Fridays Dribbling On

16 October 2026

Disclaimer: I do occasionally use AI, but almost never in any of the text for these Friday updates.

Quote for today and it’s from me this time: “I’d rather be an artistic engineer, than an architect who only knows how to build on sand”.

Hi people and this week I have some things to tell but also some things not, because as mentioned last week I am withdrawing my attention from Council areas where my interest is minimal or proper scrutiny not being allowed. First lets get over with the some things not: (i) the third (or fourth) Long Term Plan (LTP) capital works workshop you can watch HERE with AI summary HERE – nothing too riveting that I can tell and includes some stuff about erosion control and EUL land etc; (ii) the Reserves Management Plan workshop you can watch HERE with AI summary HERE – this is an endeavour I opposed going ahead in the first place because it doesn’t seem warranted, but you will hear more about it later when it gets public consulted.

Talkfest at your expense: Several of your Elected Members have been attending the Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) annual conference, this year conveniently being held 14-15 October in Rotorua. Now I wouldn’t have bothered going if it wasn’t so close to home, and even though this Council pays around $90K annual membership you still had to fork out around $1500 for each of us to go.

But the food was excellent (pork belly cutlets were a highlight) in the lovely Rotorua gardens setting even in the rain, and some of the people I talked and met with were pretty good value even though I am sure there are cheaper ways of doing those things. For anybody interested in reading about it you can read the programme HERE, but its not very informative and none of the presenters were required to submit any papers with their thoughts in writing. I did see some video cameras around, but the last time I enquired with LGNZ about recordings the response was that they don’t have the funds or personnel – I have my sincere doubts about that, and reckon its rather they don’t want too many outsider eyeballs looking in. Compared to the engineering conferences which I have attended numerous occasions in the past (which are not overly exciting), the topics were pretty dry and not very solutions-oriented.

The upcoming amalgamations did of course get mention and Minister of Local Government Simon Watts was game to turn up and face a lot of heckles, like our own Councillor Wahine Murch’s which you can watch HERE – but I didn’t really glean a lot from the spinning central government party politicians who did come along or even if they have much of a handle on local government. But Nelson Mayor and former central government minister Nick Smith did make a pointed spiel about locally collected transport levies of $45M which he reckons should go to them rather than Wellington, although that idea clearly deserves proper scrutiny. Matamata-Piako Mayor Ash Tanner’s pointed claim that they are doing quite well enough and that any amalgamation would be detrimental to them was interesting – I suppose there must be a few well functioning Councils, but I have heard that claim too many times around here to believe it at face value. The minor highlights for me apart from the food and company, was the playground disaster roleplay exercise when a heckler brought up fluoride, and Wollongong Lord Mayor Tania Brown whose anecdotes on rate capping since 1977 will undoubtedly be taken as ammunition from both camps. Although she indicated rate caps clearly drive innovation and thinking outside the square, her passing mention that voters would surely un-elect politicians if gross wasteful spending was detected seems a little naive considering the Kiwi politically lethargic psyche.

I did have a chat with an employment agency for Chief Executives, and he agreed that New Zealand is very much a rotating inner circle for these people and the modern world expectations on them to in-depth understand all aspects of Council business is indeed quite inhuman. What else did I learn of value at the conference? Not much really, except only anecdotal things such as local government have to keep and maintain 25% of the nations infrastructure on only 10% of the tax take which is so grossly unfair – but as I said, this conference is very much off the public record and any outside scrutiny of what gets said is not made easy. So our Council Daisy felt quite at home, and perhaps she is feeling complacent that forced change isn’t coming like happened in 1989 as Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roache who recalls an LGNZ conference in 1986 where 99% of participants were dead against it. Oh yes, and Taupo District Council won the SuperLocal Award first place for the East Urban Lands (EUL) which is delivering cheap housing for locals.

Okay that’s enough about the party, so what other tidbits have we got?

So that’s how they did it: Remember last week I mentioned how Waikato District Council last financial year managed to keep rates at inflation and also get a surplus? Well it turns out they did it by getting rid of over a quarter of their staff or 125 of their roughly 450 employees, as you can read about HERE (including an expensive Chief Executive who resigned, but I suppose they will have to get another one of those). Wow that’s impressive alright, and it really does appear that their new mayor Aksel Bech is a guy who actually went in with a plan. Their Strategy and Growth group will be completely disestablished – the people who work on long-term planning, district development, housing supply and economic strategy. Perhaps its just because I am a mere doer engineer, but I have always wondered about the value of those people myself.

Smart contractors know how to game the system: That is my experience, and following some recent conversations I’ll try to tell some of my tidbits of wisdom below. Smart/disingenuous mean pretty much the same, and for jobs which really blow out it is usually the client who is most at fault. Contractors or consultants pretending to be naive about potential pitfalls can get paid dividends, and I have seen that happen first hand. Council clients who know much less about the job than the tenderer are at their mercy, a recent example which springs to mind is the $400k being forked out to a Christchurch consultant to tell us we need an $80M transport solution for Taupo town. At this Council we also have the Chief Executive with authority to discretely shovel up to $500K between contracts, and poof! that means we can have some perfect storms which hardly anybody notices. If a client can’t tell the difference between good and bad then the cheapest price will often win, and in a small town like this it probably also pays to be well connected (one of my former consultant engineer bosses made it his business to befriend key clients over coffee and lots of extras, a bit hit and miss but I have to acknowledge it helped educate that we were indeed the best option and it did get us work). Unlike yesterday, Councils are not the most rewarding and stimulating places they once were for motivated and experienced staff to stay on and innovate, so its the smart-ass contractors who will stay in business and nice guys who try to factor in all the eventualities who won’t often win. The moral of the story to all of this and I hope it doesn’t sound negative: its all about the client.

