Fridays Lock-Me-Up-And-Throw-Away-The Key

22 May 2026

Exodus 18:17-23 with a message about wise leadership: “So Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “The thing that you do is not good. Both you and these people who are with you will surely wear yourselves out. For this thing is too much for you; you are not able to perform it by yourself. Listen now to my voice; I will give you counsel, and God will be with you: Stand before God for the people, so that you may bring the difficulties to God. And you shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and show them the way in which they must walk and the work they must do. Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. And let them judge the people at all times. Then it will be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they themselves shall judge. So it will be easier for you, for they will bear the burden with you. If you do this thing, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all this people will also go to their place in peace.”

Your friendly Councillor Duncan reporting in again, and change is definitely in the air. On Tuesday Taupo Mayor John Funnell has this week instigated a working group to steer the internal amalgamation discussions, comprising himself and Councillors Taylor, Murch, de Lautour and Greenslade reporting back to the rest of us at regular intervals. The particular make-up of this working group was not fully explained and some reservations were expressed that the rest of Elected Members not being invited to fully participate – but there there it is. The question of whether we will be early engaging or consulting with the community like Western Bay of Plenty District Council is about to do did also come up, but the answer was not very forthcoming – so for now I will take that as a no. I myself am keeping an eye on the headlines and talking here and there with Councillors in adjacent districts whom I am acquainted with, and am receiving some interesting perspectives sent to me from local people too. Time to start having some real conversations I reckon with only a couple of months to go, and Councillor Hope Woodward is already trying to kick that off on social media which you can watch HERE.

This week we had a couple of things going on. On Monday we had the second of our Taupo Airport Authority Committee meetings, held at the airport. I do have to say that of all the committees that I have been involved in the past three years or so, this committee has been by far the most convivial and one of the most engaging. It probably helps that the surroundings are so pleasant (the Lil Something airport cafe is easily my favourite coffee haunt in all of Taupo), where people talk to each other like adults and there is none of the politic bickering that seems to happen anyplace else. The newly elected Chair is Chris Grace who is a wonderful and recent retired gentleman of ex Pak n Sav fame, and he was also with us as a member last term. Other Elected Members apart from myself are Councilor Steve Mananui and of course Mayor John Funnell who is obviously taking a keen interest. I know the airport isn’t of huge interest to everybody, and there isn’t a huge amount of news to tell except that members are pressing to more quicky develop a Master Plan for the airport precinct and get some more income generated instead of relying upon fickle Air NZ who could potentially withdraw any time they wish (remember that Rotorua is only an hour away, which is closer than many Aucklanders to their own airport). There is also the untrivial matter of a main runway that may need a $5M or so rebuild in not so many years away – luckily we have a great deal with Ministry of Transport where they pay half the costs and we keep all the profits, long may that continue. These meetings are open to the public (who rarely attend, but this week we had around six people which was a record) with agendas as always available HERE. They are not audio-video recorded but I will request this start happening, because I reckon the airport precinct is a bit of a hidden jewel for the district and something that people should perhaps take more interest in.

We also had a Regulatory Committee meeting on Tuesday which you can watch here if you have an hour to spare. There was only a couple of items for us to get stuck into and make something of a meal of. First there was Item 5.2 Bombay Bistros successful bid to remove three parking spaces from Robert Street for their purpose as a dining area (outside the old Dominoes). You can watch the owners oral submission and the 25min or so debate from HERE. Which I think is fair enough to request, but which myself and Councillor Woodward objected to on the grounds this was a piecemeal approach on the fairly unsubstantiated basis that it will increase the vibrancy of the area – by that argument, why don’t we just remove all car parking from the CBD altogether? Apparently the adjacent businesses KFC and Lone Star are okay with it, but I say the entire street should have been consulted – which they weren’t – with Chairperson Councillor Rachel Cameron implying they would be biased anyway. I’m telling ya people, this sorta thing would not happen in a place like Remuera where shopper car parking spaces get treated like gold – so perhaps amalgamating with a place like Hamilton wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all.

Then there was Item 5.4 which was to inform us about an upcoming Taupo District Wide Reserves Management Plan Project which you can watch from HERE. This seemingly innocuous item I chose to take some issue with because of my past experience with the Motutere Reserve Management Plan Review the year before last which I have already written copiously about. The Reserves Act requires management plans to be kept under continuous review, but it does not prescribe expiry dates or require wholesale rewrites simply because a plan is considered “old” – and what is old anyway? One of the plans listed here dates from 2022, and others from 2015 and 2017, which do not seem especially old to me. I later came to the view that the Motutere review need not have proceeded at all, because not proceeding was itself an entirely realistic and practicable option which was not properly presented then and even more so with these now. So my first and foremost question was is: Why is this now being presented to Elected Members as informational only? These reviews cost staff time, consultant time, and community time. What specific problems are we trying to solve, that are so unworkable that targeted amendments cannot fix? Or are we just creating a process of planning for planning’s sake to create jobs for the staff to do? We also need to be very mindful of public confidence in these processes – whether they are transparent and whether their input will be meaningful. Consultation is supposed to be genuinely open-minded and capable of affecting outcomes, but not in a way that will be disproportionately influenced by vocal minority interests – as I believe did happen with Motutere. What is to stop that happening again? Anyway there is also a presented paper on this topic next Tuesday 1pm 26 May in the full Council meeting which I intend to speak more to. In the meantime I have also asked the Chief Executive to be provided the answer to this question in advance: Can you please tell me the expected cost including estimated staff time and any consultants for the Reserve Management Plan project?

Oh yes and there was that one other little thing about the Broadlands Road landfill which was also discussed in a confidential workshop Tuesday morning. Myself and Councillor Woodward requested beforehand that it did not justify the secrecy, and also agreed afterward about it too. To cut a long story short – the landfill is forecast to be full by end of 2027 with a new resource consent required to expand, and Taupo District Council have left things too late to get it all done and over with in time for Environment Court if objections are received to drag things on. And yes, any objections are likely to stem from the cultural objections of neighbouring land owners, which is why there have been around 14 hapu meetings at maraes about the place in the past few months to try and convince that it is in nobodies best interest if things take that path – starting 2028 we are talking roughly an additional $4M annual costs to truck out waste to places like Hampton Downs (so think an extra 4% rise in your rates). So this is quite a monumental cock-up in my opinion and I am spilling the beans – so go ahead, lock me up and throw away the key. Anyway we are not the only place having backroom conversations when we shouldn’t, as Rotorua Councillor Robert Lee has recently posted about on social media which you can read about HERE, and I agree with this 2025 unsuccessful South Waikato candidate sentiment below:

So what else is new?

Keeping it up Sophie: Local intrepid reporter Sophie M Smith put out a couple of articles of interest this week, the first being Part three in a series about the Council building where it is revealed that the lease hasn’t actually been signed off yet. Yes well, after taking office in October 2022 it was pretty much explained to us Elected Members that it was a done deal and all that needed to happen was approving the $5M office fitout, and the question of it being optional was certainly never raised as a possibility. So the question now given the proposed amalgamation just has to be – what are the ramifications if it doesn’t get signed? On the flip side, at least a 25 yr lease might ensure a Council staff local presence instead of a head office Hamilton… There is also Sophie’s take on Amalgamation and an item on the dubious state of some Mangakino wastewater storage tanks allegedly leaking into the nearby waterways with no forthcoming explanations.

Zebra the problem? Following the incident on 11 May where a pedestrian was struck outside Taharepa shops I am doing what any traffic engineer worth their salt would do and checking out if Council is at least partly to blame. That zebra crossing where it happened was only upgraded a year or so ago and I managed to dig up the independent safety audit where it was noted as a serious safety concern with a recommended speed hump(s) as a solution. Why that didn’t happen is not entirely clear, but I intend to find out because if they had been implemented the consequences may have been lesser.

Proper oversight or lip-service tick-boxing? Kaipara District Council are currently under scrutiny by the Audit Office for their procurement and contract practices. I have no idea what stimulated this but somebody has obviously talked so it will be interesting to see where that inquiry goes. Another space to watch.

How to fix Maori Trust Boards: Now this is a topic I have been thinking of delving into for some time now, but it seems that Whanganui Uri Unite is already making some inroads as this social media post amply shows with this intro: “Have a GOOD look at the names and connections across your current river entity and land entity: • Trustees becoming contractors • Family members employed across entities • Operational roles staying within the same circles • Contracts repeatedly landing with connected people • The same whānau names appearing everywhere you turn”... I am not saying that Tuwharetoa Maori Trust Board works like this, but can anybody properly in the know with their hand on their heart says it doesn’t?

Homeschoolers under threat: If you are a Taupo homeschooler you will undoubtedly already be aware, that the government is trying to throw a spanner in the works with a last minute amendment bill which is not innocuous at all and intended to introduce increased government scrutiny to people who choose to opt out of the state system. The amendment is shown left, and people like Cynthia Hancox are activating the resistance now for apparently the first profound change in homeschooling oversight since 1989. Although my own kids are nearly all through their schooling now, as a homeschool dad myself this is quite disturbing – so watch this space.

Fridays poem of the week, with Peter Hitchens response to a panel question the others dodged – does poetry matter to you?

Fridays Watery Wishlist

15 May 2026

Isaiah 40: 29-31: “He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.”

Another week goes by, and things are moving fast in local government. We now have slightly less than three months to decide where this Council wants to go, and as I see it unless a bunch of concerted proposals are submitted by 9 August the government will be putting us all where they want to regardless. If their received proposals are scattered in all directions that will absolutely give them the licence to do that, and like it or leave it I am sure they think that quite reasonably so. So how might those chips fall? Well if a webinar I attended a week ago with the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) is anything to go by – and these are the people administering the Simplyfing Local Government reforms and making the final recommendation to government – the major factors will be transport and water catchment. As I read it the transport element isn’t of much relevance to isolated places like Taupo, since the state highways which connect us elsewhere are already governed by NZTA – so for us it will be all about water – and as we happen to have the largest water source in the country which feeds about a third of the countries population (apparently), that means a Waikato Super Council just has to be beckoning.

