Fridays on the Brink

14 Nov 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

Apart from all that, this week we have:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fridays Flying Fancy

7 Nov 2025

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

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

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

This week and there isn’t much:

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

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

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

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

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

Fridays Circus Starting Again

31 October 2025

Councillor Duncan reporting, and whoever said local government wasn’t interesting? Today we had our inaugural Council meeting of the new triennium, with Declarations of the newly elects to do the right thing by Taupo constituents and also a reveal of who the new Deputy Mayor will be. The Council media team are right onto it and although we aren’t quite up to livestreaming yet, you can watch the 30 min proceedings here or read about it here on the Council page.

Mayor John Funnells choice of Deputy is an interesting one, and will be controversial with some. Cr Kevin Taylor was also the Deputy Mayor under the previous Mayor David Trewavas, and so might not represent the clean break with the past that the 63% of Taupo District voters who voted for change were expecting. Like myself, Mayor Funnell stood on the key election pledges of transparent decision making and tying rates to inflation – not what Taupo constituents have been experiencing to date, and not what Cr Taylor aspires very much to in my experience either. Kevin and I haven’t always seen eye to eye by quite a long shot, so I wonder how things will be different this time around. Then again we do both claim to be Christian men of faith, so it won’t be a very good look if we don’t even try to get along will it? So we will just have to see.

This week we also have:

Passengers beware: Bus driver killed in fiery Auckland crash with an electrical engineering professor subsequently inferring that lithium battery buses are a risk in any collision and we should be wary. Any bus passengers in Taupo worried about safety, had perhaps better sit close to the emergency doors – because as far as I know, our only commuter bus is electric.

Dubious distinctions: The Ombudsman’s Office had a record year with complaints up 30% from the previous year. For any regular business this would be something to be proud of, but certainly not this one. Do we even have a Public Service to speak of anymore? I have my sincere doubts, and my experience of the Ombudsman is that they stick up for bureaucrats like themselves more than the public interest. I say New Zealand’s reputation as one of the least corrupt places in the world is hard to imagine as deserved, and perhaps it’s the strict definition of ‘corruption’ which needs updating.

Corruption or incompetent? While we are on that subject, Erika Harvey of Lobby for Good does an interview with David Baker of RapidQS who says he could without fail save 30% off the price of most Council projects valued under $100K. Erika also muses that commission-based litigation of the United States hands down beats the New Zealand system for the average person to be able to claim damages. Sad or maddening, take your pick.

Who owns the coast? Elliot Ikilei of Hobsons Pledge puts out his view about the passing of the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Amendment Bill and applauds New Zealand First MP Casey Costello for helping to make it happen. Casey was formerly with Hobsons Pledge and around two years ago offered to come down from Auckland and present to Taupo District Council free of charge, but elected members of the time didn’t want to hear about it. I really wish Casey could have made the trip and got listened to, because she has some interesting stories which might have helped broaden some of the narrower points of view.

Class ‘N’ word Act: In this interview Mayor Nobby Clark (former) of Invercargill makes left-wing interviewer Guy Williams very uncomfortable in a humorous way with his frequent use of the ‘N’ word. I reckon that Taupo District Councillor who in 2020 got pinged for doing exactly the same thing only accidentally – should perhaps have done it with as much gusto as Nobby to avoid himself all that trouble.

Judge knows best: Kaipara mayor survives recount bid because a judge decides that a 21 vote margin isn’t reason enough to justify. Because the electoral process is bulletproof and people in this country don’t ever make mistakes or manipulate. Yeah, right.

Most successful worst Mayor ever? Blogger Bruce gives his 13 min take on South Waikato Mayor Gary Petley’s narrow win. The 70% who voted for change didn’t get their wish, greater than the 63% for Taupo – think about that. I think Bruce does a great job of keeping elected members accountable, and encourage anyone else out there with some spare time to do similar.

Not fitting in: Given the playground atmosphere of the last Council which I have in previous posts mentioned, I reckon this social experiment demonstrating learned helplessness of adolescents is also relevant for newly elected members to please take note. And a reminder that complacent participation for fear of exposing one’s ignorance or naivety is not going to be of much benefit to the people you represent. Much better to ask dumb questions than to stay silent and portray a disingenuous wisdom.

Council follies: Here is Duncan Garner’s latest podcast this time about Taupo District Councils new building. I suppose it is old news around here and we are certainly not the only Council to commit follies like the ones this Tauranga based advocacy group is getting stuck into.

But I reckon it pays to reflect and remember so that the same mistakes don’t happen again, and if I ever get to be Mayor of this place do pledge to you now to put a plaque where the old Council building used to be on Lake Terrace to help us do just that (and paid for out of your rates).

Staff costing too much? While we are on that subject here is Sophie M Smith’s latest piece entitled Inside the Machine: What 430 Staff and 9 Comms People Tell Us About Taupō District Council. I think staff numbers are an important part of the story, but not all of the story. The other is how much is spent on consultants and contractors, with a Taxpayer’s Union report of 2023 indicating that TDC spent $50M as opposed to similar pop. Councils of Invercargill and Kapiti Coast which each spent less than $5M (I mention this in one of my 2025 Campaign pages). I have not been able to 100% confirm the veracity of those figures, but intend to follow this up for 2025/26. Because high staff numbers can be acceptable if it means we are spending less on consultants, but it seems we might be getting the worst of both worlds.

Cutting corners: Anyone driving the new roundabout at the intersection of Crown Road and Taharepa Road better not do what the picture on right shows, because that would be illegal and maybe even dangerous. Bridge engineers work with steel and concrete, but for traffic engineers like me our material is humans – and with experience they aren’t so unpredictable. So let’s see what happens.

Oops got that one wrong: Here Bill Gates backpedals on climate change and Donald Trump pounces on him for doing it. I learnt some time ago that the cooler periods of Earth history were worse for agriculture and humanity, if Bill Gates is so smart then how come it took him this long to realise?

Tribalism not so good: Here we have Tom Henry’s interesting take on tribalism as it relates to the Scottish clans and New Zealand in 2025, saying in his summation: “NZ has reached the stage where government miss-management, tribalism preferred over democracy, lack of real practical education, corporatisation, amalgamation, centralisation, the introduction of preference and privilege depending on who by race or association and connection, all have combined to intentionally hand this country over to the Globalists, one massive tribal system that wants individualism crushed, and humanity replaced”. Is he right, and is it too late anyway?

Friday because it’s Halloween: And I am fairly sure it was The Warehouse who slipped that formerly unknown tradition into New Zealand before we could even realise what was happening.

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.