Sloppiness under the microscope: New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) released an audit report of Taupo District Council practices which you can read HERE (happens every several years), and I give an AI generated summary below in italics. I have noticed before the incomplete nature of safety audit reports from this Council – as in, somewhat vague record of just who exactly is taking responsibility. If some of you remember the Arrowsmith Avenue/ Kiddle Drive debacle around 2019, I pursued it further at the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) regional office to try and get them to understand that if they are dishing out swathes of money then perhaps they should keep an eye on how it is getting spent (road safety projects in general get around 50% subsidy). However, although the experienced middle management engineer I spoke to agreed with my sentiments he had no authority to intervene. By the time I escalated to the senior manager who could intervene, I was talking to a somebody who claimed it wasn’t in his job description to even properly understand. I have been down that road before at another large public institution (Auckland Transport), and it can be safe to say that I am not a great believer in the management ethos which preaches they don’t need ground experience in the field. In this regard I believe Councils are much worse than the private sector because accountability for results is much rarer, with senior management too often there for political reasons and relevant experience just one factor. Remember: Councils almost never go bankrupt, so the only real limit to their sloppiness is you at the voting booth. The AI summary if the NZTA report:

“A recent NZ Transport Agency audit of Taupō District Council’s roading operations has highlighted some important issues around value for money, road safety and long-term maintenance. While the auditors acknowledged that our roads are generally in reasonable condition and commended the capability of Council’s roading team, they also identified areas requiring improvement. Of particular concern was the finding that Council has not been routinely undertaking the required financial assessments to demonstrate that pavement rehabilitation and drainage renewal projects represent the best whole-of-life value for money. The audit also found that many of the road safety audits examined were incomplete, with insufficient documentation of how identified safety concerns had been addressed. This is particularly relevant given recent public concerns about the cost of some Council roading safety projects. Although the NZTA findings do not establish that those particular projects were overpriced, they reinforce the importance of transparent decision-making, robust financial justification and proper safety assessments. Ratepayers should be able to see not only that a project improves safety, but also that the expenditure is justified, proportionate and delivers genuine value for money”.

Dare to complain: For those of you unhappy with anything Council or any other government organisation, the Ombudsman has recently put out some advice for using AI for making complaints which you can read HERE. I really think they are trying to make their own life easier, but fair enough if it helps you get an answer any quicker. But my own experience with the Ombudsman is very hit and 90% miss because their jurisdiction is so very narrow, and my better bet is to broadcast any of my dissatisfactions to you.

Bad vibes from those in charge: Rotorua Lakes Council on behalf of Rotorua Airport is currently opposing on safety grounds the proposed expansion of a nearby maori-language immersion school which you can read about HERE. The school isn’t too happy because this opposition is going to load them with extra costs, and I must admit it is seeming a mite miserable because if a plane crashes into them it will already be quite bad. Is there more to it than just that?

Be enlightened if you dare: Ever wondered what your Covid so-called conspiracy theorist relatives are on about? Perhaps if you watch THIS you might have something to talk about this coming Christmas apart from just the weather, when you are obliged to socialise for a few excruciating hours.

Fridays live is life, so this week try to make the best of it:

Fridays Much Ado About Nothings

25 September 2026

Disclaimer: I do occasionally use AI, but almost never in any of the text for these Friday updates.

Matthew 10:16 tells us something most politicians can’t be accused of including probably myself too much of the time, but if it comes from God then it must be true: “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves”.

Well, well, what about it then. The government has decided to hold off on their Council amalgamation decision until after the election, instead of announcing it this month as originally planned. So I guess instead of scaring the horses at this inopportune moment, they must really want to win this to-the-wire election instead. So touché, bravo and well played Prime Minister Luxon, and I have to admit not seeing that one coming but in hindsight it makes a lot of sense. Politics is a ruthless human game after all, and it takes ruthless types to excel.

Apart from that, what did we have on at Council this week? Nothing! For the first time in quite a while Elected Members had a whole week off, no meetings or workshops or anything at all! I took it as a very welcome break after some of the recent few months tumultuations, and yesterday even managed a bluebird day in the snow. Because this role can suck it out of you at times, and its not for the fainthearted if you want to stay true. Next week is looking a little busier though, and I will rattle off a few of the more important things below:

Northern Access Workshop: Next Tuesday we have the first of our Long Term Plan (LTP) Capital Programme Workshops starting at 10am, where the Northern Access project is scheduled to be discussed (that’s the $80M project for the new Waikato river bridge). It was originally supposed to happen this week, but for undisclosed reasons was deferred. Yes I do have a grievance because just like the Joint Management Agreement and countless other things that happened last term, this Council’s behind-closed-doors modus operandi makes things more complicated than they need to be. Anyway I expect to be finally able to properly table my idea for a three-lane bridge and Waikato Street connection which has been playing on my mind since 2022. Because $80M is a lot of money and its the biggest LTP capital item by far, and guess who’s paying for it: You. By the way anybody in the transport profession like me who have practiced in cities are basically socialists by profession – who do you think decides that for the betterment of everybody, people need to get on buses?

Publicity but only for those more equal than others: Next Tuesday at the monthly Council meeting (read the agenda HERE) I am tabling a Notice of Motion item 5.10 that Council funded media include some coverage for Elected Members. For example you may recall the Councillor Korero inserts which used to be in the Taupo & Turangi Times? They took a required pause during the local government elections of 2025 but still haven’t been reinstated, just why that is the case is still not clear. Not every constituent is digitally inclined or even tunes in to Duncandoestaupo.com, so I think it is important that you get to hear how Elected Members are thinking whether they feel like talking or not. There is also the question of political messaging: I figure that because Councils are political organisations and “politician” happens to be our job description then you are entitled to hear our views, but that is contrary to the previous Taupo District Council guidelines which said “no political messaging”. I want those guidelines changed because if its okay for Mayor John Funnell to espouse on Council media his own political messages, then it should be okay for the rest of us too.

Here’s the solution but where’s the problem? Item 5.4 at the Council meeting is to do with powers of attorney, and like anything legal its convoluted but here my antennae are up. I don’t take anything to do with this Council for granted anymore, and I note my favourite Deputy Mayor gets special mention in this piece. People say in this business we should be free of personal angst, but in a place where accountability is in short supply – what really else is there? Anyway it is what it is, and I have my suspicions. Anybody who is a lawyer out there is welcome to contact and allay my concerns.

