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07/10/2026
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Local body politics

STORMS, TRACKS AND COFFEE

STORMS, TRACKS AND COFFEE – GOOD SYSTEMS FOR THE WIN

Last week we started getting warnings of a storm coming our way, followed immediately by a cyclone. We have a great emergency management team in Council and they provided regular briefings as the situation unfolded. During my brief time as mayor we have already been through a couple of storms but this looked like being bigger. Then I got influenza.

It came on quickly. A scratchy throat one day turned overnight into cold bones and deep, painful coughing that felt like it was ripping my throat and causing my muscles to ache from the spasming. It drained my energy and my motivation and rendered me useless for a number of days. With the cyclone approaching  I delegated my mayoral authority to Deputy Mayor Julie Jukes. There was no way I could be around other people and risk infecting those working in emergency response.

Julie did an incredible job as the Acting Mayor. She made the declaration of a local state of emergency, on advice from the Emergency Management Controller, and handled all the media interest – local, national and even some international. Media is the lifeblood of any politician, so it was with deep sadness that I told radio and TV reporters when they rang my cellphone that they’d best speak to Julie. When you delegate, you have to allow that person to do their job and not get in their way. The best I could do was attend the local and national briefings on-line and put information out on social media to support the official emergency management messages.

The system worked as it should. Local decision-making by a responsible civic leader listening to good advice from the EM team, accessing national level support and information via the Minister, and clear and regular information and communication for the community. Highly skilled staff and contractors were on call to handle problems as they arose, coordinating with fire services, police and we even had some army unimogs arrive to help. Thank you to everyone involved. Emergency management is all about being able to work together.

Of course, it also relied on local communities being able to make good decisions for themselves and willing to look after each other. I saw locals reaching out to each other on social media to offer a place to evacuate to. People checked in on neighbours, friends, family. Rangitihi Marae opened its doors as an evacuation centre with other marae on standby if needed. Let us never forget what a great community this is. Social connections are what resilience is made of.

The storm with all its landslide risk brought to mind another issue that I have been personally working on, with others in the community and in council. When Ngā Tapuwae o Toi / Toi’s Track was taken out by landslips in 2022 and 2023 the council investigated how best to reinstate it. Just before work was due to begin another slip took out another section, which caused work to pause. With such a slip-prone cliff face, what would it take to get a safe and robust track back in place? And how often would it need to be rebuilt?

Beacon readers will know that those geotechnical and engineering investigations came to council recently. The cost for council to rebuild a track that is now sheer cliff face in places, is prohibitive, with the almost certain likelihood of doing it all again in a short space of time. So, we’ve been very lucky to have a group of local people who have put their hands up to help. They have said that they can source volunteer expertise and labour, and funding from the local community to pay for engineering design and to fix the track.

This is an incredible opportunity to get a much-loved track reinstated without it costing ratepayers an arm and a leg. Councillors, and council staff, are eager to see this happen. As well as the community interest, staff have been working (with others) on getting the track recognised as a one day walk of national significance. This would bring visitors into our district to help boost local tourism operators and other businesses.

The Projects and Services Committee resolved that the best way forward was to “seek proposals from the community for the repair and re-establishment of the existing track or alternative routes between West End and Ōtarawairere…” The normal way to seek proposals for work like this is through a “request for proposals” (RfP), which outlines exactly what a proposal needs to meet all the cultural, legal, financial and health and safety obligations. Having good process for this kind of thing is important. A few of the issues include that the track goes through an area of incredible historical and cultural significance, so an Archaeological Authority from Heritage NZ is needed for every piece of work, based on a very detailed work plan, and only council can apply. The land ownership is complex, and full engagement with Tangata Whenua is necessary. The proposal needs to contain financial information and it needs to come from a trust, or incorporated society or some other legal entity with its own banking accounts, that can hold the project despite the comings and goings of individual members.

