Fridays Getting Sucked In

24 October 2025

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

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

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

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

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

This week we also have:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fridays Ending and Still Pending

17 October 2025

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

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

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

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

Okay so this week we also have:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday 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.

Why I won’t be ticking ‘Yes’ to Māori Wards

1 October 2025

This is my brief take on Māori wards, and why I think they aren’t a healthy way forward. A lot of people have already made up their mind and some have even already voted, and that’s just fine. This is only one person’s point of view which you can take or leave – and either way, I don’t think it will be a train smash if Māori wards stay or go – least of all for Māori.

We could get into all sorts of questions like what was or wasn’t committed to in the Treaty of Waitangi, but Māori wards are really just about one thing: representation in a democracy. If that’s not happening as has been claimed, then it’s a problem that deserves to be fixed. But the issue with Māori wards as I see it, is that they cannot – and will not – do that.

Democracy only works if people show up to vote and understand why they’re voting. I worry that carving out separate electoral wards for any group not only doesn’t strengthen that process, it is actually a recipe to weaken it. It creates a space where voter engagement can wither even further, and where candidates can succeed not through broad support but because of low turnout and political alignment with specific vested interests. That will be a cost for all of us to bear.

We should also take a few lessons from history.

Māori seats in Parliament were introduced in the 19th century as a very practical way of giving Māori men without individual land titles the ability to vote. But what was originally intended as a temporary fix has now become a permanent feature, and one that arguably hasn’t delivered on its promise of better outcomes for Māori.

And remember when New Zealand went nuclear-free in 1987? Can anyone even recall the actual reasons why? For a refresher, you can read about it here. Ever since then, I believe we’ve been basking in a kind of self-righteous glow that often outweighs the practicalities. Māori wards risk heading down the same track — symbolic, entrenched, and ultimately ineffective at solving the real issues (if they even get remembered).

The reality is there is no such thing as a ‘temporary fix’ in politics. Once baked in, a thing can hang around long after its purpose is done.

Māori are not children, and yet Māori wards treat them as if they are – that’s demeaning to everyone. Life throws challenges at all of us in different ways, but the most important breakthroughs don’t come from handouts – they come from within.

There’s a well-known proverb:
“If you give a man a fish, he will be hungry tomorrow. If you teach a man to fish, he will be richer forever.”

Māori wards are like giving the fish, and I think we can do much better than that.

Fridays Fit: Democracy Aflame?

26 September 2025

Councillor Duncan with another Friday update with the latest election and local happenings, as I see things anyway. Is Taupo the centre of New Zealand politics? It certainly feels that way to me, but perhaps I am a little biased. After 11 October, I wonder if things are going to quieten down? I might even take a holiday.

I have been getting a few people asking for voting advice lately, so I will try to spell it out now. I reckon either John Funnell or Zane Cozens would make fine Mayors and it greatly helps that like me both of them have signed the Taxpayer’s Union Ratepayer Pledge committing to tie rates to inflation as much as possible. Of the existing Councillor candidates, the only ones I can say have been more on the useful side are Christine Rankin, Sandra Greenslade, and Rachel Shepherd. Of the newbies, I am optimistic for the Let’s Go Taupo team of Ann Tweedie, Rebecca Stafford and Hope Woodward, with the rest a bit of a guessing game because I simply am not acquainted enough. Steve Punter seems as if he could be quite useful as the experienced governance and conflict resolution guy, and Wahine Murch looks as if she might be both smart and sensible even if she is quite young. But I am sure many of the other candidates have great potential, and in this sort of role it’s only under fire do peoples true dispositions get revealed.

My advice to voters: Don’t tick all the boxes just because you can, only tick for the people you really want to get in. In the Taupo ward especially, things are looking quite competitive and every vote could matter.

Okay this week we have:

Tūwharetoa Chief moves on to a better place? Sir Tumu Te Heuheu Tūkino VIII, the ariki and paramount chief of Ngāti Tūwharetoa, has died at 84, RNZ media release is to be found here.