Apart from that, what else do we have?

What about that bypass? I forgot to mention one thing from my meeting at last weeks Waikato Regional Council (WRC) Transport Committee meeting in Hamilton – the Taupo to Turangi Bypass running between Hatepe and Motuoapa. This was a project scoped out back in 2017 at quite some expense as you can see with this SH1 Taupo to Waiouru Indicative Business Case (IBC). However the NZTA web page on the close to $1B project more or less sums it up: “has not progressed due to changes in priorities and funding”. But what a great thing when it does get to happen (will be a toll road most likely), estimated to save 14 min drive time and then we get a lakeside road for meandering tourist traffic only (a downside is that Taupo District Council gets to own and maintain it)

Not what they said it would be: Well the Local Government Improvement Bill just got past its third reading, but the Taxpayer’s Union (TU) isn’t too happy because they claim it only strengthens a Council Chief Executives hand to hold on to information that Elected Members seek. Watch HERE for the interview with Minister Simon Watts. Last week I shared a submission of mine to this bill, but I clearly misunderstood because its far too late for that – and if they won’t listen to TU then they wouldn’t have listened to me anyway.

Just good business? Watch HERE for Duncan Garner talking about the trebling of Taupo District Councils rental arrangement with Tuwharetoa which most of us have already heard about, but he is also quite incensed about a culture of information clasping which I can absolutely attest to. Information is generally only released on a “need to know” basis, and this has been one of my major frustrations the past four years. Is it perhaps just a coincidence that our Deputy Mayor is an ex-senior policeman, and that happens to also be the attitude of NZ Police?

Anyway it has stimulated myself to ask some questions, because as far as I was aware the building lease was already a done deal by the time I arrived as an Elected Member in 2022 (and it wasn’t on my radar list of priorities anyway). But I now have suspicions that it actually wasn’t a done deal: What if it was an option to not go through with, but never tabled? It has certainly happened before alright, but back in 2022 I was too green to have a clue.

Because we say so: Far North Councillor Davina Smolders recently put out an interesting post about confidentiality which you can read HERE. As an Elected Member the first thing I always challenge is the need for confidentiality in the first place, because that decision itself can be subjective. The Council staff response can be legitimate, but too often is effectively just: “because we say so”. In addition, some documents are held electronically not shareable including those not deemed “classified”, so feeding it through AI for advice is that much harder – I had a lot of problem with that last term, so far this term things are somewhat better.

Fridays sci-fi premonition of the week: Council Daisy in 2027?

Fridays Fairy Troubleshooting

11 September 2026

A well known quote from George Bernhard Shaw (1856 – 1950) which seems quite pertinent to recent happenings:

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man”.

Councillor Duncan once again on Friday to make your life more interesting. This week Council was mostly just fluff which I make a few notes on below, but I’ll talk first about the rift I appear to have caused with my latest assertions about the conduct of some of my fellow Elected Members followed up with some support from my Aunty. Now I am generally a straight talking kind of guy from West Auckland, and realise not all appreciate that approach down here in the provinces. However I am also somebody who believes in due process, and Council’s Standing Orders expressly require open, transparent and democratically accountable decision-making, while our Code of Conduct requires members to work constructively and transparently, make decisions on merit, and expressly protects robust debate. Where a substantive motion(s) is defeated without a single member of the majority articulating the reasons for opposing as happened on 25 August, the public is entitled to ask how those principles of transparent and accountable decision-making have been satisfied. In that instance nobody can claim it happened, so I say this is dangerous and that’s why I am making such a fuss.

But from this some interesting things also came out of the woodwork, like local blogger/investigator Sophie M Smith’s pushback with her article HERE accusing me for “losing the room”. I find it quite extraordinary that someone like her who advocates for transparency and accountability, not only decides to castigate me for only insisting that it happens, but as a Facebook group admin also block censored me from posting my responses! Now Sophie has written some excellent articles in the past so I don’t want to give her too hard a time, but I really hope she uses this episode to rethink what she is about. Councillors like me get paid to do a job which people vote us in for, why doesn’t she instead start asking about the ones who say nothing at all?

There was also an interesting question regarding my general conduct which was put to the Mayor and his Deputy at the Kinloch Councillor Connect session which I didn’t attend but got a tip-off (watch HERE). The member of the public who asked didn’t identify himself, but he did make an interesting observation which I will paraphrase: How come I am getting away with being so disruptive? The answer friends, is that Council Chambers are not like Cabinet in Parliament, and there is no “collective responsibility” which applies for us to acquiesce with decisions we don’t agree – although it certainly gets strongly implied. Instead you should think of us as a Parliament, and just as you wouldn’t expect Te Pati Maori to shut up about Act’s latest musings about the Treaty of Waitangi you shouldn’t expect us to remain quiet. That’s if we are doing our job of politicians of course – and a lot of them aren’t. They are instead being conned it is like a rugby game, that it’s all about teamwork and for the greater good you had better toe the line.

That is a recipe for every minority view to get squashed whatever its merits, and for the status quo to remain. I bet the All Blacks (when they win anyway), are more astute than that.

Apart from all that carry on, what else?

Staff first: We had a few Councillor Connect Forums in Kinloch and Acaia Bay which I didn’t attend because I also happen to be a working man, and also the Owen Delaney sports hub opening. On that note I have several times over the years brought up the topic of Council meetings which seem to nearly always suit the calendars of Council staff than the public at large. At Councils I have previously been employed Chamber meetings were nearly always in the evenings so that not just unemployed or retirees could attend. Then again I suppose if more public came along, that might be more open and transparent right? And we can’t have Council staff missing out on their evenings at the gym.