Putting the RfP together takes careful consideration and a series of steps to ensure its robustness. Council has a lot going on, and a cyclone is one of many things that can interrupt a normal work plan. So, it’s taking time, but we’ll get there. I am confident that with the passion and enthusiasm coming from the community, and the real desire of councillors and staff to see this happen, we will get a great outcome.

The last thing I want to mention is that I will be having my first ‘Mayor’s Coffee Morning” next week. I’ll be at Robert Harris Cafe on The Strand with some of your local councillors on Friday, 24 April from 9.30 to 11.30 to hang out, chat about any issues you want to raise, answer questions and listen to your concerns. Please come down and introduce yourself. I look forward to meeting you.

(Mayoral column for the Whakatāne Beacon 14 April 2026)

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07/10/2026
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Local body politics

PRUDENT FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

One of the big differences between being a Councillor and stepping up to the Mayor role is operating at a regional level. This is especially true with all the reform coming at us from Central Government. The need to work together and to speak with one voice (as far as possible) has made the Bay of Plenty Mayoral Forum, the Eastern Bay of Plenty Joint Committee, and similar groupings more important than ever. We need to be in there and we need to be active participants.

We are fortunate in the Bay of Plenty to have a friendly and collaborative Regional Council Chair and group of Mayors. The ability to work together and support each other is important not just in times of trouble, such as when we sent people over to Tauranga after Mauāo took a number of lives earlier this year but also as part of our advocacy to Government. This is on top of ‘business as usual’.

BOPLASS, for example, is a company owned by nine councils around the Bay of Plenty, East Coast and Taupō focused on shared procurement and shared services. By investing around $30 000 per year our council has saved some $225 000 each year in operating costs – close to $4 000 000 over the life of the company. I and the other Mayors in the Bay of Plenty believe that there are more savings that can be found by working together in other ways. We have asked our respective Chief Executives to look for opportunities to do that and report back.

Talking with Mayors from around the region, and across the country at Local Government New Zealand hui, has showed me that although small Councils like ours face some pressures that the big Councils don’t have, all Councils face very similar issues around the country. One Mayor that I was speaking to – a first term Mayor like me but who had never spent time as a Councillor – was worried about how he was going to explain the latest rates increase to his voters. He was elected on a promise to cut rates and was now facing the reality that he could not deliver.

I am proud to have been elected on a platform of hard but honest truths.

Here in Whakatāne we have just adopted our Draft Annual Plan budget with an average rates increase of 9.4%. This is the amount agreed in 2024 in the Long Term Plan and this new Council has not changed that. There was inflationary pressure to put rates up more, but this Council has been united in its commitment to finding greater efficiency in how the Council operates. We asked our staff to find savings and they have done so.

Throughout the organisation our staff are really focused on doing more with less. As a result, we have not just managed to avoid a larger rates increase than projected but found additional savings. Councillors then faced a tough decision – use that money to reduce the rates increase, or to reduce the operating deficit.

The operating deficit has been in place since covid. Basically, the Council has kept rates increases lower than they might have been by rating less money than was needed to pay the operating costs and borrowing to make up the shortfall. Of course, this just locks in higher rates increases in the future, to service a debt that just keeps growing. Borrowing to pay for capital assets is one thing – like taking out a mortgage to pay for the house. Borrowing to pay for operating costs is like taking out a mortgage to pay for the groceries. Like a blood-sucking vampire, sooner or later that will come back to bite.

I commend our Councillors this year for making the tough but financially prudent choice to use the savings to reduce the operating deficit. This will save substantial amounts of money for ratepayers over the next few years.

We also agreed to put some of those savings aside for contingencies. We know interest rates may well start to climb and the Israeli / US attacks on Iran are already sending oil prices higher. We have been trying to insulate the Council as best we can from these kinds of global disruptions. We have been moving our vehicle fleet towards electric and hybrid motors which both save money on maintenance and fuel and help stave off oil price spikes. We have also been installing solar panels on our buildings where they return a positive net financial benefit and reduce dependence on generators.