Pitch to the business leaders: On Wednesday night at the Cosmopolitan club there was a candidate event put on by Town Centre Taupo and the Taupo Business Chamber, with food and even complementary drinks as well. It was mostly just the Taupo ward candidates who turned up, but in her 2 min speech about reducing bureaucracy, Rebecca Stafford of the Taupo East Rural ward did make an impression with her intriguing account of paperwork that a prospective contractor for this Council was expected to fill out which even included stuff about child trafficking! But the evening was really mostly about the banter between Mayoral candidates David (what on earth is the problem) Trewavas; Kevin (government is coming to get us but trust me because my fingers are in everything) Taylor; Zane (100 day plan to fix this place) Cozens; and John (it could take 3 years to fix this place) Funnell. A transcript of my own mildly well received 2 min speech can be found here, and I am not sure if there are any recordings.

Smoke and mirrors: Here we have an interview with Danny Loughlin – 2025 Taupō District Te Papamārearea Ward Candidate, who just like Deputy Mayor Kevin Taylor keeps on conflating the mandatory requirements of the JMA with all the optional extras (like that little thing called ‘Lake Taupo’) to justify why the public don’t need to be consulted. I really wish these guys would stop treating everyone like they are stupid.

Maori wards on Monday: This coming Monday 29th September there is a helpful information evening from 5.30pm at Waiora House if anybody is interested, I plan to go along myself.

Code of Conduct unbecoming? Today is the last day for submissions to the Local Government Commissions attempt to standardise a Code of Conduct (CoC) for elected members. Currently each Council is left to their own devices on this, and even though obliged to sign I know there have been ruptures in the past – with Rotorua Lakes Council elected members failing to sign theirs this last term because it was so oppressive. There are some elements in this new DRAFT version which I have concerns about, including Treaty of Waitangi provisions, opening up for complaints to be made by members of the public and staff, and also an introduced ‘collective responsibility‘ which infers that elected members should shut up if decisions are made which they don’t agree with – just imagine that!

My own submission you can read here, and I am also using this opportunity to suggest that non-financial conflicts of interest also be seriously addressed in this document following the recent situation we had here with the JMA – which I reckon was akin to a bank manager saying they are not conflicted even if they are also sitting on the board of a company applying for a loan. This is the sort of thing which would never be accepted in the private sector, but somehow gets waived in local government.

Wisdom of age or just too old? Mayoral candidate John Funnell put out a recent post about his age of 75 years and some public commentary about it. I reckon the late President Ronald Reagan came up with a hilarious riposte to that chestnut of an argument (actually I think it was one of his speechwriters beforehand) and you can watch as it was delivered in a presidential debate here. Folklore says that his political opponent Walter Mondale knew after this gag was delivered he had lost the race.

AirBnB paying its way? Last week John Funnell mentioned the Queenstown rates model to try and generate more income from BnB operations for the district, and I believe he said it could generate well over $1M annually if it were implemented. For anyone wanting to find out more about the Queenstown model, here is the link to check it out. One feature I found interesting in the Queenstown model is a stipulated annual survey of neighbours to assess if things aren’t going awry (like all night parties etc). I am not 100% sure if it is a good fit for Taupo, but it definitely deserves to be looked at more closely.

Debs is my kind of gal: I really don’t know much at all about Deb Mair candidate for Waikato Regional Council, but I do like her minimalist style and am quite happy to have one of my own placards alongside hers

Ann’s out and about: Its not really my thing but Taupo ward candidate Ann Tweedie has been making a good effort these last few all-day Thursdays to meet and greet to find out what’s on people’s minds. I will try to at least be there at the 9am next Thursday 2 October at the Airport, because it is out and out by far my most favourite cafe in town with a great outlook and so very quiet too.

Vandals strike: Sophie M Smith put out what looked to be a very handy online poll on candidates earlier this week, but it seems the vandals got in there to try and distort the results. A bit of a shame as it could have been quite useful, but I guess in this day and age it is only to be expected. I reckon polls like happen for national elections could also be a thing for these local government ones, and could even get people more interested in voting. Sophie also just put out an interesting perspective of the false promises some candidates do make (myself included, apparently) which is worth a read.

Why aren’t they signing? A recent RNZ- Reid poll says 75% of voters support a rates cap, so why aren’t more candidates signing the Taxpayer’s Union Pledge to do just that? I reckon that to not have rates capped to the inflation that consumers experience is simply unsustainable, and it is too important to rely on fickle governments to address. Perhaps look at it this way: Should voters put up with candidates who promise to kick pensioners out of their own homes unless they have a small fortune set aside? Because that is what it really means if we carry on the way we are. You can read more about it here as my own #3 Campaign Priority.