A lot of money not voted on: There are some workshops scheduled in the near future on significant infrastructure projects, the first at 10am on Tuesday 22 September is for the Northern AccessTransport Project (est. $70M) (public included, I presume). People this project is quite close to my heart, and in fact the origin of my ruptures with the rest of Elected Members last term. In 2023 I was elected on the basis of my engineering knowledge especially transport, and I can’t help it if I am most probably the most qualified in the district by a country mile. But the transport study which happened 2023/24 I was completely excluded from contributing to and on no stated grounds at all – and let me tell you that I was a heck of a lot more accommodating back then than now. Imagine if a Maori ward councillor was excluded from anything to do with Maori – yes I consider it really was that bad. But personal grievances aside, I have put together this special page with timelines and some info along with my suggested option which still has never yet been tabled. People we are talking about a $70M line item in our Long Term Plan (LTP), which has never been properly scrutinised, debated or discussed! Now we have staff spending $150K this financial year carrying it on, when the question has not even been properly addressed of: Do we really need a second bridge?

Ratepayers, or Iwi interests first? Five Mile Bay came up in our backroom conversations Tuesday, and a current theme for Taupo District Council getting involved at all seems to be around public communication versus institutional risk and convenience. Its true that Council cannot directly force Te Kotahitanga o Ngāti Tūwharetoa (TKNT) to honour their Treaty obligation to manage the public reserve portions properly, but in my mind clearly we could be advocating on behalf of the public who wish to enter. As for the building and regulatory breaches which are apparently also happening, it seems all of that gets discussed in the backroom of the backroom and Elected Members like me will not be seeing anything much of it. Its all about “relationships” you see, because we cannot possibly risk our Iwi partners getting offended.

Factchecker checkmates themselves: Not really Council related but since it concerns Selwyn Councillor Elizabeth Mundt whom I am acquainted with, I’ll mention this factcheck article on late term abortions in New Zealand. If its a topic you’re not interested in then give it a miss, but I think it is quite ironic that the fairly cynical factchecker at least did a competent job of proving Elizabeth largely right.

Not quite what I expected: Our Chief Ombudsman John Allen gives an impassioned speech at Turangawaewae watch HERE. Not sure in his position where in the spectrum of politics he thinks that he should be, but this guy certainly gave it all and perhaps we might yet see him in parliament.

Wouldn’t happen here: Councillor Mesh Macdonald gives a useful insight of the mechanics of Hamilton City Council which you can watch HERE This is about reallocation of $415K of a cancelled project which their elected members got to vote what to do with. At Taupo District Council this is unlikely to ever happen, because anything under $500K is at the Delegated Authority of the Chief Executive to more or less distribute as they please to anything else on the programme. I did an AI examination of the financial policies with the differences quite telling as per below, and symptomatic I think of the new regime in place there this term. In essence: Hamilton keeps much more “operational” level spending decisions with Elected Members, whilst Taupo delegates them to staff.

Speed bumps for safety: Hamilton has quite a few more nowadays which you can read about HERE. I was fairly influential in starting off the trend in Auckland a while back, and especially at roundabouts to save both money and lives. Hasn’t caught on in Taupo yet, but if amalgamation happens it might.

Never happens here? Maxim Institute discusses the issue of voting fraud watch HERE which I attempted to investigate in the 2025 local body election but was stifled by our electoral officer who would not provide any double-up voting data which might have provided evidence of fraud. Did I have any evidence or suspicion? Not at all, but that not really the point, is it?

Nuclear option: Bryan Leyland is an experienced power generation engineer I am acquainted with, and he just put out this submission to Engineering NZ which is the professional body which people like me are members of. This is following a discussion briefing to new Ministers which the organisation is putting together, and to which Bryan is quite at odds and challenging any members to contradict his assertions. My own experience with Engineering NZ is that they have been quite politically captured, so good luck with that.

Fridays lesson on how to nicely make an impact, should I start dressing up too?

Fridays Worm Turning

4 September 2026

Disclaimer: I do occasionally use AI, but very rarely in any of the text for these Friday updates.

Ecclesiastes 3 1-3 is about death and life and turning things around, things we need to do almost every day: “To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, And a time to die; A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted; A time to kill, And a time to heal; A time to break down, And a time to build up;”

Hi all its Councillor Duncan calling again, and this week in Council not so much went on – oh we did have a Water Services Committee on Tuesday which you can watch HERE but there isn’t much to report as no decisions were made and the talk was fairly idle. But we did have a few things of interest being put out by some politicians, like Prime Minister Chris Luxon last week now saying that they perhaps won’t force any Councils to amalgamate – which is completely contrary to the previous messaging put out by his Ministers Chris Bishop and Simon Watts. I think National are possibly now thinking that getting re-elected now means everything, and anything they said before might count for less. But we won’t have long to wait and see if that’s true, because the amalgamation announcement is set to come out in just a few weeks time.

There is also now some confirmed and legislated rates capping being set in place, but they won’t apply until 2029 and Taupo Mayor John Funnell is already putting out some warning signals that public services will inevitably suffer. But his message comes without much explanation of how or where we are making any savings now, and of course the Annual Plan (AP) just recently signed off at just 0.1% less than forecast didn’t give many hints either. I recently put a list of specific questions about AP projects which still remain unanswered, and Mayor Funnell told me to not waste staff time! Water services are unfortunately excluded from rates capping, and as they make up roughly 40% of expenditure it is a moot point if ratepayers will much notice the difference anyway. We have a Water Services Committee which could dictate some capping on the basis of affordability, and a Water Services Strategy is currently being developed to be public consulted late this year which potentially could include that. But there is no willingness to include rates capping at present, so the pressure for it to happen will have to come from the public – that’s you. Until then, I guess Council Daisy will carry on with the high life as she’s been doing for so long.

I would have thought more informed decision making for Elected Members would be a key way forward to keeping costs down, yet when I tabled two items last week including to help make that happen Mayor Funnell and most of the other Councillors declined to even make comment before they voted against. After I pointed this out publicly as dummy behavior a few of them took offence, but not enough to yet explain themselves why they took that stance. Which is a shame for transparency to the public, whom from my social media responses seem to find it hard to discern between a convenient or wise silence. To that I say that dummies can still be dignified, but they are dummies all the same.

