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.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 2/8/24

Collins focuses on what is being done in response to terrorist attack recommendations – but RNZ tells us what won’t be done

The headline on a press statement from Judith Collins today blandly advised:

March 15 coordinated response concludes

The first paragraph elaborated just as blandly:

Mike McViicker: Height of Hypocrisy

The announcement that the Rotorua Lakes Council had been successful with its Te Arawa Partnership Project (TAP) in the NZ Local Government Excellence Awards for “the outstanding delivery of best practise value and services to their community” certainly raises some questions.

Firstly, for such an undemocratic change of appointing unelected maori representatives to Council, which resulted in splitting the Rotorua community, and still does today, to win an Excellence Award strikes this writer as hypocritical. Particularly so when you take into account that the majority of Rotorua citizens did not support such a radical break from what had been the norm. (Rotorua Daily Post 68% against).

Mike Butler: The Waikato River taniwha tax

A taniwha tax, indigenous to New Zealand, describes payments to tribal groups to make demands disappear. A closer look at the Waikato River Five Year Report 2015 shows that 44 percent of clean-up funding went as payments to five tribes that claim deep connection to the river.

This report details $22-million worth of funding to 170 clean-up projects and also contains the Report Card that gave the catchment a C+ rating, as reported in Waikato River clean-up awaitedl

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.