So in the basis of transport I think places like Hutt City Council and Selwyn District Council will find it hard to avoid getting sucked into the new super Wellington and Christchurch super Councils no matter what they come up with, and we are in that same boat with water. But it isn’t a done deal yet, and I figure that roads are a bigger driver for amalgamating just because new ones cost so much to build – so there is still this window of opportunity to bring about a different result if we want it hard enough. And if we end up tied to a place like Hamilton, we will certainly become like minnows in the stream. I have worked out that some other Councils like Waitomo and Otorohunga already have a head start because they have been talking about it for ages, and the South Waikato look as if they are ahead of the game too, let alone Napier and Hastings which really should have amalgamated ages ago. But what do we really want to do? Because whatever we get stuck with could be for the next 40 years. Yes, this does matter.

And it really is all about cost, right? Because its the ongoing rampant rates increases which are the reason that the government is stepping in with these forced amalgamations, and is quite probably the main concern for you too. The fact is that our most vulnerable fixed income retirees are being forced off their land like here, and the implication of that is quite sobering when you consider the below statistics (sourced from a recent Taxpayer’s Union newsletter):

So what else has been happening in Council?

We had our second Water Services Committee meeting yesterday with a few things of interest – and believe it or not, water services can actually be quite interesting once you start looking. You can watch the entire meeting youtube HERE if you have a spare couple of hours, and as always the agendas are available HERE.

Item 5.2 was my successfully passed Notice of Motion for introducing some additional practical measures of affordability to which you can watch my 5 min presentation HERE, where I relate potential water service overspending to the over- complianced road cone nightmare which this country is only just waking up from, and I even manage to pseudo-quote the Lorax when I say: “UNLESS we start asking the right questions, we could end up just like the road cones. And if this Water Committee is the one which starts sounding any alarms, believe it or not then that actually makes us industry leaders”

Next was Item 5.3 presented by Nicola Hancock the Compliance and Monitoring lead who talked about all the water quality data gathering and gadgets which you can watch from HERE (and yes, road cones did come to mind), followed by Item 5.4 which was Tom Swindells Asset Water Manager with a very interesting presentation which you can watch HERE about the history of water treatment in the district from the year dot and where we are headed now. This includes the very compelling case for introducing water meters to every household – it means we might not ever need to build another water treatment plant for Taupo, whereas without meters it could be as soon as just 10 years away, with the long-term prognosis being that we would save around $45M over the next 30 years. Basically, the message is that making people pay for water they use will greatly incentivise water conservation like fixing that leaky tap (other parts of the country which have introduced meters have reduced demand by 30% or so). Anyway there will undoubtedly be another side to this equation, but if it doesn’t stack up then water meters it will just have to be.

In other news:

Talkfests continue: A few more Councillor Connect sessions happened this week and some were even audio-visual recorded like the Wairakei one which you can watch HERE. I gather there were also sessions in Nukuhau and Kinloch but didn’t make it myself to any of those.

Speaking of the devil: There were some Turangi committee co-governance meetings last week which were not audio recorded despite this being requested, because the Chair of that committee Te Wharau Jnr decided to refuse on the basis that several committee members were not very keen. I don’t believe in opacity where local government is concerned, and will be taking this further with the Ombudsman who have already told me they are keeping an eye on this place with this sort of thing. So watch this space.

And on that note: Next week on Tuesday we have a CLOSED workshop on the Broadlands Road Landfill Resource Consent. This is actually quite a big deal, because the hole is nearly full and if we don’t get a consent to make it bigger then we could end up trucking our waste elsewhere like Rotorua does – and that ain’t cheap. So if you are concerned with the price of rubbish bags now, things could get worse. There is a working group that includes Councillors Murch and Taylor who have been looking at this the past few months, and I believe there have been meetings at various marae. But you guessed it that cultural concerns are looking to be the biggest potential hiccup, and when that happens the doors of public scrutiny often get closed. I have requested to the Mayor and Chief Executive for this meeting to be made public and recorded, but so far had no response.

Christine’s Rant’in again: This time Councillor Christine is talking to the other Duncan about things like: state of the nation; local government; co-governance; and how its all going at our place Taupo – and according to Christine, things are looking pretty grim.

In the news: Councillors Wahine Murch, Ngahuia Foreman and myself took the opportunity to respond to journalist Bronson Perich after he contacted Elected Members for comment after the amalgamation announcement week before last, and you can read the article HERE. In addition, Wahine put together a nice 4 min summary which you can watch HERE.

Mosque stirs up: Seems like a new mosque happening in Taupo town is ruffling a few feathers if this social media post is anything to go by. Resource consent has already been granted, but a petition is afoot to try and stop it happening. I don’t quite understand the crux of the objections yet, but am guessing that some people are thinking of what is happening in Europe – but we are a long way from anybody, and boat people don’t come here. Another space to watch.

Te Reo only: New cafe Rumaki is set to open in Rotorua where the catch is you are only allowed to speak Te Reo. I don’t know how successful their shop will be, but as an opening strategy I cannot imagine a better way to get all the free media attention that they are getting, and as a tourist mecca for that sort of stuff must be the best place in the country to try it on. So good luck to them majorly, and it just goes to show that novel ideas are often worth a go.

Lake Rotoaira is doing it better than us: About the Gold Clam invasion that is , with certifications and wash stations at their boat ramps – why can’t we do the same? It doesn’t pay to think about if/when gold clams happen to Lake Taupo, but perhaps that is the biggest problem – we aren’t thinking hard enough.

Fiver ever going to finish?: Okay so my last weeks post which included some words about the Five Mile Bay occupation stirred a few people up. All good I say, and the sooner this is brought to light the better. I have a relation within Department of Conservation (DoC) who is familiar with the way these settlements go down, and he tells me they invariably happen behind closed doors (it was Doc land prior to around 2019). I did some initial investigations a few years ago and at least ascertained that it was Crown land around the year 1900, so it is a very good question as to whether previous to that the land was legitimately sold or confiscated as some maintain. It would take some additional expense to try and get an answer to that question (if there is any documented, that is), but if anybody wants to take it further I may be able to point them in the right direction – so feel free to message me if you are so interested. In any case, it is 100% certain that the old freedom camping area is a designated Recreational Reserve which is meant for the benefit of all the public and not just depending on whose cousin you are. If anybody has any doubts about this, you can check out the Treaty Settlement documents HERE.

Fridays Financial Friedman: Listen to this guy Milton Friedman, I think you’ll find he’s really good.

Fridays Fabulous Blockbuster

8 May 2026

Acts 4:1-5: “But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession. And he kept back part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” Then Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed his last. So great fear came upon all those who heard these things. And the young men arose and wrapped him up, carried him out, and buried him”

A little harsh isn’t it? Poor Ananias was giving to the church but decided to keep a small portion back for himself, and for that he gets struck down? There aren’t many examples of things like this happening in the Bible after Jesus came to earth, in fact I can’t think of another single one. But it just goes to show that it wasn’t the act that condemned, it was the lie. I don’t think anybody can get through life without a few lies being told, but some lies are more damaging than others. God is watching.

Wow, what a week! No more Taupo District Council after 2028! So says the minister of local government Simon Watts on Tuesday in this official announcement which says that unless you are a Unitary Council already you must amalgamate with at least one other Council. I suppose Labour could always try and reverse it if they get into power this November general election, but we haven’t heard any peeps from them yet so my assumption is that it is full steam ahead. And my reaction? About bleeding time – but tempered by my recognition that bigger is not always better; the devil will be in the detail; and based on the Auckland example some wheels will inevitably fall off. Okay so we could have gone the Switzerland route and instead of going bigger gone smaller, but we are not being asked and it is out of our hands anyway.

I think a fairly good analogy of what we can expect is the Auckland Super City amalgamation which happened in 2010. My experiences of it as an Auckland Council staffer back then: Big promises and big expectations, but a quite a few disappointments all round.  The purported efficiency gains of reduced staff numbers were only temporary (which you can read about HERE), and in my neck of the woods only saw additional layers of management being added with reduced responsibilities for lower echelon staff. Local community influence was lessened, and the bureaucrats in Auckland Council and Auckland Transport gained the upper hand over elected representatives. Mayor Wayne Brown seems to have been successful in peeling some of that back recently, but it took all of 15 years to get there. Because I was still contracting for them, I was able to see that it took about a decade for Auckland Council to settle down into some new sense of normalcy. And if the Auckland example is anything go by, we will also be having a lot fewer elected members (Councillors reduced from over 100 to just 20).

So I foresee in two years time there will be no more Taupo District Council, and I won’t miss it so much – at least a bigger Council would undoubtedly have avoided some of the past dubious and daft decisions around here. My own experience with big restructures (both Councils and corporate) is that the doers on staff generally need not fear for their jobs, it is usually management and administration which take the hit. But we are being given only three months to decide who to buddy up with, so who will it be? Rotorua, South Waikato, Tauranga, or even what about Chatham Islands? This is going to be a very interesting time, and I think its quite a good thing we went it alone on the water services thing because those Councils which didn’t will probably feel entwined in those partnerships – but its not too late to unwind.

On local matters, this week we had the first of our community connect groups kick off this week in Taupo central and Mangakino. These were both audio-visual recorded and as at the moment only the Taupo one is available and viewable HERE. I personally don’t recommend it as very watchable unless you mainly want to hear about Chairperson Councillor Rachel Cameron’s view of the world and very little of anybody else’s (I did a transcript analysis, and Rachel did 49% of the talking – yes really). I did get a couple of chances to interject or inform, but was early on advised to basically clam up! (Watch that bit HERE if you like). Anyway my apologies to those who did attend (there were about 15 members of the public), I will try to get things sorted before next time.

