As Friday’s deadline approaches for candidates to have their nominations confirmed in the upcoming local body elections, the Taupō District Council has decisions to make on two significant issues.
On the agenda for the July meeting of the council tomorrow (Thursday, July 31) – shifted from the usual last Tuesday of the month – are both adoption of a Water Services Delivery Plan prior to its required submission to the Secretary for Local Government and consideration of the proposed Joint Management Agreement between the council and Tūwharetoa Māori Trust Board.
The former has been thrashed out over time and may not engender much further debate, though councillor Duncan Campbell attempted some last-minute reconsideration on it at the June council meeting – which some other councillors saw as mere politicking.
The latter however, the consideration of the joint committee recommendation to approve an expanded JMA, might, as the agenda bears out, attract more discussion and “politicking”.
Four options are noted on the agenda: approval, delay consideration and undertake consultation with the community on the draft JMA’s additional matters, send it back to the joint committee to reconsider any concerns from council, or defer consideration until after the local government elections in October.
This was the option suggested by several councillors at a July 3 workshop on the JMA at which councillors discussed with council officers its extended breadth as well as the mandatory component. (The workshop was not open to questions from the 30 or 40 members of the public in attendance.)
Waiting for the newly elected council to set the process and timeframes for approving the JMA, would likely see approval delayed until May 2026 – it was originally to be sorted by the end of June.
The agenda for tomorrow's meeting noted that any public consultation, however structured, was expected to focus only on the additional matters as the mandatory matters were required to be included by the legislation.
Officers had not previously considered any formal public engagement required in relation to the draft JMA as The Upper Waikato River Act did not anticipate extensive consultation, the TMTB was directly involved and they had assessed the level of significance as low against the council’s engagement policy, as well as already having received some views, albeit informally.
Of note in the meeting agenda was mention of some of this informal feedback via letters and emails on the JMA received by the council following publication of the draft agreement this month.
“Much of this feedback was based on a Hobson’s Pledge newsletter recommending that readers contact council. Much of the information in this newsletter was factually incorrect,” the agenda noted.
A summary (prepared by AI powered tools) of the themes raised in the feedback was attached, though full copies went only to councillors “to protect the privacy of the individuals” who had made the submissions.
As well as summarising what the correspondents saw as concerns about the clarity and enforceability of the agreement’s expanded scope, the summary noted warnings of electoral consequences for councillors who supported the JMA without adequate consultation.
Some messages also reflected “broader ideological opposition to race-based policies and Treaty obligations” the summary noted.
Tomorrow afternoon’s meeting is scheduled to start at 1pm.