In other news:

You get to pay for our mistake: On Tuesday we did have an update around the Taupo Landfill resource consent saga, and I’m afraid its not looking good. The last time I reported on this was in May and the trajectory is roughly the same. To cut a long story short – the landfill is forecast to be full by end of 2027 with a new resource consent required to expand, and Taupo District Council have left things too late to get it for Environment Court hearings to be done and dusted in time if objections are received to drag things on – and it is looking like the working group which includes Deputy Mayor Kevin Taylor and Councillor Wahine Murch haven’t been able to placate affected natives enough to stop that happening. Yes folks, that could mean up to around $4M or so a year additional costs to truck our waste out of district, and all because we didn’t start the consent process a few years earlier. I wonder if the Chief Executive should be chipping in out of her salary, who after all must be the one most responsible for letting this thing slip? Or perhaps it would be cheaper to pay some $$ to objectors for their inconvenience and make them go away (isn’t that what the Resource Management Act is all about)?

Chipping away: Hamilton Councillor Mesh MacDonald recently broadcast about a change she instigated for getting the more conservative contract estimates out of the mix. I don’t have a problem with staff putting in conservative estimates in a Long Term Plan and before a tender goes out, because as the staff say at least that means they know it can be afforded. The bigger issue is what is in that tender in the first place or even if it should be going out, and if just like in Taupo Elected Members aren’t able to properly influence that – then Houston we have a problem.

Heroes in the fold: I really admire Far North District Councillor Davina Smolders for being an Act party candidate up north, exposing her Council for what they actually are. If I ever thought my job here in Taupo is tough, then get a load of her. The latest is she got booted off a Council committee for only being contrary, but I think they only make themselves look even more stupid to the public and for the government to perhaps step in. So well done Agent Smolders, and maybe somebody should tell Mayor Moko Tepania that Council is not a rugby team, and that Councillors are not his players.

A little left field for me but I’ll say it anyway: New Zealand could be setting itself up for a big fall alright, hear about what is being lined up for the agricultural sector, and how we could be once again snatching for a defeat.

Fridays bit of nostalgia: Anybody remember the political worm which got Peter Dunne into Parliament?

Your Elected Dummies

2 September 2026

The above picture is pretty much how I felt at the last Tuesday 25th August meeting of Taupo District Council after tabling my two Notice of Motions about improving staff information in reports and requesting a staff report on the New Years fireworks. Because apart from one minor exception, all the Councillors I have labelled as dummies had nothing to say before voting to the negative. Only Councillor Hope Woodward online (who also Seconded) contributed anything of worth to the debate on both counts, and although the recording doesn’t show it many of the others were heavily engaged on their devices throughout my presenting (watch the 20 min recording HERE).

What did I say, what did I do, to deserve such a ceremonial boo?

I cannot recall ever voting against any item without at least justifying because I figure at very least the public are owed an explanation, and otherwise isn’t that only what dummies do? So I challenged Councillors on this yesterday at our weekly backroom catchup, and apart from Councillor Kylie Leonard who left the room so outraged at such an accusation, was only able to get one piece of useful feedback and from a new elect – “we had discussed it all before”. Folks, the only reason I table any item at all for a public meeting, is because the issue isn’t getting properly addressed out of public view. I don’t completely blame the new elects though, because they were only following the lead of some more experienced who also played dumb.

Last week I labelled this as a conspiracy of silence, and I don’t think I am wrong. So I encourage you to tell them that they need to lift their game, and next time that it happens I will post again to shame.

Because it’s not just me they are disrespecting, they are also disrespecting you.

Fridays Best and Worst of Times

28 August 2026

Disclaimer: I do occasionally use AI, but very rarely in any of the text for these Friday updates.

Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities (1859), a book I once started and never had the patience to finish, and somehow it just resonates in the times of today: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way”.

I sometimes get accused of being too negative, yes really, and manage to somehow brass off somebody every week. But I can’t help how I come across at times, and I can’t understand how anybody can be motivated to fix something unless they first point out what’s broken. After I posted the video last Friday showing Dr John Campbells (no relation) breakdown of the white blood clots phenomenon, I was contacted by a local medical professional who berated me for broadcasting (my paraphrasing) unsubstantiated tripe . He also seems to think that politics is like say science and engineering, and that compelling truths are always liable to be accepted if only they are well presented..

My answer to the above: (i) The medical establishments reputation is thoroughly tarnished for its absence of ethical behaviour during covid, but I mostly blame the politicians who created this great divide in our society with the unwarranted vaccine mandates; (ii) Politics is not like science or engineering or law, where we like to think that most of the time truth and reason will prevail. Politics is about people: some who are truthful in the main, but enough who are devious and manipulative with their own often unspoken agenda; and (iii) as to the compelling argument idea – what if it isn’t even allowed to be presented? A Chairperson can politically intervene by simply excluding disagreeable voices from being heard, and some decisions come predetermined. In other words its a pretty rotten game, and I think we have enough local examples to go off.

We had our monthly Council meeting on Tuesday, and it was a lengthy one. As always you can find the agenda here, and for the entire over three-hour meeting you can watch HERE. There were quite a few items of interest this time, and incredibly I was still perky enough at the end (and sitting through all this guff is not like a real job). I will rattle through the main items as per below in their respective order:

Lakeside troubles linger: We had two members of the public make their submissions about the proposed new roundabout about to start construction at Maunganamu Drive/ Lake Terrace near Wharewaka, (watch from HERE). The first was Dean Stockwell of Pukenamu Road with a well presented summary of events which you can read HERE, as well as the Council produced community engagement summary which spells it all out loud and clear – 91% of the 55 surveyed Lakeside people don’t want to be connected. This issue seems somewhat convoluted and I also gave a report to it last week, but in short the Council’s position to connect Pukenamu Road has always hinged on this one opinion of a lawyer regarding a previously stated commitment of the Lakeside developers: “External legal advice provided to Council was that not proceeding would leave an unmet obligation and expose Council to legal and funding issues”. Personally, I don’t believe in putting lawyers in charge of running our streets, and indeed the Lakeside residents asked Council last year to support their case in Environment Court if there was any uncertainty (the answer: a resounding “no”). In any case, my recent questions to the Council lawyer look as if they will be going unanswered:

“Where has the Court determined that the particular configuration now proposed by staff is legally required? If the Court has made that determination, could you please point me to the relevant paragraph? Also when you identify said persons who would conceivably make a legal challenge, as well as an evaluation of their possible chances to succeed – please let me know”.