One matter which did come up in that conversation was Five Mile Bay which you can watch from HERE. However we didn’t get very far with that discussion, because there is clearly an absence of understanding that there is a breach of the 2017 Treaty Settlement which has been going on since 2020 – the illegitimate blockade and occupation of the Recreational Reserve between SH1 and the lakefront. Maori ward Councillors Wahine Murch and Ngahuia Foreman don’t seem to understand this has caused significant strain on local relations and is a cause of so much mistrust – so why on earth should we consider partnering on a Joint Management Agreement (JMA) for the entire lake?? And all this after such a promising start in 2020 which you can read about HERE, but it seems that all it takes to ruin these things is a few disagreeable characters. This is the promise which was never kept:

On the brighter side, the Mangakino- Pouakani Representative Group was yesterday very ably chaired by Mangakino Councillor Hope Woodward on her first time at that role. There was a large turnout of locals (around 30 I reckon), and just goes to show that these smaller communities really do engage. The main chore of the day was to disperse $20K of community grant funding to $47K worth of applicants, and this was done quite amiably and in my opinion fairly. There was some discussion at the end about implications for the new super-sized Council, and one attendee expressed a negative to South Waikato for reasons unstated. The Waikato River Trails Trust applicant made an interesting comment regarding the recent footpath work done by Council in Mangakino which will apparently service their bike trails – the money spent on it could have funded 11 years of the work undertaken by their Trust (hope I got that right, but can’t check the audio-recording which is not yet up on youtube). Basically he was saying that Council built a flasher job when it needn’t, and the money could have been spent better elsewhere – he certainly isn’t the only Mangakino person thinking the same.

And on that note, I will just highlight a few recent articles about New Zealand’s propensity to overspend on Rolls Royce solutions versus the Toyota (and I would rather drive a Toyota across the Sahara desert anyway). There is Sean Sweeney former CEO of the Auckland City Rail Link (CEL) project who is saying that it could have been built for less than half the cost to save $2B, and that also applies to the latest stadium in Christchurch. The wealthy Danish apparently do things much better he reckons, with similar stations at about a quarter the cost – we all know that the rich hold tight to their money, so what does that make us? Then there is the rural bridge in Central Hawkes Bay which a contractor says he can build for a fraction of the $16M which his Council told him was needed to replace it. I tell ya folks, we need to get back to the No. 8 wire mentality which this country was built on – not always pretty, but it doesn’t send us broke.

A local example of recent infrastructure spending being questioned by a few is the roading improvements currently happening on Roberts Street and Titiraupenga Street in Taupo town central. I understand we are spending around $600K there and have asked to see any option reports that may have been done, because it seems to me that not a heck of a lot is being achieved for such an expense – but we will see. Probably more worthwhile than Christmas lights, but maybe not a few dinosaur sculptures. This sort of thing is the reason I think this Council needs a separate Financial Committee for elected members to have much better oversight of significant expenditure, instead of just tickboxing hundreds of items once a year at Annual Plan which is what happens now – so lets hope the new Council in 2028 has one of those. I have also taken the chance to point out that places like Auckland give out more detailed project information and sometimes even let constituents a chance to have their say before they happen, which is often not the case in Taupo with only minimal information going out.

And while we are on the topic of expenditure, the 2026 Taxpayer Unions Ratepayer Report is now out. So how does Taupo compare with the rest? Well you will have to look for yourself and we aren’t the worst, but we certainly aren’t anywhere near the best either. You can read a Taxpayers Union social media post summary here and a snippet below:

Notice that Christchurch refused to declare their consultant and contractor spend, which is something I have asked our Chief Executive about previously but also been declined – and this is a crucial figure for understanding if Council staffing levels are too high. Of significant note, Taupo District Council was one of only three provincial Councils which refused to provide this data (see HERE).

I will leave you to read for yourself our Chief Executives reasoning, if transparency is a very real thing around here. Note that a 2023 ratepayer report had indicated a $50M figure for the previous year for TDC, but I was never able to confirm.

Just one last thing:

On Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) membership: Waikato Regional Council did a vote which the Taxpayers Union president had some scathing things to say about, and he even calls LGNZ an immoral organisation (read the full article HERE). I can tell you that Taupo District Council has never had any vote on this in my time there including this year, and reading the room I wasn’t tempted to bother submitting a Notice if Motion for debate.

And that’s all folks I’m done. But I managed to get this one out for Friday, so I reckon that I’ve won.

Fridays tune for any trip or 70’s guitar nostalgia:

Fridays Flashy Burnout

1 May 2026

Genesis 37:5: “Now Joseph had a dream, and he told it to his brothers; and they hated him even more. So he said to them, “Please hear this dream which I have dreamed: There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Then behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and indeed your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf”.

Perhaps Joseph wasn’t the best diplomat in his younger days, but things ended up well enough with him in charge of Egypt and able to feed his family through a severe seven-year famine. But he had to be hurled in a pit and imprisoned in a far off land before that could happen, so if you are going through a rough patch too and not all of your own making – maybe, just maybe, it was put there for a reason.

Civil War – couldn’t happen here, right? I’m not so sure. Talking to a fellow from Serbia last week, he says before the strife started over there in the nineties they were all happy families too. Catholics, Orthodox and Moslem all worked, lived together and intermarriage was common – but in the space of just weeks they were at each others throats. Yes, it can happen that quickly, and my pal said don’t ever think that it can’t happen here. The tensions there are all gone now, but only after much bloodletting and new countries coming into being – so war does fix some things. People don’t be so naive that it can’t happen here, and my Serbian pal says he can see some omenous signs. Political leaders need to talk our way out of this, because we can become a Yugoslavia too. Don’t just call me a pessimist, I am only getting real.

Okay on Tuesday we had the April Council meeting which you can watch HERE and read the minutes HERE. The items were fairly mundane this time round and I was prepared to put money that it would be all over in less than an hour, but boy was I wrong there! Two hours later we were still gasbagging on about this or that, and yet everything got tick-boxed anyway – I can tell you this would NOT have happened last term!

The new Three Waters Asset Management policy was approved in Item 5.2 (watch from HERE), where I once again took the chance to put forth my perception of this new Water Services Committee as one where compliance is treated as No.1 with affordability only being a secondary consideration. “Safe drinking water” is apparently whatever the standards tell us it is, and it is to be had at simply any cost. On that note, on 26 April local retired civil engineer Phil Shields wrote a gem of a letter to us all challenging why $1.6M is being spent on a water main renewal project in Omori which serves just 130 properties. You can read the letter HERE, with his recommended course of actions below and to which I look forward to reading our Mayors response:

So please do keep at it Mr Shields, and I do heartily appreciate your educated input. That last recommendation for a new Financial Committee I do especially agree with, and a month ago put up my own 15 min argument for it which you can watch HERE.

Apart from that, the only other thing of note was Item 5.6 where Fees and Charges are being proposed to be hiked upwards for Animal Management (dogs mostly), Food Licensing and Resource Management. You will get to have your say on these later on because they are apparently going to be publically consulted. You can watch it from HERE, and it is fair to say that there was a little bit of disquiet amongst a few of us around the table regarding some of the hourly rates especially ($245/hr for consent staff?). Some charts to compare with other Councils were gratefully provided, and although we are on the higher end of the range even these aren’t able to tell the whole story. My take is that the ultimate test of efficiency is if you are losing customers to the competition, but a fundamental problem with Councils is that there isn’t any competition – and that isn’t such an easy thing to fix.

So what else is going on?

Let’s talk about Turangi buses: Okay it hasn’t gone away, Waikato Regional Council (WRC) are still working in the background to help make a commuter bus service happen. Yes it will require some cash injection (around $170K apparently), and just a month or so ago it was mentioned to us that WRC might have even had some spare funds available – but the fuel crisis has squashed that opportunity, because just like everybody else the diesel prices are hitting them hard too. Our view is simple: if we want to secure long-term funding from New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA), we need a service that people genuinely use. We’re now trying to work constructively with WRC on options that improve capacity while keeping the service practical for commuters and day users alike, so watch this space and it needs to be decided before the next WRC Transport Committee meeting in June for a September 2026 kickoff.

Chance to meet a Councillor: The first of Taupo District Council Councillor Connnect forums is kicking off next week, so why not come along and meet your favourite Councillor? No promises yet from me, except I will at least be at the 5th May one next week in Chambers.

Councils could or might get GST: It would certainly help things quite a lot says Roger Partridge in this article which you can read HERE. I thought this statement of his below spells it out why quite well enough:

Could be costing us too: Rotoruas waste charges just got higher, and all because their hole in the ground got full and they have to truck it out of district. The current consent for the Taupo landfill is currently up for review, and if that doesn’t happen we could be in for the same. There is a working group of Elected Members negotiating with local hapu now, I am not part of that, but gather for better or worse their input is apparently fairly crucial to the equation. So watch this space because it WILL affect you.

Unethical behaviour, or acting in the peoples best interest? Hard to say from here, and I know not to take at face value any mainstream media headlines like the one you can read HERE. I am fairly confident that Dunedin Councillor Benedict Ong believes he is doing the right thing, but what even really is that? Anyway he is being censored for breaching Code of Conduct, but I know that is just a wet bus ticket to be ignored if he wants and still turn up to Council Chambers for another round. Local Government Politician – about the only job apart from self-employment where you can’t be fired (except every three-years at election time).

Politicians in town this Wednesday, and they even want to charge for it: A bit cheeky if you ask me, but I suppose with petrol prices they need the help.

