Reynold Macpherson: A Social Media Ban May Solve the Wrong Problem

New Zealand’s proposed ban on social media for people under 16 starts from a serious concern. Children can be harmed online. They can be exposed to bullying, sexual material, grooming, misinformation and extreme content.

Social media can also disrupt sleep, concentration, learning and family life. Some platforms are designed to hold attention for as long as possible. Young people are especially vulnerable to those techniques.

Reynold Macpherson: Rotorua Needs Democratic Reform, Not More Power

When I served on Rotorua Lakes Council from 2019 to 2022, I discovered how far local government could depart from the democratic processes I had expected.

Policy development was too often controlled upstream by the mayor and senior officials. Councillors formally voted, but officials largely controlled the information, framing, recommendations and implementation surrounding those votes.

Reynold Macpherson: Rotorua's Head Start Process Has Failed - The Minister Must Take Control

Rotorua Lakes Council’s handling of the Government’s Head Start reform process has a legitimacy problem that cannot be dismissed as the unavoidable consequence of a compressed timetable.

The deeper problem is that there was enough time for some people to be involved upstream.

Reynold Macpherson: Who Does Rotorua Lakes Council Serve?

Two Issues, Two Signs, Four Years, and Falling Legitimacy.

Voter turnout in Rotorua Lakes Council elections has remained below half of eligible voters for many years. Turnout was 45.99% in 2016 and 45.15% in 2019. It rose slightly to 46.46% in 2022, possibly reflecting controversy over proposed co-governance changes, yet still fewer than half of voters participated. In the 2025 election turnout fell again to 43.27%, despite record spending by officials intended to boost participation. Taken together, these figures suggest a persistent and now worsening problem of civic disengagement that raises questions about the legitimacy of Rotorua’s local government.

Reynold Macpherson: An Open Letter to the Editor and to the Mayor and Councillors of Rotorua Lakes Council

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE EDITOR AND TO THE MAYOR AND COUNCILLORS OF ROTORUA LAKES COUNCIL

In February 2025, Rotorua Lakes Council, under Mayor Tapsell’s leadership, transferred decisive influence over Rotorua’s long-term direction to the Te Arawa 2050 Vision Committee. Whether readers support or oppose that arrangement is not the issue. In a democracy, the threshold requirement is that significant shifts in power are transparent, contestable, and subject to ongoing and informed public consent.

Reynold Macpherson: Te Arawa 2050: Who Decides, Who Pays, and Who Is Accountable?

The launch of the Te Arawa 2050 Committee a year ago was framed as a gesture of goodwill and partnership within Rotorua Lakes Council. Many welcomed its stated aim: to give Te Arawa fair and proportionate influence in council policymaking. That objective was legitimate and long overdue. A year on, however, it is clear that goodwill cannot substitute for clarity—especially when households face sustained rates pressure and councils are being urged to live within tighter fiscal limits.

Reynold Macpherson: Te Arawa 2050 Committee - A new pathway to internal Co-Governance

A guest post on Kiwiblog by Reynold Macpherson, Chairman of Rotorua District Residents and Ratepayers:

I watched the launch of this committee online this morning and was left with ambivalent feelings. While I strongly support Te Arawa having a fair and proportionate influence on Council policymaking, I was struck by the way politically critical implications were overshadowed by a cultural tide of goodwill and, at times, naïveté.

Reynold Macpherson: Letter to Minister of Local Government 4 Feb 2025

Rotorua District Residents and Ratepayers

4 February 2025 

The Hon. Simon Watts

Minister of Local Government

Request for Ministerial Advice on Rotorua Lakes Council’s Co-Governance Initiatives

Good morning, Minister.

Reynold Macpherson: Why Rotorua district does not have 50-50 co-governance

Between 2013 and 2023, Rotorua Lakes Council was prevented by Parliament and law from adopting a 50/50 co-governance model. In my view this outcome aligns with local preferences and broader trends in New Zealand and other democracies, such as the United States and Canada, where debates over governance models and minority and majority rights continue to evolve. 

This article outlines three key reasons for Rotorua’s reversion to pluralistic majoritarianism and situates them within the wider national and international context.

Reynold Macpherson: Why Scepticism Greets the Rotorua Housing Accord

 

Introduction

The content of the Rotorua Housing Accord prepared for signing on 9 December is different than the uncritical reports published at various news outlets. It suggests that the articles were based on the press releases provided by the Ministers and our Mayor and were intended to spin the intended outcomes of the Accord, rather than clarify the substance and implications of the Accord. When the limitations of the Accord are added to the legacy of distrust created by the previous Council, it is understandable why residents and ratepayers remain sceptical. 

Point of Order: Local Govt Commission over-rides Rotorua’s undemocratic voting model – but what will Labour-majority Parliament do?

Kiwiblog today reports that the Local Government Commission has completed a determination for Rotorua which will result in three Māori Ward Councillors being elected, but without sacrificing equality of suffrage.

As Kiwiblog tells us, the commission favours –

* An urban general ward – 48,410 people elect six councillors – 8,068 population per councillor.

 

* A Māori ward – 21,700 people elect three councillors – 7,233 population per councillor

* A rural general ward – 7,200 people elect one councillor – 7,200 population per councillor.

This means the commission has rejected Rotorua Lakes Council’s model which comprised one Māori ward seat, one general ward seat and eight at-large seats.

To implement the council model, special legislation has been introduced to Parliament to over-ride requirements of the Local Elections Act.