Immediately following was Murray McCallum from the Maunganamu side, whose main gripe was that he only received a few days notice of the construction happening. Murray spoke very well, and to be fair it sounds as if the things he is concerned about have since been addressed and in quite a short time. So I fear the main points could be lost: it is common decency to consult not just inform; and as the Road Controlling Authority this Council is still responsible to its residents even though a developer might be building it.

Maori plans change: Item 5.2 Plan changes including Maori Purpose Zones got the final tick (watch from HERE). I didn’t have anything much to say here, except about a year ago I did write a more cynical social media post that these were being foisted upon us without much discussion – but at least I accept the well intentions, so lets see what does result.

Pedaling backwards but we didn’t look cool: 5.4 Review of Annual Plan Projects (watch from HERE) where Mayor Funnell is attempting to make some savings with a relook at projects already approved for the next 9 months or so. But we didn’t get very far, and the expected list for closer inspection never actually was agreed to. Councillor Rachel Cameron used it as a chance to berate the Mayor for looking backwards, and I talked about my already submitted in list of projects a month ago along with specific questions – the Mayor responded last week telling me not to waste precious staff time!

But I also challenged Deputy Mayor Kevin Taylor about his audacious behaviour last term, when he was directly responsible for inserting a $70M line item for a new Taupo township bridge and transport solution in the 2024-34 Long Term Plan (LTP) without any deliberation or debate. Kevin headed a Steering Group for the consultant $300K Northern AccessTransport Study which as far as I know has not seen the public light of day even two years later. In 2024 I felt strongly enough about this one matter that I refused to vote affirmative for the 2024-27 LTP, but the other Elected Members of the day were not so discerning. There is $150K set aside to continue this work in the next 9 months which I opposed going ahead until this gets revisited, but nobody took me up on that so I suppose will have to repeat myself about it. Oh yes, Kevin also mentioned that he managed to get this on the 2024-2054 Waikato Regional Land Transport Plan, but as No. 30 out of a total of 30 projects regionwide I can’t see that being of too much consequence. So what was the outcome of all this debating to and fro? Not much that I could tell, so somebody please wake me up in 2028 when this is all over.

Accountability yeah right: 5.5 Review of Chief Executives Delegated Financial Authority Limits (watch from HERE). Now this is where things get interesting. The staff item quite clearly identifies the problem, and even Deputy Mayor Taylor agrees – even though we decided on Tuesday to introduce a $1M limit to the Chief Executives signing authority, because Elected Members only get to see things at the very end of the process it will be a rubber stamping exercise only. So I now better understand why the spending limit was increased from $500K to unlimited two election cycles ago – they were just tickboxing then, just as we will be expected to tickbox now! So I brought along my suggested addition as per below, only for acting Chief Executive Sarah Matthews to point out it might be against the Local Government Act (LGA)! I still find it hard to comprehend what spanners get thrown my way, but anyway confusion then reigned so it will have to wait another day – probably until after our new elects get to see for themselves what rubber stamping really looks like. In the meantime, Council Daisy will continue to remain obliviously tipsy and at your expense. My suggested addition:

“That Council requests the Chief Executive to report back to Council on a pre-procurement governance gateway for significant projects, to ensure elected members have an opportunity to consider the project scope, practicable options, estimated costs and key strategic risks before the procurement process commences and before the project has substantially committed to a particular solution”.

Yay we get a binding referendum: 5.7 Electoral System for the 2028 and 2031 Triennial Elections (watch from HERE) where we agreed to a binding referendum to let you decide if we want First Past Post (FPP) as present versus the more interesting Single Transferrable Vote (STV). The referendum will be included in the 2028 local election papers so won’t cost much to make happen, and I am happy this will be a chance for Taupo residents to get a taste of some direct democracy action.

Silence of the lambs: 5.9 & 5.10 Notions of Motion (NoM) from myself to amend the standard staff report template for better informed decision-making, and also an item requesting a staff report on the New Years fireworks. Now the only thing of consequence from both of these which I think you should be aware – apart from some brief commentary from Councillor Hope Woodward who seconded, not a single other Elected Member had a word to say before voting to the negative. Watch the whole 20 min clip HERE to see for yourself, and although the camera unfortunately doesn’t show you can take it from me that during my presenting many of them were thoroughly engaged on their devices. I will probably do a special post next week to break this down further, but I’ll let you know in advance that I have fairly good reason to believe there was a conspiracy of silence going on. Because you know, being a team player is the main thing in Council chambers, right?

Apart from all that less than highly edifying business, what other tidbits are happening about the place?

In Rotorua money goes missing too: Sounds like over there they have some similar problems to us, and last week Councillor Robert Lee tried to get to the bottom of a $70M line item which managed to get slipped into their 2021 LTP going forward, but most of their elects weren’t interested in getting to the bottom of it. “Relitigating the past” some of them called it, but to me this sounds like they are just as bad as us at not wanting to learn from past mistakes. Watch the 28 min reel HERE if you like, I found it interesting.

Whistleblowers wanted: An interesting social media post appeared on the Taupo Noticeboard during the week from Daniel Gray who seems to know something the rest of us don’t. But anyway wish that I could help but I can’t, and good on him for asking because we absolutely need more people around here asking questions.

Who owns your child: Did you know what goes on behind closed doors in todays education? The idea that a school could connive with your child to take sex transitioning drugs and without parent consent is quite mind boggling, yet it is happening. Watch it HERE if you don’t believe me.

Fridays why we can’t do away with AI now that its an art:

Friday Facts Factually Matter

21 August 2026

Disclaimer: I do occasionally use AI, but very rarely in any of the text for these Friday updates.

Ngāti Whātua Chief Paora Tūhaere at the Kohimarama conference of 1860 “These are my words. I sustained the Pakeha a long time ago, and I found him good. Hence, I say, I shall always remember the Pakeha, and I shall always remember too, with affection, the Governer who was sent here to protect us. The benefits which we received from him are – Christianity and the Laws. Now, listen! My affections at the present time lie between these two blessings. Listen again! My heart is satisfied”.