What is a Council? I was sent this post by Matthew Horncastle which I will repeat below, quite a nice summary I think of what a Council SHOULD be:

Fridays Fable of Fortitude, and oh how appropriate for the pickle we find ourselves now:

Fridays Fixing Bayonets

24 April 2026

Daniel 1:8: “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself”.

I had the Biblical character of Daniel pointed out to me twice this week as relevant to positions like mine in secular governance, and the analogy is apt. It is every bit akin to a den of lions, and it takes more than just willpower to overcome the gravity of this world which pulls so hard. Great men, and women, are required to pull this nation back to the greatness it once was and can still be. So stand firm wherever you are, and dare to stand alone. Because others will see and follow.

Council was simmering this week and not a whole lot to report, except it has struck me that the effort to uplift it from its current setting can be extraordinarily hard and perhaps isn’t really worth the sacrifice. Where we have landed I believe, is a place quite different to the past when there was tension in the system to keep a lid on. A time when there was common purpose and intent, and a real sense of public service. I say systemic failure is why rates keep rising, and unless the current system changes the only way I see for tension to be applied is from above – not governments so much because they come and go – but from those you elect to locally govern. What would a true Anzac do?

However, for those you elect to make that change, they have to be able to have their say. Last week Rotorua Councillor Robert Lee walked out of a Council meeting because he was prevented from asking questions of staff (you can view his social media post including the exchange HERE and read the media story about it HERE). I have received that sort of treatment many times before in my three or so years on Taupo District Council, and continue to still do so (local sleuth Sophia M Smith also wrote a recent piece on the topic HERE). At the end of the day, it is 100% the responsibility of the Chairperson to stop this nonsense happening and nobody else, so in Councillor Lee’s case his Mayor was undoubtedly complicit. My number one 2025 election pledge was to Restore Democracy in Council Chambers, because if that doesn’t happen then nothing worthwhile afterward can. Perhaps I should start to walk out more often, what do you think?

On that note I attempted to table a Notice of Motion for next weeks Council meeting which you can read HERE, but thus far have been thwarted by Chief Executive Julie Gardyne’s direct application of a technicality belying one of the very things I am wishing to highlight:

To cut a long story short, my notice was submitted a couple of hours after their official deadline (which I still dispute the interpretation of), and neither the Chief Executive or Mayor are so far willing to exercise their discretion to accept even as a late item. So I guess you will probably have to wait another month to hear how it goes down. Ugh, moving right along…

A couple of workshops we did have this week included a workshop on Property Revaluations which you can watch HERE. Not a lot of consequence that I can recall from that, except that one thing which could make a big difference was not a topic of discussion – Differential ratios between business/commercial and residential. The current setting in Taupo is 1.8 and apparently has been for quite some time, and it would take a Long Term Plan (LTP) round of probably controversial public consultation to amend – because changing that figure would shift the rates burden to either side of the equation. So its not something this Council would lightly dare to touch without much consideration, but I think could contemplate. Of interest a Chatgpt scan of settings elsewhere around the country (shown right) demonstrates that figures can vary widely.

There was a Taupo Airport Authority (TAA) workshop on a proposed District Plan change which you can watch HERE. I have been on the TAA committee the past three years, and it surprised me that there had been little or no protective designations already in place as with most other airports, so I don’t see this as very controversial and just needs to be played out.

There was also a lengthy workshop for Elected Members on Tuesday entitled “Long Term Plan Wrap Up”, and despite all the previous LTP workshops being public viewable was held behind closed doors on the spurious grounds of “the possibility that sensitive material will be addressed, including that they may impact staff employment”. Myself and at least one other Councillor disputed beforehand that there was no justification to keep things under wraps, and as far as I am concerned there was virtually no sensitive material discussed and it certainly was never mentioned the laying off of swathes of staff. Not that the four-hour workshop was riveting viewing or anything, and I rather suspect that certain Elected Members don’t want people to see their commitment to reigning in rates isn’t perhaps quite as strong as some of their election campaigning spoke to. But I did mention that the $70M bridge over the Waikato was surreptitiously put into the last LTP without the required debate, which Deputy Mayor Kevin Taylor probably wouldn’t want you to hear about because he was instrumental to make that happen. And that places like Waikato District Council which managed to achieve a below inflation rates increase this coming year are anomalies which are best not talked about…because they probably fiddled the numbers anyway.

At the outset of the workshop staff presented us with three options: A/ Implement proposed rates cap range of 2-4% from July 2027; B/ Transition to a rates cap range of 2-4% by July 2029; or C/ Wait until 2029 to comply. Instead of any debate, vote or even show of hands, the discussion morphed into something resembling what I have seen every year last term:

Things are tough, we’re doing our best, see it could be worse, now give it a rest.

(Yawn) so apart from all that, what else is going on?

Daring to be Davina: Kings Counsel Colin Judd gives a stirring inditement of Far North Councillor Davina Smolders brave stand against her own bunch of miscreant members elect which you can read HERE. This is a story really worth following and Shane Jones ill-thought words about it I am sure will come back to haunt him. Local Government Minister Simon Watts says he is looking into it and will have a response in about a month. I hope all this publicity makes a difference, because any time I have called on Ministers to help out the response has always been the same: “its a local issue that needs to be dealt with locally”. Not this time around Minister Watts, its time to do your job. But one of KC Judd’s comments stuck with me as quite relevant to the Taupo JMA saga we have going on.

On that note, I was recently sent this 2011 thesis by a Sonja Hancock entitled “Joint Management Agreement between Taupo District Council and Ngati Tuwharetoa: A Summary of lessons for local government”. If we put aside the accusations of me scaremongering for a moment, why don’t you read the concluding paragraph for yourself:

Also on that seeming endless note, I submitted some legal and financial questions about the JMA which you can read HERE and which our Chief Executive neatly deflected. If this Council gets it wrong which it very well could, I perceive an expensive Judicial Review is just around the corner because there are people out there to make it happen. Question is though – will they carry it through?

Late item on Council spending: I used my discretion to include this letter to Mayor and Councillors from intrepid retired engineer and Taupo resident Phil Shields, and his final statements are precisely on point (except I think we do need consultants some of the time):

Fridays I don’t know why but this just struck a nerve for me:

Fridays Dash for The Line

17 April 2026

“Why me, and what’s it all for anyway?”

Genesis 25: 29-34: “Now Jacob cooked a stew; and Esau came in from the field, and he was weary. And Esau said to Jacob, “Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary.” Therefore his name was called Edom. But Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright as of this day.” And Esau said, “Look, I am about to die; so what is this birthright to me?” Then Jacob said, “Swear to me as of this day.” So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; then he ate and drank, arose, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.”

I have always related to Esau much more than Jacob, who later on at his mother’s bequest through subterfuge tricked his father Isaac into giving him the elder brothers birthright blessing. That act seemed manipulative and devious, yet it started with a message from God that it would be so, and all Esau really wanted was a good feed after a hard days hunt. Are these things forgone conclusions before they even happen, and from the beginning of Creation does God know the future of you and I along with all the choices we will ever make? Perhaps it doesn’t make much difference and it will always be a mystery in this lifetime anyway, but I still want to know.

Again not much officially happening on the Council front this week, unless you count last weekends Supercar event which I still maintain is not a fraction as entertaining or exhilarating as a good motorbike sidecar speedway (not even any decent crashes!). By the way if anybody is wanting to set up a decent speedway track I am sure we could find some spare Council land with a peppercorn rent to go with it – so consider that as a pledge for next election. We did also have a promised cyclone that never did eventuate to cancel the Sunday racing, I was a little put out that the Taupo landfill was shut all day as a precaution (couldn’t we have at least waited to see if the wind got up?). I did find it interesting though that the Mayor of Wairoa refused to assent to a State of Emergency in his district, something which I discern our own Mayor John Funnell might have considered if given the option.

Baddies or the goodies? But we did have a couple of things happen, including that Mercury Energy pop in for a one hour session with Elected Members on Tuesday to educate about how it is with them and us (unfortunately not recorded for public consumption). There was some discord between Mangakino Councillor Hope Woodward and one of the Mercury experts, who was claiming that Mercury are not at all responsible for the algae blooms in the Upper Waikato river despite some independent scientific advice claiming otherwise. Mercury were implying that farm runoff is the main instigator, but Councillor Kylie Leonard disputed that. It was at least acknowledged that the hydro schemes which were introduced in the 1960’s or so did helpfully prevent some of the awful downstream flooding of the Waikato River which Turangi elder Councillor Greenslade even manages to remember – but it seems to come at the cost of eroded lake foreshores (south end especially) and health of the Upper Waikato waters. These are problems which aren’t going away, and there are clearly two sides to this story which aren’t being fully heard. Lastly and according to them, Mercury are the most significant ratepayer in the District – so I am not sure why we aren’t yet talking about partnership deals and enmeshing their staff into Council operations like we are with another of our local ratepayers. Any idea, people?

Kinloch Kiddies win a battle: There was also the Kinloch Kindergarten workshop paper presented on Tuesday by Council staff and the Kinloch Families Trust which you can view HERE. Perhaps if you are not a Kinloch local or into kindergartens this might be of only passing interest, but I reckon it sets the scene for something of a quite positive landmark for a way forward for this Council. The proposition is for around $500K of development contributions to be put towards land acquisition for the Trust to build a new kindergarten/ community centre. It is all quite inspirational stuff and not at all normal for local communities to get behind something like this, with the only hesitations of Elected Members around the potential opportunity cost of spending the money here and not somewhere else (the rates burden is apparently zero). The decision isn’t going to be made until at least May, and I am glad the Trust stuck at it because a year or so ago when they came to us with the same proposal the response was quite the contrary and negative. My advice to them at the time was to keep at it because so much of Council “official policies” are subject to interpretation, and it is really up to Elected Members to decide these things and not staff. So I am glad they listened.

