In this episode, Duncan Garner investigates the rapid shift toward unelected governance in the Far North District Council. Councillor Davina Smolders joins the show to blow the whistle on a committee structure where six elected members are sitting alongside 15 unelected iwi and hapu representatives—all with full voting rights on multimillion-dollar decisions.
Davina discusses the lack of transparency in how these decisions are shaped before they even reach the full council table and the impact this has on local rate payers. We also hear the personal toll of speaking out, including the harassment and death threats Davina has faced since taking her seat.
Is this the future of local government in New Zealand, or is it a "coup" happening in plain sight? Duncan challenges the government's silence on the issue and asks what it means for the principle of equal citizenship......
Davina Smolders is a Councillor for Bay of Islands-Whangaroa Ward of Far North District Council
9 comments:
Get this out on the msm whether they want it or not!
This story is beyond shocking. Nats must be held to account over this. MSM letting us all down once again - taxpayer funding should be removed for media entirely.
The country is f’ed!
The rise of the ‘unelected’ must be the new ‘tweaked’ democracy that Jackson spoke of. What a pity it triggers a “no rates and/or income tax payment without representation clause. Starve the co- governance/tweaked democracy parasites out.
What the Far North Council doesn't want is an appointed commission as we had in Tauranga(selected by Minister Mahuta). This was not to benefit the citizens of Tauranga, but simply to give unelected bureaucrats huge power and salaries. We were pleased to see the back of them.
This is the final test for National and its credibility as a party of the Centre Right
As a last desperate measure, Luxon may be conniving with Labour for a govt of "national unity" (= to usher in He Puapua on time ) - and before he sails of with his knighthood to live in Monaco.
Msm will ignore anything that does not fit the Maori rule agenda as racist, misinfo etc.
Have the Maori Mafia put guns to the heads of these Mayors to make them give unelected, paid, Maori, with full voting rights onto their committees ?
Have these Mayors got any sense of democracy ?
Have National totally lost the plot allowing this travesty to emerge post the demise of the Labour government ?
Again, it's all down to the personal views of Luxon suppressing any disagreement within his Caucus.
During the election campaign, the coalition talked a big game over this issue, but once in government, failed to act decisively. Or at all, some would say. Only ACT has tried to take any substantive action, and it's clear that, on many issues, it's been white-anted by its coalition partners.
In my view, there are a few possible reasons for their inaction. Firstly, they may secretly agree with the concept of co-governance: they wouldn't be the first pollies in history to either fail to see, or to discount (because of greater good issues), the fact that it's undemocratic. A few years ago, I had a loud argument over the Voice Referendum with an Australian family member, who failed to accept that it was undemocratic, and believed that it was justified because aborigines had been in Australia for so long. Fortunately, the majority of Australian voters saw it for what it was, and voted it down.
Secondly, they're maybe too scared of the Maori mafia to make any real changes. Smolders tells us about her experience of harassment and death threats. Without doubt, the same would apply to government pollies. In the days when I didn't use a nom, I was directly contacted by complete strangers. It was certainly harassment, though back then I wasn't commenting about the co-governance issue. Nowadays, I use a nom to comment on co-governance,Treaty and Maori language. And I'm called racist, of course. But, while I admire the courage of people such as Smolders, there's no way I'd now use my name: it's distinctive and we're easily found. The last thing I need is a death threat or a fire bombing (don't think it can't happen).
Thirdly, maybe, when they took over the Treasury benches, they found that the economy was in such a dire condition that they've had to put aside other considerations and concentrate upon that problem. Maybe they're hoping a second term will give them the leeway to deal with co-governance, but I'm not sure they'll get one. The voting public is thoroughly disillusioned with their inaction.
I found it staggering that with a committee formed of six elected councillors, there were an additional SIXTEEN unelected people seconded onto the committee with full voting rights. This was authorized by the Mayor. (See Duncan's latest podcast of the FNC's Mayors written response when invited by Duncan onto his program for comment) Says it all.
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