We have also been trying to support community groups who have the potential to take over some council functions. For example, the well publicised community interest in reinstating and maintaining the Ngā Tapuwae o Toi Walkway is one example of how Council might be able to support and facilitate the enthusiasm and skill in the community to achieve an outcome that Council would find it difficult to afford from rates. There will always be some tension between Council’s ethical and legal obligations (such as Health and Safety accountability) and community desire for action ‘yesterday’ but with good will and patience on both sides I think we can get a great outcome.

Finally, the committee structure that I established last year includes a Community Grants and Funding Committee. This builds on the committee that was already in place to bring all of Council’s community grants under one roof but extends its remit to identify external funding opportunities for Council projects. Given the demographics and economics of this district we benefit more than most from strong social infrastructure that supports community resilience. Those very factors also make it difficult for us to afford it. A committee that helps identify potential grants, loans, philanthropy, commercial sponsorship, and other funding mechanisms will support having community facilities that we collectively benefit from without burdening our ratepayers too much.

Our Councillors and staff are highly motivated to find cost savings and innovative ways of operating and funding the things our communities need. We are committed to being fiscally prudent AND socially conscious. We won’t get everything right and we’ll be marked by the voters in just over 2 and a half years. I hope you think we passed.

(Mayoral column in the Whakatāne Beacon 13 March 2026)

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07/10/2026
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Local body politics, Parliament

LOCALS, NOT WELLINGTON, SHOULD DECIDE THE SHAPE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT

People keep asking how I’m finding it being mayor. As you can imagine, it’s been hectic.

I had a fair idea of what I was in for, but it’s definitely been a case of hitting the ground running. We’ve had a weighty induction schedule for the new Council, plus a variety of mayoral activities and Christmas events. We are almost at the end of the year, which is always a busy time as things wind up. (Thanks go out to staff who keep essential Council services running while most of us are at the beach).

On top of that, the government has recently dropped an avalanche of reform on local government which is taking a lot of my focus. Most people agree that some change is overdue and what the government is proposing is not all bad, but the timeframes are tight, the details are often fuzzy and there are some real barbs in there. With some ridiculously short timeframes, I encourage everyone to speak up. We shouldn’t allow Wellington to dictate how local decisions get made, without having a say.

The “Simplifying Local Government” announcement has been touted as delivering the most significant changes to local government since 1989.  Under this proposal the Regional Council would stay in place for now but the regional councillors would be replaced by the mayors from across the region sitting as a Combined Territories Board (in our spare time I guess). These CTBs might or might not include independent commissioners, who might or might not have veto powers. The CTB would also have a two year deadline to design the future shape of local government in the region, which could include amalgamations, unitary authorities or other options. The timeframe is unclear, with mixed signals about this coming from Wellington, but submissions close on 20 February.

So there is lots of uncertainty – the batter is still raw in the middle of that particular biscuit. Still, it’s an opportunity for us all to have a think about what local government could look like, because whether under this government or the next, we can expect change.

There is a case for simplifying things.  Most people don’t understand what the different parts of local government do and it can lead to a lack of alignment across councils. We do need to make sure that whatever we end up with has democratic representation, protects the environment and community values, and ensures tangata whenua participation.

Rates capping is another government announcement. Under this proposal annual rates increases would be limited from 2029 to a “target range” between 2% to 4% per year. Councils wishing to exceed the cap would need approval from a central-government appointed regulator – and only in exceptional circumstances such as disaster response.  

It’s easy to see why this sounds attractive. People are hurting and double-digit annual rates increases are unsustainable, but it could backfire. In Australia rates capping has led to underinvestment in core infrastructure with ‘variations’ every few years to compensate, leading to massive rates spikes. It means that communities get very little say about what their councils do and at the end of the day councillors need to be accountable to our voters, not to Wellington.

The Resource Management Act (RMA) is being replaced by two bills – the Planning Bill and the Natural Environment Bill. This is not very different in principle from the reforms that the last Labour-led government introduced although some of the details differ. They centralise a lot of the planning functions, and remove a number of protections for things that our communities value. They also make councils potentially liable for compensation if rules protect things like sites of significance for Māori, ‘outstanding natural feature / landscapes’ and places with high natural character.