Okay apart from that, what else is happening?

Joint Management Plan (JMA) latest: Not a whole lot that I am pertinent to be able to report on, but local amateur journalist sleuth Sophie M Smith put up an article on the JMA which you can read HERE. My advice to Sophie is that she needs to understand that the JMA is not just procedural as she implies, and that she needs to start following dynamic Far North Councillor Davina Smolders on Facebook. Davina is the person outing her Council on unethical constitutional arrangements which she says effectively give power to unelected representatives. Even though final decisions are for Elected Members to make, please recognise that the recommendations of committees do significantly shape the decisions that get made. Anybody who has spent any time as an Elected Member will recognise this, and our own JMA is no different. Yes there does have to be a new JMA, but there is no requirement to give away any more influence than strictly necessary, and at the end of the day constituents will be the ones paying for it.

As to only be expected Hobsons Pledge are piping in about that situation up north which you can read about HERE, with a snippet of their commentary below which I say absolutely does apply here:

Lost in translation: Rotorua Lakes Council seems to be getting some significant interest which you can read about in this social media post from Rotorua Councillor Robert Lee. The gripe is around an untranslated eight-minute karakia ceremony at the start of one of their Council committee meetings, and although I haven’t read all 500 comments and perhaps Roberts followers are already biased – but the consensus seems to be that such a carry on is quite disrespectful to the audience, and I have to agree.

Dear Auditor General: I was passed this letter of complaint to the Auditor General about Taupo District Council, not sure where on earth this is headed but I haven’t come across this author Pee Kay before, and they are clearly interested in Taupo so thought to share.

Order of the rabbit: Democracy Project ran this intriguing piece lately about dysfunctional Wellington City Council claiming that there was a now defunct secret society of staff which ran the place (you can read it HERE). The article contains a lot more info than just that of course and I have no evidence to show anything like that has ever existed here in Taupo, but I can absolutely sympathise with the snippetted comment below

Who is really running the Country, is it the politicians or the bureaucrats? In New Zealand it is the bureaucrats according to this interview with Dr Oliver Hartwich, Executive Director of the NZ Initiative which you can listen to HERE. I was particularly interested in the below snippet, which is totally relevant to local government and a reason the likes of Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has his own Mayoral executive team separate from Council staff – and I bet Taupo Mayor John Funnell wishes he had one too.

“Virtually every other developed democracy gives its ministers at least some say over who leads their departments. France, Germany, Sweden, Italy and the United Kingdom all figured this out long ago. In Germany, ministers appoint their top officials from a pool of qualified candidates. When a new government takes office, incoming ministers can replace the top officials with people committed to delivering their programmes. Ninety per cent come from within the career service, not from party backrooms. The officials below are protected by statute and cannot be removed on a whim. A new government changes only the top officials. Everyone else stays. Germany gets plenty wrong, but on this question, it found an answer that works“

Stop the kiddies drowning: It has struck me that manhole safety grilles like shown right could be useful around here, not only for worker but kiddy safety – I was working at Waitakere City when a toddler drowned in one of them during a heavy rain event and public life for Council workers became quite unpleasant because of it. I have done some digging to find out that Watercare in Auckland use them frequently and Tauranga City puts them in for every new install, and at around $600 each aren’t a bad idea for near playgrounds especially. So I will put it into the Council suggestion box to consider.

Council building Part 2: Sophie M Smith has put out the second of her series on the Taupo District Council building saga and how it all came to be, which you can read HERE. My own take which I have reiterated many times, is that there was a misguided determination to get a new building come hell or high water, and the demolition of the original Council building happened without any real analysis of the future consequences. I think it would make a great case study for current batch of Elected Members to learn some lessons such as what pre-determined decision making looks like, and how to avoid being led by the nose by staff with an agenda – but I doubt that will happen.

How to save money: The Taxpayers Union are at it again this time with a publication claiming 103 ideas for Councils to save money such as paying back debt, cutting back on Councillor lunches (I can’t agree with that one), and even our own Boom Boom the dinosaur gets a dishonorable mention. Taupo resident Phil Shields pointed this document out to Councillors last week, attached to his quite pointed letter which I thought worth reprinting below. Phil is a retired Council engineer of many decades experiences both in New Zealand and the UK where he originates from, so he knows a thing or two about the dire situation we now find ourselves in. Bring back the days of the City Engineer!

South lights up: This came across my purview recently as I am in touch with a Councillor down there, regarding small town Lincoln in the the Selwyn district which has been slated for a series of new traffic signal intersections down their main street (ring any bells, Taupo?). You can read some about it in this social media post from local Zoran Rakovic HERE. From my own point of view as somebody well versed in their application, there are much misconceptions about roundabouts such as they are always less safe for pedestrians and cyclists, and are so much more expensive than traffic signals. I say that a well designed roundabout can be better for pedestrians especially, and it is fairly well known in the transportation industry that Christchurch is traffic signal happy compared to many other parts of the country. Here are some roundabout solutions which I developed for urban areas, viable for places like Lincoln and Taupo too. 

Fridays budgetary advice for governments everywhere and they even have a Duncan:

Fridays Stay and Fight or Walk Away?

10 April 2026

Quote for the week: “F… Off” (Mayor Moko Tepania of Far North District Council)

Genesis 16:11-12: “Behold, you are with child, and you shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your affliction. He shall be a wild man; His hand shall be against every man,
And every man’s hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren“.

I am no Biblical scholar, but am aware that Ismael the first son of Abraham is said to be the ancestor of Northern Arabs and of the prophet Muhammed himself. That Moslems have been the biggest challenge to Christianity for the past 1000 years or so is fairly indisputable, unless you wish to also count the anti-God movement which enveloped the Western and Communist world since Darwin times of the 19th century – but I am increasingly now seeing that as only a historical blip. The significant majority of people in this world believe in one God who created everything, but its the question of which God that still divides us.

Greetings people, and although we haven’t had much formal happenings in Council this past week there are certainly a few things going on in the background like a few wars. The fuel crisis doesn’t seem as if it will be letting up very soon, and quite ironically we have all the petrolheads descending on this town for the Supercar meet. I am not one myself and can generally think of better things to do, but I plan to check it out on Sunday when the exciting weather is expected to arrive and there might be some exciting crashes (Councillors get complimentary tickets). But unfortunately some saner heads than mine have prevailed to reschedule all the big races to finish up Saturday. Having said all that, we do actually get a bit happening here compared to say, a place like Ashburton, and although the loads of people can at times get tiresome at least Taupo can’t be accused of being too sleepy.

This week we just had an Elected Member induction session on cybersecurity and AI, and one worthwhile thing I did learn is that if you accidentally press the wrong button on your phone which goes to one of those dodgy sites which access all your data – immediately press the “Airplane” mode to cease the connection and hopefully prevent further damage. Another viable alternative is to right there and then totally demolish your phone, but the former option is easier and cheaper.

We also yesterday had the second of our Water Services Committee meetings, and if you are interested in water infrastructure I really do recommend you have a watch of the 90 min meeting HERE with the minutes and agenda as always available HERE. We had a very informative presentation by Council asset manager wastewater Michael Cordell about the state of wastewater infrastructure (from about the 2 min mark), and afterwards some discussions about water services policy. The Taupo Wastewater plant in particular is facing some immediate future challenges, with the new wastewater standards in place that more severely limit how much nitrogen we are allowed to dispense to the currently irrigated land disposal sites – Houston, we have a problem. I’ll leave a couple of the relevant slides below, and note that the dotted line forecast departs the current reality in 2027 which is very soon.

My greatest question about this committee and its stated policy objectives is this (and I am not alone):

Will we be testing value for money and affordability, or is the primarily focus on monitoring delivery and compliance?

Thus far, it seems to be heading towards the latter. and I am not assured this committee will not become the tick-boxing exercise I strongly suspect it will. Because you will be the ones paying for it, and there is unfortunately no rates cap going to be in place to affect this very substantial aspect of Council spending.

And as far as drinking water is concerned, as I see it Elected Members in this Water Services Committee have two main objectives: 1/ Ensuring that money is spent wisely; and 2/ Ensuring that drinkable water delivered to constituents is safe. The water regulator and Ministry of Health are not responsible for satisfying these outcomes – we are. And are we over-investing to meet regulatory requirements that is beyond what delivers real community benefit? I strongly suspect that we are, because the benefits versus costs are simply not being measured.

Apart from that, we have:

Joint Management Agreement saga continues: This week Taupo Mayor John Funnell put out a statement about the JMA which you can read HERE that caused quite a stir with Maori Ward Councillor Wahine Murch put out her own social media response HERE where she asserts the Mayor has got it wrong:

“Of particular concern are comments suggesting the JMA would result in “ratepayers being governed by people they cannot remove at an election.” This misrepresents the agreement. JMAs do not transfer governance of our district; they provide a statutory framework for joint management with partners like the Tuwharetoa Māori Trust Board. Mischaracterising it in this way can create unnecessary confusion and alarm” (Councillor Wahine Murch).

I wouldn’t have put it quite the same way as Mayor Funnell did, because in my mind since this JMA retains much of the ultimate decision making to Elected Members then that means it is technically more of a “co-management” rather than co-governance agreement. But there the hair-splitting ends, because I say that enmeshing any private entity into Council operations as the current draft JMA is proposing to do will absolutely have undue influence to Council affairs – it is foolish or naive to think otherwise.

On that note, ACT MP Cameron Luxton put out a social media message recently that pointedly reflects to where places like Taupo find ourselves now (snippet below):

And while we are on that theme, a lot of people including myself are very inspired and impressed by Councillor Davina Smolders of Far North District Council who was this week speaking out against her own Council on the Duncan Garner podcast which you can watch HERE. Man oh man, I thought I had it tough here, but that place is a world apart in terms of the abuse and threats she has copped for speaking out. You really need to hear it for yourself, including that their Mayor Moko Tepania is acting like a complete nob and telling Duncan to F… Off. I know that I give Mayor John Funnell a hard time on occasion, but he has never told me to do that. I really do hope for the sake of Far North constituents that the government steps in to sort that mess out, and it really does sound like a mess. If you want to follow Davina’s exploits you can find her Facebook page here and I have already ticked subscribe.

