Well, today we have a real humdinger to discuss. In a July 6 article in Kapiti News by Ashleigh Collis, Kapiti Mayor Janet Holborow made what amounts to a public confession that she is a Marxist, or rather, she’s in charge, and she’s against democratic accountability.
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This comes despite the government proposing legislation requiring Holborow and other mayors across the country to stop allowing unelected committee members to vote on council decisions.
Let’s be clear: As far as central government and the law are concerned, democracy in local councils means local people electing local people to make decisions on local issues.
Holborow and, presumably, the majority of the elected Kapiti Coast District Council (KCDC) don’t agree with that principle. Instead, they have been allowing unelected local mana whenua (Māori) representatives to sit on council subcommittees. When it comes time to vote on various local issues, they allow these unelected people to vote as well.
Obviously, this means the councillors are not accountable to the local voters.
The central government has been aware that a number of councils around the country have been doing the same thing. In response to this out-of-control approach (call it wokeism or racism, take your pick), the National Government and its coalition partners campaigned on ending the practice — and they won.
They therefore had a clear mandate to amend the Local Government Act. The provision preventing non-elected committee members from voting on formal decisions was added through a Supplementary Order Paper after the bill had completed the select committee process.
In the article, Holborow accused the government of acting “completely undemocratically.” Yet she appears completely blind to the hypocrisy of what she and her councillors have been doing: allowing racially selected, unelected people to exercise voting rights on council subcommittees.
This is not the first time Holborow and the KCDC have bypassed proper public participation processes, which is a legal requirement. In 2023, they asked the Kapiti community for its views on adding a Māori ward for the 2025 elections.
Despite 69% of submissions opposing the move, they went ahead anyway. So now the council has both elected Māori ward representatives and unelected Māori representatives voting on subcommittees.
Holborow said in the article: “What would be lost is the relationship that we have built up with mana whenua and them attending our committees with voting rights as part of that relationship.” She also said: “It’s hardly mana-enhancing when somebody is sitting at your committee table, and you have to say, ‘Sorry, I’ve been told you can’t have a vote anymore.”
I’m sorry, but I don’t want any person who thinks they have the right to vote on local issues because of their race anywhere near local decision-making.
What’s difficult to understand about Mayor Holborow is how she has no trouble ignoring the wishes of most of her community, yet she cannot bring herself to tell an unelected Māori person they can’t vote on formal council matters.
What’s even harder to understand is that whenever an issue involves Māori — whether it’s feedback from her own community or clear explanations of the law from central government — she sides with Māori.
Thankfully, local Ōtaki National MP Tim Costley rejected Holborow’s criticism, arguing that the proposal strengthens democratic accountability. He added: “It’s completely undemocratic to give voting rights to people nobody voted for in the first place.”
Unfortunately, as a member of the National government, he stopped short of calling it racism. However, the only conclusion I can draw is that Mayor Holborow and the majority of her council are racists.
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Andy Oakley is a national manager in one of the country’s largest mechanical companies and has been involved in the HEVAC, smoke control and construction industry for more than 35 years. He is also the author of Cannons Creek to Waitangi, a book that details how and why he made a treaty claim to the Waitangi Tribunal. This article was first published HERE
4 comments:
The relationship she speaks of is the one where council openly declares the millions of dollars being paid to the local iwi each year. That is millions that appear as a line item in the financial statements on public record.
No mention of what iwi did for that cash.
Kcdc are ineffective inefficient and despite all the councillors campaigning on lower rates - the rates bills keep climbing which indicates that councillors are ineffective at best.
Andrew’s and holborow have a lot to answer for (and the ardern sycophant Sophie Hanford who’s never worked an actual job in her life and trying to get a seat in parliament)
Scum the lot of them.
Here’s the annual report btw - $2.8m paid to iwi no mention of services received - pg 15
https://www.kapiticoast.govt.nz/media/24vjkdq0/kcdc-annual-report-summary-202425.pdf
Wow, its still ongoing. These far left racists HOLBOROW in this instance are hypocrites. How on earth do they get elected. We live in a far left woke racist welfare state for sure when this corrupt behavior continues. Not only does it undermine democracy, it causes us to lose faith and trust in the system when the like of the holborows do what ever they want. Shame on her and her team.
Um, at the 11 October 2025 local body elections, the voters of Kapiti District Council voted 10790 to 7952 to retain Māori wards for for the
2028 and 2031 local body elections.
Andy, assuming you are correct and it appears you are - then mayors like Holbrook are the most dangerous around. She has even taken to the media to protest about the very undemocratic process she employs. If that's not dangerous, I don't know what is. Is it any wonder that we no longer trust elected officials, especially those on the left? They seem to rort the system far more than those with 'normal' tendencies who would even dream of doing such a thing.
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