Idle words apart: Facebook message (since deleted) from Maori ward Councillor Danny Loughlin to Mayoral candidate Zane Cozens on 11 September: “Given your attacks on Maori and Tuwharetoa to pander to the racist vote, I won’t waste any more time on you. If you don’t want to engage then you can always quit again…You can chat with Dunkin Donuts”.

Auckland Transport over the top (again): I just had to throw this in here because even though it has little to do with Taupo, it just goes to show what a big mean bureaucracy like Auckland Transport (AT) can get up to. Here we have a media report of a man very unhappy at a speed hump put in directly outside his house because it has apparently caused $40K damage to his home. Noise and vibrations from passing trucks is something I actually approached AT senior management about around 2018, because although somewhat of a previous influencer in that field I just knew it would blow up sooner or later because things were going a little too far. Anyway things have transpired pretty much as I predicted, with even the incoming government putting a temporary moratorium on them for State Highways the year before last.

Taupo’s missed paddleboat opportunity: Does anyone recall that the paddleboat Lakeland Queen was up for sale a few years ago? I was hoping someone might have scored it for Taupo, but it was not to be and Rotorua now has it back on their waters. In any case, this recent media release mentions that particular situation marked a turning point in Rotorua Councillor Robert Lee’s tenure to being less of a team player with the rest of his fellow elected members than he was before. If I could pick my own similar moment of revelation, it would be my exclusion from late 2023 towards the Northern Access Transport Study despite my professional expertise and being elected on a platform that I could contribute on that basis.

Put it this way – imagine if a Turangi elected member was sidelined any time Turangi came up for discussion, or Maori ward councillors with anything to do with Maori. Democracy does matter, and what you have been experiencing from me the past year or two is a symptom of what can happen when it gets treated badly.

Campbell’s still allowed? In a certain part of Scotland there are still signs like these around, and words like “Never trust a Campbell” still resound all the way back from 1692. If you want to learn a bit more about it, this 6 min documentary clip from 1974 will fill you in. Someone brought it up in a recent social media commentary riposte, so I thought to mention.

Friday piece of wisdom: I say to you all as much as myself.

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.

Friday Foreboding- Freight Train Coming?

19 September 2025

Councillor Duncan coming at you again with this weeks election highlights including a few things of interest, and we also managed to get even more snow on top of our Maunga just in time for the school holidays – so because I don’t like crowds that means I probably will be steering clear of it for the next two weeks. So who keeps talking up this global warming again?

On voting: my advice is to only vote for those you really want to get in, because any otherwise votes scattered around will reduce their chances. Remember that you don’t have to tick the number of boxes to match the number of vacant seats. And do some research on the candidates not just rely on their 150 word statements, for example why don’t you ask them about the JMA or why they haven’t yet signed the Taxpayer’s Union Pledge to keep rates to inflation? Because I say if something isn’t done about it soon, the current trajectory of Council spending habits will sooner or later run you down – just like a freight train.

Here we are then:

Drama Queen or Diva Diviner? Christine Rankin gives us her breakdown about Taupo politics on the Duncan Garner Podcast (starts at 7:39). I am not sure that we are that close to violence in the streets as Christine seems to think, but there is no doubt we are in a place of disquiet and for too long things have been swept under the carpet. I actually find these times quite interesting.

Duncans Campaign Page: If you haven’t already do please check out my Campaign Page here which includes links to my Campaign Priorities #1 Restore Democracy & #2 Take Back Control of Council. I never did get around to setting up a givealittle account, but if you want to donate to my campaign please feel free to message me privately.

Liston Heights Legacy? Last Sunday gone we had a Taupo ward candidates event put on at the Liston Heights retirement village, with a very nice afternoon tea put on afterwards. One observation made at the end included a question (my paraphrasing): “there seems to be two quite different camps, so how are you going to manage to work together?” No-one was very able to solve that particular riddle, but if I were to personify the split I would put the likes of Mayoral candidate Kevin Taylor and to some extent Rachel Shepherd on the one side with their (scaremongering) messages about the impending doom of central government intervention and implying that any changes now are bad, as opposed to the likes of Zane Cozens, John Funnell, Ann Tweedie and myself who say that change absolutely has to happen and it has to happen now. My own five-minute speech can be found here, and it includes reference to all three of my Campaign Priorities (or read the transcript see here).