Hi y’all its Councillor Duncan again, and last week somebody asked me to explain my engineering background so I will do so briefly here. I graduated Auckland University in 1991 as a civil engineer, and although I tried to escape it for a couple of years then fell into the transportation field and have been there ever since. After working for ten years or so I went back and completed a Masters degree including a thesis entitled “multi-lane roundabouts for cyclists” which was conveniently undertaken during work time because we managed to get government research funding, and my employment ever since has been with a mix of engineering consultancies and various Councils like Auckland City, Waitakere, and Auckland Transport. In 2015, I decided to try self-employment, and because we have the internet of things that meant we could move to small town Taupo even though my work is mostly city stuff. If you want to read more then head over to my website TRAFFESSIONALS although it hasn’t had much attention for a while.

This week Council has just ticked along, and because being a Councillor is not a full time role that means one can’t really afford to be taking deep dives into everything that comes along. So that means I didn’t attend the gambling policy workshop on Tuesday (watch HERE) or attend the Accelerator fund application hearings yesterday either. One observation after skipping through the record of the former though: If Council’s rationale for considering tighter controls on gambling is the need to minimise community harm, yet Councillors are acknowledging alcohol as potentially causing equal or greater harm, why doesn’t Council have a Local Alcohol Policy like some other places? I wasn’t there to contribute, but that’s what I would have said.

Okay lets rattle through everything else:

Elected voices quenched: It is pretty obvious to me that the public would like to hear from us Councillors more than just once every three years, but clearly the significant majority of your Taupo elects don’t feel the same. I have mentioned this before but it was tabled for brief discussion again on Tuesday: Why hasn’t the “Councilor Korero” item been reinstated in the weekly Council Korero section of Taupo & Turangi News after the election hiatus up to October last year? The answer folks is pretty simple, and I have said it before as well: Censorship. Perhaps we might say the wrong thing. Criticise staff. Criticise one another. Criticise a Council Policy. Criticise the way something or other was handled. Oh and also, even though your job description is politician you are not to mention politics (excluding Mayor John Funnell of course, he’s allowed to say anything). Folks these are really the self-imposed guardrails being imposed upon us your elected representatives, the ones who are supposed to be governing the place. I asked AI the question if such attitudes are common (which you can read HERE includes examples), and the answer is pretty clear: A blanket rule that personal elected-member opinion has no place in regular Council media is therefore a policy choice, not a demonstrated New Zealand local-government norm. So I am asking the others, do I really have to do a Notice of Motion for something as basic as this? It is quite frankly embarrassing – not only that your Councillors don’t value their own opinions enough to push for this opportunity to have their say, but that the majority of them are also happy to have that restriction imposed on others. Yes of course people can just tune into duncandoestaupo.com to hear from me, but not everybody uses social media or even has a computer. But oh yeah I forgot, its all about maintaining the status quo right?

Head Start flickering embers: Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) proved themselves useful at times to put together this compilation of Head Start Proposals, including the one which Taupo is included the Western Waikato Unitary. Interestingly Rotorua has just announced after the 12th hour that it is going to submit a late proposal including themselves in a Bay of Plenty Unitary which you can read HERE and listen to Mayor Tapsells announcement HERE. Hamilton which is in Backstop like ourselves just put out a White Paper, which although much more constructive than Taupos blatantly defensive posturing, is asking more questions than it answers and still leaves us wondering: You had three months to get something together, so why didn’t you then? Apart from that, on Tuesday in Chambers we talked for way too long about next steps forward that it felt like a funeral after a funeral, managing to set up a working group of Councillors whose only purpose I can tell is to do more concentrated waiting for the government announcement in September than the rest of us can manage by ourselves. There were some murmurs again from the more idealistic ones like Councillors Wahine Murch and Rachel Cameron about marching on Wellington to show them what we think, but my experience is that one needs to do a lot more than just that if you want to get the attention of Beehive politicians.

Launch pad issues: Next Tuesday we have our monthly full Council meeting (read the agenda HERE) which includes a few items of interest. Most particularly item 5.5 which is a proposed change to the Chief Executives financial setting from currently unlimited to a set number of $1M. This is well overdue in my opinion, but some of the papers commentary caught my eye including that the previous decision of 2021 to remove those limits were “in the interests of good management and administration”. Well if you leave it as late in the process to just tickboxing an already tendered contract as seems to have been happening before, I suppose that would appear to be the case! People we have a very big problem – Councillors are elected to influence the decision making, not just rubber stamp the outcomes as they come to hand. But that is how things work now, and it needs to change.

Learn to vote: We also have the decision in Item 5.7 to make around First Past Post (FPP) versus Single Transferrable Vote (STV). I reported on this briefly in last weeks post, and although nobody has done much canvassing of public opinion my own hasn’t changed much. I would rather change to STV now if we can, but failing that lets stick with FPP for now and include the binding poll with 2028 local election papers – that way we can let the people decide and at minimal cost.

Duncan on fire: I also have two Notice of Motions of my own, the first item 5.6 is to amend the standard report template to enable better information be provided to Councillors for their decision making. The second item 5.7 is to request a September staff paper to reconsider the recently announced cancellation of the New Years fireworks to which I put out a social media post to bring attention and gauge public opinion. So far it seems that clearly a lot of people won’t greatly miss the fireworks, but the fact is that the stated $50K saving won’t really make a noticeable difference to anything and they have been an iconic Taupo thing for as long as many people can remember. To just have the staff announce it like this under the pretense that Elected Members asked them to get rid of non-essentials, is just not on. For some additional context, I asked AI about council funded fireworks elsewhere in the country which you can read HERE. A few Councillors from last term are even claiming the cancellation of fireworks was decided two years ago, but that it just wasn’t minuted or mentioned to the public! Luckily I have a good memory and even a LGOIMA answer to prove them wrong (for my 2024 social media post which includes that read HERE). Folks, in this game of Taupo local politics it pays to get everything in writing, because gaslighting and stretching of the truth are as common as mud stains on your shoe after you walk in the rain up a grassy hill.