Duncan bleating on: Although it seems trivial by comparison to the above, to follow up on my failed Notice of Motion last Tuesday to elevate Elected Members to a level playing field with members of the public in terms of freedom of expression in our own Council Chambers, I put together a subtitled version of the unfolding 30 min drama which you watch HERE. I learned a few important things from that experience: (i) we have a Chairman Mayor who doesn’t understand that when you give the majority an opportunity to quench the minority, they will take it almost every time; (ii) our first term Councillors (with the notable exception of Cr Woodward) do not yet appreciate the value of free expression in Council Chambers; (iii) I had assumed this matter was 1 + 1 = 2 to understand, but some voiced reservations by even those voting in support may have swayed some fence-sitters to vote against (only myself and Cr’s Rankin, Greenslade, Woodward voted in support, with the rest against and the Mayor abstaining). So behind the scenes diplomacy in advance is obviously required for even the most basic of propositions to change a status quo, which this surely was.

Councils are not signatories to the Treaty: Michael Laws (who happened to get a A+ on a Treaty of Waitangi paper at university) reminds us on his recent podcast. In this he points out a relatively recent court decision from Marlborough where it was affirmed that Councils are not signatories and have no stipulated obligations to the Treaty of Waitangi. Now I don’t always like what Michael Laws has to say and at times he can be downright rude, but on his call for complete reform of local government to sort out the total mess its in including stuff like this, I totally agree.

Transport going Nuclear? As your representative to the Waikato Regional Transport Committee on Friday I attended the second workshop for the Transport Long Term Plan which you can watch HERE. If transportation is your area of interest I do recommend it worth tuning in, because we are at the stage of putting down all the priorities that will contribute towards where quite a lot of money will go. Okay its not edge of your seat stuff and Taupo is certainly the most strained district in the region for this aspect, but I managed to poke in about a few things. Hamilton Councillor Sure Moroney pretty much outed herself as an avowed climate warrior who several times piped up with comments to the effect that we should be getting all cars off the road. I almost laughed out loud when she also effectively stated that economic prosperity is linked to dependence on fossil fuels! I commented that the last government exacerbated the current fuel crisis because it stupidly pretended we could do without oil, gas and the Marsden Point refinery, or even sensible speed limits – but if in the future we decided to go nuclear then things could turn around. Taupo already has some cooling towers, so why can’t we just build a few more?

Help for the Homeless: Rotorua has a free laundry and shower service for the homeless which is now closing to some dismay. This article only caught my eye because of recent discussions in Chambers about the future of the Superloo toilets in Taupo town centre that is frequented by homeless for a similar purpose, and is being mooted for removal of its shower service because of security concerns. I am in two minds about this – on the one hand we don’t want public facilities turned into unsightly or hazardous places to frequent, but on the other shouldn’t we be offering a helping hand to those most in need? The problem is that these things never come for free, and the Rotorua facility is ceasing because the government funding ceased. I see an opportunity here for some local philanthropy.

Fridays lesson on how to think of your average local politician:

Thursday (not Friday) Depths of Despair

2 April 2026

“The mountain groaned, and gave forth a mouse”

Genesis 8:20: “Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar” (NKJ)

Easter is about sacrifice and death, but it is also about resurrection and life. Animal sacrifice is an important theme found throughout the Bible, because: “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (Hebrews 9:22). So although animal lovers might be repelled, it is so written. Jesus died for us to live forever if we can bend to seek His forgiveness, for the things we have done and the things we are yet to do. So you can commiserate on Friday, but do remember to celebrate on Monday. For He is Risen.

Councillor Duncan here on with your Friday update on a THURSDAY, because its just not cricket to put things out on an Easter Friday. And I am afraid that I have some bad news: There is no serious commitment in Chambers to cap rates to inflation, and most of your Elected Members don’t realise they are politicians. Perhaps some of the below will help unpack that, and I apologise if it seems a bit of a hodgepodge. This follows the Tuesday 31 March Council meeting which went for an epic four hours (that’s what happens when you try to pack too much stuff into an agenda). For those really keen you can watch the whole thing HERE, but for the more time pressured I will put some timestamped highlights below. You can also read the agenda and minutes HERE.

Lets start with this: Some of you may recall that one of my 2025 campaign pledges was to Restore Democracy in Council Chambers? What we have going on at Taupo District Council is quite a stunted version of democracy, because right now Elected Members have less freedom of expression in Chambers than a member of the public – yes really. Thinking this should be a simple enough job to fix, and because our Mayor refuses to do it himself even though he could have unilaterally decided in a heartbeat, I tried to remedy this nonsensical situation with my Item 5.2 Notice of Motion to introduce a “General Matters” item to Council agendas. To my bewilderment, I was then subjected to a barrage of disparate accusations and assertions which left me so angry I was barely able to stay in the room afterwards. You can watch the 30 min debacle HERE, read my Notice of Motion HERE, and for a transcript of my introductory presentation read HERE. As heartening as it was that Councillors Rankin, Greenslade and Woodward were backing me up, the fact of the matter is that we have a significant majority of Elected Members who would rather silence themselves than have to listen to the likes of us. That is now the shameful reality of this sorry Council Chambers, and entirely to blame is the Mayor for allowing it to happen. Ugh, somebody…anybody…please get me outta here.

Rates Cap Renege: In other news, this new Council is not going to be tagging rates to inflation any time soon. There are some voiced intentions, and a few promising signs that staff are starting to contemplate frugal spending more seriously than before – but there is zero commitment from Elected Members to actually start making it happen this coming financial year. That means that there still is no bottom line, and some of you are going to get kicked out of your homes because you cannot afford the rates and insurance. You can watch about it during Item 5.6 Annual Plan 26/27 – Draft Financial Direction HERE. It is sad, but also quite maddening – because an answer recently popped up as obvious enough to me. Last year this Council earned $5M profit from land sales on Crown Road, and instead of using it to offset this coming years rates rises is instead putting it all towards paying off the $200M or so debt we already owe (saving around $200K of interest payments). You can watch the discussion about that during Item 5.8 Request to Approve Use of Strategic Property Reserve to Pay Down Debt HERE. Don’t get me wrong, I do believe that clearing debt is a good thing. But we also have a Mayor who pledged in his campaign to not let rates exceed inflation, and like a few other things is having not very much to say about it.

From the original forecast of 6.7%, Council recently announced that we are now looking at 6.6% – so a drop of 0.1%, or $100,000 from the total rates intake.

The mountain has indeed groaned, and let forth a mouse.

A positive take but not entirely: I happen to think that we are in a period of flux that won’t last forever – in other words, I am an optimist. When any business has it too easy for too long it becomes bloated with inefficiencies, as anybody who has ever worked in a Council for any length of time will probably agree. Putting a lid on things with a rates cap does mean that a change in outlook is required, and that doesn’t just happen overnight. Despite some of the negative press I sometimes exude, I do actually have faith that the staff of Taupo District Council are capable of thinking outside the square, but also that a more pressured environment is a required incentive to make it happen. Already we are talking about selling off Council assets like reserves, and a Bed Tax to fund things like Destination Great Lake Taupo as happens elsewhere (Rotorua, apparently). So I say: Yes we CAN do it, and until then we should be giving immediate relief to constituents where possible. But we aren’t going to be doing that.

Item 5.7 Establishment of Mangakino-Pouakani and Tongariro Representative Group Committees watch from HERE caused something of a stir with especially Councillors Greenslade and Woodward who viewed the new status of their Turangi and Mangakino committees as a downgrade along with deleted remuneration for the Chairs. I know these small community Councillors get a lot more community flak compared to urban ward Taupoites like me, although it seems I unfortunately dropped the ball when it came to voting on the remuneration aspect and actually voted against their interests – sorry girls my bad – although it looks like the rest of the room was also against. All I can say is that I am glad that I am not a small community Councillor, because it looks like quite hard work.

And in other news:

Turangi Buses, Ferries Galore: On Wednesday Councillor Sandra Greenslade posted a roaster of an April Fools on the Turangi Noticeboard (see below) which took quite a few people in and even got reported in the Waikato Times, but there is a dark side of this which does need retelling once again. Waikato Regional Council have told us that if we get $170K together then they will add a five-day a week Taupo-Turangi 33 seater bus service with timetable of our choice, but discussions about it in Chambers of late have fallen very flat indeed. Apparently this Council is too poor to afford anything much at all really, even to relieve an urgent community need at a crucial time as this. To be honest I really thought this would be something right up Mayor Funnell’s rescue mindset alley, but apparently not if the absence of decisive words or action is anything to go by. After all, if Auckland and Christchurch are now deciding to urgently prioritise public transport because people can’t afford to run their cars, why can’t we? One urban planning lecturer is even promoting that if the government spent $300M nationwide for free buses for a year it would be cheaper than some of the other ideas being floated.

Thursday fun day at the marae: I’d like to be able to tell you how it all went down today at the Induction with Ngāti Tūrangitukua for Councillors and Staff at their Turangi marae, but I decided not to attend. You see when three years ago I attended much of it was presented in a language I didn’t understand, and I noticed that activist Tina Porou will once again be presenting her version of Council obligations to the Treaty of Waitangi and probably the sins of colonialism too. My biggest concern (apart from an entire day out of my life to no great purpose): this marae visit also serves as an induction for Council staff (nine carloads of them, apparently). Having said that, I do recall there was a welcoming air and the luncheon was quite fine – and I realised much later, probably paid for out of the annual $500K fund set aside for “improving Iwi relations“.