Ratepayers dollars going to a worthy tourist cause? I attended a Mayoral candidate event on Monday gone which was put on by the hospitality and tourism industry, and I have to say that two things stood out for me: First the absence of edible refreshments at a hospitality event, and second the oft-repeated line that every dollar put into tourism generates around $800 of return for the ratepayer. This mantra gets repeated so often I think the sayers actually believe it, and if it were really true then we should be doubling or trebling the $1.4M or so we put into Destination Great Lake Taupo (DGLT) every year. Heck, why not also throw in the $70M TEL Fund so that all of us can ride the bandwagon to becoming millionaires (do the math)!! Yeah right.

JMA for the record: I have been asked a few times lately about who voted for what including about public consultation, and the place to go is my JMA summary here and specifically for the voting record go to the JMA Debrief here. Basically if you agree that the public deserve to be formally consulted, then you are on the same wavelength as myself, Rachel Shepherd, Christine Rankin, Sandra Greenslade and Kylie Leonard. The rest of them don’t seem to think your opinions matter very much.

What a good idea: Local Invercargill media outlet Whatsonininvers.nz recently did a poll on local body candidates. I reckon it would be great for someone local to do the same here, because otherwise all we get is this boring election.nz page which gives a daily tally but with no breakdown (because that would apparently be illegal). I reckon a sweepstake would be quite interesting – is anybody keen to set one up?

Maori Wards Obligation: I personally think that all of the other current elected members should explain their support position on Maori Wards, and also why they think the referendum is a bad idea. I know that is their position because they all agreed to a submission to Wellington back in May 2024 which you can read here. Because if anybody can best explain what Maori wards have achieved and can achieve for this district, it should be them. So why all the silence?

Money for Taupo flights? The government is throwing some money into regional aviation, but only time will tell if Taupo will manage to get any.

Common sense prevails but only just: NZ Water Service Authority Taumata Arowai seems to be showing some common sense by presenting some Acceptable Solutions for rural water suppliers. It seems in New Zealand that we always have to go down this road of sledgehammer solutions to relatively minor problems and only later back down a little, and this goes for everything from car warrants to roofing safety to traffic management. What on earth ever happened to the Kiwi pioneer can do attitude? Instead just like decline and fall of the Roman Empire, it seems we are faced by the slow death of a thousand bureaucratic cuts.

Nice job: Give credit where credit is due, Taupo ward candidate Rachel Shepherd has put together some nice video clips with a cartoon animation which you can sample here. But like most candidates in Taupo she still hasn’t signed the Taxpayer’s Union Pledge to cap rates to inflation. Doesn’t she know that unless that starts to happen, grandmas and grandpas will inevitably get forced out of their homes?

Cos positive discrimination still comes across as discrimination: Lo and behold, human rights law is seemingly acting as a barrier to Maori self-determination. But Auckland Law School Associate Professor Andrew Erueti manages to come up with some arguments that they shouldn’t apply when it comes to indigenous peoples. Funny how lawyers can spin things to their own design, and exactly why I say we need to get independent professional opinions and not just rely on Council staff.

Another word for Propaganda? Another few interesting posts by Taupo local Sophie M Smith, this time on Council marketing budgets and also a summary of the candidates. In my experience these communications or marketing departments of Councils have significantly expanded the past 20 years, and when they talk of ‘socialising‘ a message you can also interpret as ‘propagandising‘. Okay we do now live in a different world with social media all over the place, but enough has to be enough at some point.

Skyrocketing rates linked to inflation? On that note, why not have a listen to Stewart Group founder Nick Stewart who talks to Peter Williams of Taxpayer’s Union in this interview about the link between your rates bill and groceries and the inevitable crash that will happen it the current Council spending trajectories continue. Splash Planet in Hastings gets dis-honourable mention as a ratepayer funded sinkhole, which is a bit of a shame but it seems that swimming pools simply aren’t very easy to make money out of.

Friday funky educational funny: Because some people out there still don’t know what ‘White Privilege‘ actually means.

Campaign Priority #2: Take Back Control of Council

17 September 2025

Councillor Duncan here, recalling my three campaign priorities:

#1 Restore Democracy

#2 Take Back Control of Council

#3 Cap Rates to Inflation

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

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

For this to happen:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday and its raining

12 September 2025

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

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

This week we have:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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