Reynold Macpherson: Argument Against Co-Governance Replacing Democracy

I refute some claims made in an article based on a Rotorua Lakes Council press release and published on the Rotorua Daily Post Weekend on 5 March in regard to council representation.

The Council decided its position on November 19, 2021. The fifth and crucial decision was, it was asserted, to meet the purposes of the Local Electoral Act with an interim representation model that falls short of the council’s preferred position, however, preserves the principles of voter parity. The decision was made with the slimmest possible majority, which, in my opinion, suggests marginal legitimacy.

Reynold Macpherson: Rotorua’s Manipulated Representation Decision

The evidence is that Council’s decision-making at the November 19 meeting over representation structures was manipulated towards ends predetermined by the Mayor; 50/ 50 co-governance.

How? Council’s agenda for 19 November proposed a “final representation model” of 1 Māori seat, 1 General seat and 8 At Large seats for councillors (1M:1G:8AL). It also sought to empower the Chief Executive to campaign for a law change to achieve the 3M:3G:4AL model that the Mayor and her supporters preferred, even though it had already been deemed to be unlawful by the Local Government Commission because it failed to meet the formula in law that guarantees proportional representation.

Reynold Macpherson: Rotorua’s Gerrymander for the 2022 Local Elections

Introduction

Gerrymandering[1] is manipulating representation structures to create political advantages for selected individuals and/ or groups. Redistricting enables politicians to pick voters by juggling ward structures in a district.

Rotorua Lakes Council (RLC) has mobilized bias towards co-governance in its Representation Review and towards getting incumbents re-elected. It has been gerrymandering electoral outcomes favorable to its Māori Electoral Population (MEP) which constitutes 28% of the total electoral population. Incumbent elected members have agreed to transfer three General Electoral Population (GEP) seats and one MEP seat into a newly invented At Large ward with four seats that all can vote for. This redistricting tactic will significantly widen the voting base of popular incumbents and double the voting power of MEP voters.

Reynold Macpherson: Rotorua's Representation Review Biased Towards Co-Governance

Introduction

New Zealand’s central government ended local referenda on 1 March 2021[1]  that had retarded the introduction of Māori wards. Rotorua Lakes Council (Council) decided on 21 May 2021 to introduce a Māori ward to elect a member or members to Council. 

Council also decided to establish a Representation Review. It specifically authorised consultations with mana whenua and wider stakeholders with a view to reinforcing co-governance:

4.     That Council agree to carry out a wider review of Council’s governance framework, including the purpose, membership and powers of Council’s committees and community boards, and a discussion with Te Arawa and the broader community about the possibilities of strengthening co-governance. [2]

Reynold Macpherson: Rotorua's Warped Economic Development Strategy

This opinion piece is offered to see if other district and regional councils are responding to the Covid Depression with economic development strategies that are unbalanced, divisive and misappropriating ratepayers’ resources. 

Rotorua Lakes Council’s framework is shown to be based on a fake collectivism, Te Arawa’s Vision 2050 replacing its obsolete Vision 2030, a simplistic dualism of short-term ‘economic recovery’ and long-term ‘economic development’ instead of pragmatic ‘economic reconstruction’, the Mayor’s co-governance agenda, a false virtue of ‘partnerships’ when they range from worthy intergovernmental projects to crony capitalism, unfulfilled political promises dating from 2013, deliberately marginalising ratepayers, and practices that violate the Auditor General’s eight elements of good governance.

Reynold Macpherson: Nonsense reasoning behind council rebrand

On 27 November the Mayor and her Deputy announced that the Rotorua District Council was considering a name change to Rotorua Lakes Council to “refresh” its branding. On the following day we were told the decision had been made. The reasons given for ramming the decision through are silly, insulting to citizens and appear to be a frivolous waste of ratepayers’ money.

Mayor [Steve] Chadwick said that “the lakes defined the district”, hence the need for a change of name. Nonsense. The boundaries of the district define the district. That’s how the Rotorua District Council got its name. That’s why the rest of New Zealand will keep using the name.

It was then admitted on the 28^th that “the official name will remain unchanged”. So the ‘rebrand’ is only a symbolic change? A pretend name change. What a shambles.

Reynold Macpherson: Rotorua’s Mayor and Councillors Remain Accountable

The Council’s Te Arawa Partnerships Project proposal is at the Rotorua Muddy Waters website. It violates the principle of representative democracy and would give disproportionate power to a new Te Arawa Board. It is probably embarrassing to Te Arawa.

Te Arawa will know by now that the proposal is broadly unacceptable in our community. It has been given a hospital pass. A referendum would radicalise opinion, generate bitterness, and bury the proposal and hopes of a fresh settlement. Council needs to take back full responsibility for the quality of governance rather than outsourcing the challenge to one stakeholder.

Reynold Macpherson: Representational Democracy Mustn’t be Corrupted

I have been asked to comment on the proposal to allow a reconstituted Te Arawa Board the right to sit on Council committees, be party to the Resource Management Act decisions, and establish sub-committees, with the Council obliged to provide written explanations whenever they do not take their advice. If accurate, this additional power would enable Te Arawa Board to govern the Council.

Before reacting, all citizens need to see the full text before such fundamental changes to local governance are made, and long before any offer or decision is made by the Mayor and Council. It seems unwise and politically risky to hold privileged consultations and raise undeliverable expectations behind the scenes. Blaming the whistle blower for the mess is unworthy.