Soothsayer Duncan says: This has been sitting with me now for quite a while, but I feel after the defining moment of Tuesday this is the right moment to say aloud. Except for sorting out the Joint Management Agreement (JMA) which seems to be Mayor John Funnell’s main purpose to be there, he has reneged on all the other election platforms which I recall (my paraphrasing): Capping Rates to Inflation = Too Hard (after looking at the books…); Greater Transparency = Even Less (advocating for Code of Silence sessions for Councillors); Referendum for JMA = Remember That Idea?; and Greater Democracy in Chambers = Tyranny of the Majority (example described previous). If I were in his place and didn’t need the money, I reckon that I’d be planning my departure by now. Take it or leave it, and I’m just saying.

On Propaganda: Rates are going up – but are you looking at it like a Rachel, or a Duncan?

Fridays just because its there:

Fridays Done, But Are You Done Too?

27 March 2026

It’s all very well to say about JMA’s, but what is the point of them anyway?

Genesis 6:3: “And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years”.

We are not made to live forever, but that verse from Genesis 6:3 isn’t widely interpreted to mean we are capped at 120 years. Its context was that Noah had 120 years to build his Ark before the Flood came, and there is Biblical record of men living over that age well after that time. Noah for example, is said to have lived over 900 years. How so can that be? It is speculated that in the time of Creation, genetics were purer with sickness almost unheard of. There was no prohibition on marrying ones sister, for example (which was hard to avoid when there are only a handful of people to choose from) – and it is held that subsequent corruption of our genetics is the reason we don’t do that now. Sure there will have been accidents, but they didn’t have motorbikes back then.

Hey ya’ll its another week done, and finally we have some cooler weather arrive! About time I say, and its these middle seasons which I like most. So what have we going on in the Council space lately, at least with your Elected Members? Not a lot it has to be said, just some Long Term Plan (LTP) thingamies which wrapped up, an update with Turangi buses, and also an interesting little episode worth mentioning just because it illuminates how this Council can operate sometimes.

Lets start with the LTP. On Tuesday we wrapped up the preliminary workshop sessions which staff are using to set the general direction we want to head, and you can watch that session HERE. But for me the greatest elephant in the room for all of this is that we haven’t set any decisive rate targets to work backwards from, and it appears we might just be going through the motions to superficially justify the carrying on of business as usual – just like we have done every single year I have been on Council. However, even though there is no sign of any sort of comprehensive review of staff numbers and salaries (which comprise the significant portion of operational expenditure), there is at least a few encouraging signs that some staff are taking to heart the community have had enough. Like the idea of selling off Council assets to pay down debt and/or offset rates (otherwise known as ‘rationalising Council assets‘), and perhaps we will start to get serious about things like some sort of bed tax on non-commercial accommodation providers (Rotorua and Queenstown rating models may get a look at). But I don’t see these as significantly meaty to make such a big difference, so we will just have to see how it pans out. As I have stated many times before, and the maths is incontrovertible – unless we fix rates to consumer levels of inflation, then those on fixed incomes will inevitably be crippled.

I do have an update on Turangi buses – Waikato Regional Council (WRC) have told us that if Taupo District Council (or anybody really) can come up with a $170K injection, they will put on a five-day a week 33 seat bus service between Taupo and Turangi with timetable of our choice. We are still to ascertain a few extra details such as if this means any number of trips per day or just a few, but the overwhelming public responses received thus far from Turangi Councillor Sandra Greenslade’s community conversations (including social media) are speaking quite loudly that there will be no problem filling seats. With the price of fuel as sky high it is right now, I reckon this is the least we can be doing to help Turangi out and my money is on it will be popular after the Middle East war is over too. Canterbury Regional Council is also doing their bit to push public transport in these trying times, I reckon we should be doing the same. But we only have a week to decide, so keep your fingers crossed this idea gets past the line. Otherwise the Turangiites may start coming for us, and $170K seems a pretty cheap way of avoiding that.

And then there was this on Tuesday as well: Raukawa Settlement Trust and Taupō District Council Co-Governance Committee hui. What is that all about you may ask, and what has it got to do with me? Some of you will have to please forgive my ignorance, but I only just learned that Raukawa is an Iwi and not a river, and that they have been working a Joint Management Agreement (JMA) with Taupo District Council since 2013. What’s that you say, a JMA? Isn’t that what all the fuss is being made about lately? Well yes, and no. This is a different JMA and only concerns the Raukawa sections of the Waikato river (which bits I am not exactly sure, because I thought they are the same bits covered in the new JMA). But irrespective of all that, I figured this would be worth tuning into just to see how these JMA’s can play out and what good they can do. Because if we are going to do something bigger and supposedly better, that’s a thing to do right? Here is where things start to get interesting…

This Raukawa committee meeting is an annual affair and open to the public, and yet was never advertised (except for a secluded item in the Council website HERE), and as at the time of writing the meeting agenda has still not been made available to anybody else but committee members. A few days prior, I recognised the relevance of this meeting to the JMA we are negotiating now, and requested to our Chief Executive that it be audio-visual recorded for public record. The response I received was that the idea of recording would only be tabled at the meeting and subject to committee member approval. Long story short – the recording started happening a minute or so after that item was voted and approved around 20 minutes into the meeting, so you can watch the remaining two hour proceedings HERE. Fact of the matter though, is that there was virtually no public notification, and that recording might not have happened at all. I had to request from one of the committee members to send me a copy of the agenda which you can read HERE.

Okay Duncan, so apart from that yet another example of closed door opacity from this Council, what else is there to be made of all this? Well you probably have to watch for yourself and truth be told I put it on 1.75 times play speed to get through it, but my take is that this committee has all the hallmarks of a friendly hui without much doey. There was an early suggestion to change the title from ‘Co-governance‘ to ‘Co-management‘ (for political reasons I am fairly sure), and a few interesting things got raised by Mangakino Councillor Hope Woodward with questions to Council staff about experienced river water quality problems (watch from HERE), and there is a recent Waikato Times article emphasising that point. But as far as I could tell this committee made absolutely no decisions at all, and anything that does eventuate only happens in the background as implemented by Council staff. But I suppose that is inevitable for a committee which meets only once every 12 months, and if this is an example of how a JMA can work in practice then the public should at least be concerned about such lightweight governance – and for that reason alone, was perhaps why it went unadvertised. But I do hear that the subsequent afternoon tea went down very well.

And on that note, I caught a recent social media commentary regarding the proposed JMA for Taupo waters:

“I want to offer a word of warning to Council about an element of the Act that gives me grave concern. As background, before retiring I was a Commercial Manager who was involved in the development and negotiation of many commercial contracts and I would never enter into a contract that could not be terminated once established which I understand is what the Act anticipates in the JMA. Contracts are put in place to formalise conditions that the parties would like to operate under as things are known today, but no one is able to foresee what will happen in the future that could make the contract unworkable. Therefore the Council should not enter into any agreement that cannot be terminated. This is just good contractual/commercial practice! The Council has no control or power over what another contracted party, such as the Tuwharetoa Māori Trust Board, may evolve into over time. Hypothetically just to emphasise this point only, what if the TMTB were to be taken over by a foreign political or ideological movement as an extreme example? Would we still want obligations to that evolved party? My suggestion is for Council to advise government that it cannot enter into good faith contracts on a “no termination” basis and advise them you will not progress until this is removed as a requirement of the Act!” 

And after I commented that it was spurious to believe Tuwharetoa Maori Trust Board (TMTB) can possibly represent the best interests of all Maori, I received this response:

“You act like the Tūwharetoa Māori Trust Board is an unregulated entity. Of course they are accountable. They operate under the Māori Trust Boards Act 1955, which sets out governance, financial reporting, and accountability requirements, just like any other entity. They’re required to produce annual reports, have audited accounts etc. It’s no wonder you are getting hammered with accusations of racism, your comments are so out of touch. Do better”.

So I decided to do better and ask Chatgpt this question: “What can you tell me please about the legislated ‘transparency and accountability’ of Maori Trust Boards to the public and their own members, relative to the requirements of local government? I have been pointed to the Maori Trust Boards Act 1955 (which was apparently superceded in 2011)”. You can read the full ChatGPT response HERE but here are a few snippets below:

And for a supplementary question about the transparency and accountability of specifically Tuwharetoa Maori Trust Board to its own beneficiaries:

So until I receive evidence to the contrary, I remain undeterred in saying that the public has every right to be concerned with any partnership deals and whatever they are called. Down south Federated Farmers are up in arms about impending Nga Puhi undue influences to their way of life (will they be doing the same here?), and Hobsons Pledge are putting out some alarm bells about Taupo as well.

So what else is new?

O Delegations, Delegations, Wherefore Art Thou Delegations? Following the release a few weeks ago of my presentation on Financial Delegations which you can watch HERE, I had one of the elected members follow up with a couple of questions:“Why would staff need to work the weekends if they do value for money projects”, and “Isn’t doing the cheapest job more expensive in the long run?” My responses are shown below:

“Throwing a big pile of money at a single project is virtually always less time consuming for project managers than trying to handle multiple projects, and I have certainly experienced this first hand. Especially if that work gets handed to contractors or consultants to undertake as usually happens with almost all Councils nowadays. Yes there are lazy Council workers who take the easy path as at any other workplace, but with their performance is often not measured by results on the ground but by accountants who look at balanced books and budgets spent on time. It is also my experience in the public sector, that people are more likely to be elevated past their level of competence.

