviewed. I think it is fine to hire a consultant if they are going to come up with better ideas to save us money, but from the examples above I can tell this is not always happening.

What about staff? Local amateur sleuth Sophie M Smith put out a recent article about the nearly $1M we spend each year on Communications and Public Relations staff salaries, and on top of that the $1.7M on marketing (which I understand includes the Destination Great Lake Taupo CCO which continues to claim that every dollar invested generates $800 of income for the district – yeah right). I think these aspects of Council are particularly overdue for review. Mayoral candidate Zane Cozens has mentioned that staff numbers at Taupo District Council have ballooned 30% in the past ten years, and I say what also needs to be asked is whether we are even employing the right people in the first place.

Why, oh why do things have to be this way?

The answer is: They don’t.

In an alternative universe where rates were capped a few decades ago and some common sense did prevail, for one thing I believe we would not have the current road cone nightmare – because Councils would have been so pushed that things wouldn’t have been allowed to get this far. That is one of the more visible symptoms of unrestrained bureaucratic spending, but there are also more bums on seats than necessary and probably a lot more besides.

I believe that tying Council rates to the inflation that consumers experience is not only doable, it is imperative to even be sustainable for residents to carry on living here. We just need to knuckle down and work smarter, and I know that it is possible. First term Mayor of Wanganui Andrew Tripe did it and without any magical silver bullets – so can we.

Campaign Priority #2: Take Back Control of Council

17 September 2025

Councillor Duncan here, recalling my three campaign priorities:

#1 Restore Democracy

#2 Take Back Control of Council

#3 Cap Rates to Inflation

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

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

For this to happen:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Campaign Priority#1: Restore Democracy

10 September 2025

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

#1 Restore Democracy

#2 Take Back Control of Council

#3 Cap Rates to Inflation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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