Spectator sport or walkover? Taupo District Council is finally following up on its commitment to build a new roundabout on Lake Terrace (read HERE) and also un-necessarily terrorise the residents of the Lakeside subdivision (Pukenamu Road etc) who don’t want to be connected to it. There is bit of background to this to which I have previously written a summary HERE. In short: nice enough for us to get a free roundabout, but spending a few hundred thousand dollars of ratepayer money to achieve nothing more than peeving off nearly an entire street of residents to almost no discernible gain is just not on. Honestly, if I had proposed doing such a thing to my own Council manager back in the day, I would have been laughed or marched out of the room and told my job is to fix problems not go around creating them as here. Yes, Lakeside may be wealthier than most streets in Taupo, but every council worker in Auckland knows you don’t go walking over people in Remuera – yet Taupo District Council seem so used to doing to everybody just as a matter of course. One of the residents did make a legal challenge last year to try and get the idea squashed, but all that came of that was a ruling that the Council wasn’t acting illegally and has the right to do as it proposes – so how’s that as an endorsement for wise decision making, shall we get some lawyers to design our roads?

For anybody really interested you can watch the 40 min Council meeting of December 2024, where Councillors decided to endorse the staff proposed way forward with a din of growling Lakeside residents in the background. Earlier consent conditions in the 2000’s were based in the context of Lake Terrace remaining as SH1 with a 100km speed limit, and back then things like a new roundabout and bunds to prevent headlight glare made sense, as well as the notion to connect Pukenamu Road to this new roundabout instead of exiting via Wharewaka Road as it does now. But things have very much moved on since then, and I expect the 80km speed limit on Lake Terrace will be reduced in the not too distant future as well. Council staff seem to be taking none of these things into consideration, with common sense long ago leaving the equation. So I say this is just troublemaking for troublemaking sake, and if we spent the money of fireworks it would be much more appreciated. Anyway, lets see what happens next.

Accountability for Five Mile Bay: There have been recent posts on local social media which have generated quite a bit of interest, and people need to understand this is a stain on custodian trustees Te Kotahitanga o Ngāti Tūwharetoa (TKTN) for failing to uphold the 2017 Treaty Settlement for the agreed public access to the two Scenic and Recreational Reserves. But also the Ministers for Conservation and Treaty Settlement whom people have previously written to asking them to enforce, not to mention Taupo District Council and NZ Police which have abrogated their responsibilities on behalf of citizens. So corruption or ineptness all round, and I think its about time this mess which has been going on since 2020 gets dealt to. I have written two new letters to both Minister of Conservation Tama Potaka and TKTN, and whatever the answer turns out to be the public should get to see how accountability for a statutory public reserve and Treaty Settlement actually works. So watch this space, things could get interesting.

Attorney-General gets it so should you: The judiciary in this country are way out of kilter and only the politicians are to blame, so says Attorney-General Hn Chris Bishop HERE, from interpretations of Tikanga to legislations about climate change. By golly its about time we remembered that we elect politicians to run the country and not lawyers calling themselves judges, I really hope Chris Bishop after October gets to stay on.

Accountability matters? Tauranga Council is under the gun with the recently released report about the fatal Mount Manganui landslide which you can read about HERE. But the question everybody really wants the answer to is: Who will be held accountable? Platform commentator Michael Laws has significant reservations that anybody ever will be as he talks about HERE. He calls it a New Zealand disease that in a car crash accountability always matters, but somehow when multiple people get hurt and a government agency is involved then nobody gets individually held to account. The only thing I would dispute about that statement is that car crashes can get swept under the carpet too – the Kiddle Drive / Arrowsmith Avenue debacle just a few years ago here in Taupo is evidence enough of that.

Fridays lest we forget: Five years ago there was a pandemic plan in place which the New Zealand government chose to ignore. We will be paying the consequences for decades to come, and for a host of associated reasons ex-Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern is unlikely to be able to ever walk the streets of New Zealand again. For a glimpse of just one of these potential consequences, watch this informative but measured update by renowned Dr John Campbell below:

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.

Has Mayor Funnell Dropped the Ball?

3 August 2026

Taupo Mayor John Funnell’s quite alarming statement on Saturday presents a single interpretation of a financial model prepared by Taupō District Council’s Chief Financial Officer. It reflects an assessment of the available financial information, and using a common financial methodology concludes that Taupō would be financially significantly disadvantaged under a Western Waikato unitary authority. Some are calling it scaremongering, and with the Mayor using terms like “hostile takeover” and saying that rates will increase tenfold – I tend to agree.

What that model does not do is examine every possible implementation of amalgamation. As the Councils Financial Officer has now confirmed to me, its purpose was to compare the financial position and performance of councils, not to predict every possible amalgamation scenario. Alternative financial structures such as legacy debt arrangements, targeted rates and staged financial integration may have been discussed as part of the broader options analysis, but were not modelled as separate financial scenarios. These distinctions matter. A comparative financial model is a valuable contribution to the debate, but it should not be mistaken for proof that every possible form of amalgamation would inevitably produce the same financial outcome. And it cannot be said to be taking all things into account. For example I have heard that Councils involved in the Western Waikato proposal have a $1B energy trust of which they are due to inherit a significant part in the year 2073, and I doubt if that was factored in. The fact of the matter is that the Mayor is presenting one possible outcome as though it were inevitable, when it simply isn’t.

However, my biggest concern is not the model. It is that we appear to have surrendered our opportunity to test assumptions, challenge conclusions and influence the proposal from within. I have now learned that Taupō District Council withdrew from discussions on the Western Waikato proposal over a month ago. If that is correct, we voluntarily gave up our seat at the table while other Councils stayed to continue the conversation. In any negotiation, being involved is almost always preferable to commenting from the sidelines, yet that seems to be where we have landed ourselves now.

I am asking Mayor John Funnell why Taupō withdrew from those discussions, and why Elected Members were not advised at the time. I believe our community deserves the answer to that question, before we decide if he has dropped the ball and is now trying to blame the other players.