On your second point, I will defer to the Dunedin cheapy roundabout example. They may seem more expedient than the ideal, but the cost of doing nothing has to be weighed up also. Intersections are the flashpoints and bottlenecks of any transport network, and waiting to do the rolls royce option every time is simply not tenable when we have crashes and driver delays happening every day. These are costs to society which is the role of a Road Controlling Authority to duly address, and I was greatly surprised to find after moving here that instead of No.8 wire solutions which I would have expected of an overstretched provincial place, I see the rolls royce happening (and a few road safety disasters as well). That was entirely my original motivation to stand for Council”.

Dog attack in Turangi: Last weekend a roaming dog attack left a woman unconscious in Turangi when she tried to protect her toddler. I am not sure if it has been properly reported to Council yet or even if it is widely known about in the Turangi area, but this coincides with a recent government announcement to try and tackle this issue more seriously. In the meantime though, I see that the only measures for the average person are: (1) Public need to report in detail about any incidents including dog identification, because action cannot be taken without this happening. Taupo District Council’s Antenno App is easy to use, and allows for anonymous reporting if you really wish; (2) Carry a big stick. I used to be a bicycle postie back in the day, and have figured out that unless a dog is on their own property some aggression on your behalf can often go a long way to defusing the situation.

Aussis get serious, so why aren’t we? Over the ditch it seems they aren’t very keen on E-bikes being used in an anti-social way, and that includes seizing and crushing any which go faster than their imposed 25 km/hr speed limit. As somebody who is great fan of personal mobility other than large boxed motor vehicles, I think they are taking things way too seriously – but I am sure there will be many Taupoite lake path users who will disagree.

Give money for more sculptures: If you liked Boom Boom the dinosaur or even if you don’t, the Taupo Sculpture Trust has a new website where you can keep informed with the latest developments and also give them some of your hard earned money towards the new. I am pretty sure that back in the day of Michelangelo it was only through individual sponsorship that the great classical sculptures ever happened at all, so here is a chance to be a part of it.

Balloons over Waikato : Last weekend I happened to be in Hamilton for this annual event, along with I estimate around 10,000 people who had a great time in the early morning seeing them all off. The Nightglow experience that evening with music set to earth-bound balloons – less exhilarating, and by all accounts the public transport after was absolute chaos as reported here.

And on that note, it just has to be said…

Fridays undisputed best balloon song of all time:

Fridays Feeble Foldback

20 March 2026

“I seek a place that can never be destroyed, one that is pure, and that fadeth not away, and it is laid up in heaven, and safe there, to be given, at the time appointed, to them that seek it with all their heart. Read it so, if you will, in my book” (John Bunyan)

Pilgrims Progress – Written by layman preacher John Bunyan whilst in prison, it is one of the most printed English books of all time, second only to the Bible in terms of copies sold and has remained continuously in print since its publication in 1678 with an estimated 250 million copies worldwide. I have read it more than once and if you are interested in poetic prose and a Protestant Christian message in simple relatable terms – I can think of no better book for thee.  

As I see it, this game of local government and politics is full of subjective opinions which masquerade as facts, and not only staff but Elected Members can use it to push their own agendas. That doesn’t necessarily exclude me, but I at least try to transparently separate the fact from the fiction. So what have we got this past week to subjectively opinionate on? We had some more Long Term Plan (LTP) discussions of which there are a couple of things of interest, and another one of the Joint Management Plan (JMP) workshops which included a few reveals, and it is getting attention from the likes of the organisation Democracy Action.

I also finally got around to putting out my talk of Delegations which has been floating around since before Christmas. Mayor Funnell hasn’t quite come around to the idea of letting Elected Members speak freely in Council Chambers, but I suspect where that attitude is really coming from. In any case, that bottleneck only pushed me to greater lengths and already some good feedback has been received – so I may do more in this format. The gist of my talk is that financial delegations at Taupo District Council fall woefully short of responsible governance oversight, and I reckon we need a new Financial Committee to make it start happening. You can watch it below:

On that note of letting elected members speak their piece, I have tabled a Notice of Motion for the next Council meeting on 31 March to address that very point and is shown below. I believe such a thing is quite fundamental to basic democracy in Council Chambers, and I won’t deny that a part of me resents having to expend energy trying to get it to happen. Call me black or white if you will, but as I see it any Elected Members who vote against it are the enemies of your democracy.

Okay lets start with the JMA workshop on Thursday which I really do recommend you watch HERE because a few things came out. We first kicked off with a statement from Mayor Funnell which is shown below, which was partly in response to some statements I made the last workshop about Tuwharetoa Maori Trust Board (TMTB) questioning if they are an organisation which properly represents the interests of this district or its own members (at least I think that was the gripe, because it was never explicitly stated). This is based on my own previous assessment of these Maori Trust Boards including TMTB which you can read HERE, and I am still of that view. However, Mayor Funnell felt the need to apologise on behalf of everybody else at the beginning of the meeting as per below:

Maori ward Councillor Wahine Murch also weighed in with some invective near the end of the meeting when I raised a question about it (watch from HERE), and also put out a social media post about it where she asserted that I had been: “…attacking motives, spreading misinformation or undermining people and institutions”. My response to Wahine is that I have been doing my homework thank you very much, and that I am entitled to my view. TMTB is not a public institution governed by the same motivations and restraints as local government, so entering into any partnership deals with them should be done very warily. I also say that claiming they represent the best interests of all Maori in the district is spurious at best.

Apart from that, I asked for any success story examples from the JMA’s which Council are already involved in (and there are a few since 2009 which you can read about HERE). Because it just stands to reason doesn’t it, that if we are now talking about another JMA with an expanded scope over and above just the obligatory, that we should be looking for evidence of the benefits? And it is all about looking after the waters and environment, right? In any case, I was not able to elicit too much of a response on that question.

Why can’t we just sign up to the Mandatory Matters now? I get asked this quite a bit, and I have asked in Chambers too. The answer seems to be that, yes we could have signed up long ago, but TMTB aren’t satisfied with just that. There seems to be an underlying threat that the government could get involved, and either party has a right to complain because we are well behind the original schedule. But somehow I don’t think it would help TMTB’s case when they are the ones wanting all the extras.

Down south there are warnings being floated about by Federated Farmers with respect to various Council agreements with Ngai Tahu, I don’t know about the veracity of these claims, but I don’t think many people here want the same for Taupo. The bottom line for most constituents is what is this JMA really going to cost them?, and recall that last week I forwarded some challenging assertions about just that to our Chief Executive which you can read HERE and HERE. I haven’t received any answers yet except to say that they will be addressed later, but I am now requesting a response well prior to any subsequent workshops.

And what about the Long Term Plan (LTP)? We had another session in the series in Thursday which you can watch HERE and HERE if you have several hours to spare. We talked about such exiting things as Renewals, Depreciation, and Levels of Service, and also delved into some of the issues like transport, cemeteries, emergency management, dog control, policy planning and consents – all for staff to be better able to appreciate the direction that Elected Members want to head. I am once again encouraged by the impetus of a rates cap which is appearing to motivate the prospects of some tangible action, and it just goes to show that we have been way too slack for way too long.

On the subject of Level of Service, I did point out that although these are starting to be quite strictly applied by the government in the waters space, that doesn’t apply to transport. Nobody forced the people of Auckland to build their motorways – they chose to do it. We currently have a $70M line item in the LTP for a second road bridge across the Waikato just north of Taupo Township, but there hasn’t been a single debate in Council Chambers to decide if we really want to do it, or even a full assessment saying that we absolutely need it. I want those things to happen sooner rather than later, and you can read my previous views on that topic HERE.

Apart from that, I made a few observations and comments including: that perhaps it isn’t wise to be programming road maintenance projects that involve large volumes of asphalt during an oil crisis; my request that future kids playgrounds have more emphasis on playability and less on cultural aesthetics; a suggestion to emulate Selwyn District Council for fast growing Rolleston and consider issuing building consents prior to land titles (developers take note, if you want that thing to happen better start petitioning your Elected Members now); and finally my observation that erosion control measures could be more effective and expedient if the lake bed owner would be so good to allow off-shore engineering measures to be constructed.

And there’s really just a few other bits and pieces:

We have it good here: Friday I attended the first workshop at Waikato Regional Council towards a 10-year transport plan for the region, and it was highlighted to me how good we really have it here in Taupo. We are not city Hamilton with all its congestion and public transport demands, and we are not a Thames-Coromandel with scores of single-lane bridges and 10km traffic queues, and coastal roads falling into the sea every time they have a big storm. Taupo has pretty good roads, we don’t have many people, and we are that far inland to not get all the severe weather. But we are still working on those bus timetables including for Turangi, and hope to come to a resolution on that soon.

Run for my money: I must say that Mangakino Councillor Hope Woodward is giving me a run for my money with her expanding community social media updates like the one shown right, and her activism on behalf of her community is also to to be commended. Keep it up Hope!

Jonsie awards 2026: If you haven’t ever watched these then its high time you did. These are the annual Taxpayer Union awards to government and local government wasteful spending. The top awards this year for local government went to Tauranga Mayor Mahe Drysdale for spending $470K on coffee machines and beans – which on the face of it doesn’t so outrageous to people who adore coffee – so couldn’t anybody think up a better nominee on behalf of Taupo? You can watch the entire award ceremony HERE. But the top award of all went to Chris Hipkins leader of the Labour Party, his was a Lifetime Achievement of Waste award for blowing $35B during the Covid pandemic or $17K every NZ household. I got to admit, that is a once in a generation if not the century achievement and will be hard to ever topple – but I do really feel that previous Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern could have taken some of the glory.

Now its legal to drink alcohol at the Hairdressers! I never thought it was illegal anyhow, but now the government has stepped in to fix that dreadful shortcoming as well as a few of the other antiquidated alcohol laws.

Fridays Fabulous Feature: “Perverted by Language” is the album title by Mark E Smith of band The Fall, with the number below “Eat Y’self Fitter“. You mightn’t love the beats, but what an absolute poet!