Again, you can see the attraction. Everyone wants to do what they like on their own land. The problem is that people often don’t like their neighbours to have the same right.

A lot of the purpose of the reform is to support development and make it easier and cheaper for private landowners to do things. That could be a good thing but it needs to be balanced. Savings to individuals at the cost of pushing those costs and compliance onto councils – which drives up rates. At the same time the government intends to cap those rates. The maths doesn’t add up.

The next column will be in 2026 – time flies. On behalf of Councillors I’d like to wish residents, and visitors, a happy and safe holiday period. Kia haumaru, kia hari ngā hararei.

(Mayoral column for the Whakatāne Beacon 19 Dec 2025)

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07/10/2026
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Local body politics

WE’RE IN THIS TOGETHER

It is a great honour to be elected mayor of the Whakatāne District. I am mindful that it is the whole district that I serve. Draw a line from Wainui to Otamarākau, Murupara, Minginui, Maungapōhatu to Matahī and back and that is roughly the border of our district. We are young and old. We are Māori (50%), and we are Pākeha / Tauiwi. Our people originate from the Pacific, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. We are artists, entrepreneurs, farmers, community leaders, educators, health professionals and everything else imaginable. We are friends, family and neighbours.

As mayor I aim to connect with all our communities. I plan to write regularly in the Beacon and be active on social media. You may have seen one of my ‘Facebook lives’ already. I’ll be on the radio and I’ll also be out around the district, kanohi ki te kanohi, face to face. If you see me at a community event or at a coffee morning come say hello.

One of the things that people often talk to me about is the cost of the rates. Many people in our communities are struggling to pay the rent, groceries and other bills and rates don’t help. People are hurting and they want to see council doing what it can to make rates affordable.

Unfortunately, that’s not easy. There is a tsunami of legislative reform coming at us from central government, all of which will chew up massive amounts of staff time and energy and cost ratepayers money. Inflation and interest have a big impact as well. But the biggest factor is the cost of deferred spending on infrastructure. It’s catch-up time and it hurts.

Spending on so-called ‘nice-to-haves’ like repairs to the Rex Morpeth Hub sports facilities and the drainage and toilet for Mitchell Park add very little to your rates bill – maybe $3 a year. I do think there are better things we can do to control spending but they still won’t bring rates down. Nevertheless, the council needs to be frugal with ratepayers’ money. I highlighted a number of things during the election that I will be doing as mayor to help control costs and I’ll write more about those in a future column.

The other thing that worries me as a new mayor is the possibility of a significant natural disaster. This week’s storm warning didn’t turn into anything major but we’ve always had big weather events in this district and they are coming more often and more intensely. And it’s not just climate change and storms. Earthquakes, tsunami and wildfire are all risks we need to prepare for. The personal, and financial, cost of such events can be significant for communities and for council.

These challenges are also opportunities, a springboard to build local resilience. Watching our communities respond to natural disasters is inspiring. Marae fling open their doors to feed and care for people, farmers get out on their tractors to clear blockages, family and friends house displaced people. Stronger local communities go hand in hand with an economy that is sustainable and that creates shared prosperity. The question is not how we survive these challenging times but how we thrive, together.

The people of Whakatāne District have elected a great bunch of councillors, with a range of skills, experience and perspectives. Every person around the table brings something of value. Add in the extraordinary potential of our diverse communities and we have a recipe for something great. We are in this together. Let’s get the place humming.

(Mayoral column for the Whakatane Beacon 21 Nov 2025)

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29/08/2025
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Local body politics

What the heck is up with the rates?

Rates are going through the roof and people are struggling. Even so, I’m going to say something that most mayoral candidates won’t admit. Rates are going to keep going up and anyone who promises that they can stop that happening is lying to you. The Government would sack the council and install commissioners if we did what it would take to stop rates increasing.

Let me explain. Rate rises are being caused by three things: increased debt levels, inflation and the need to upgrade our water infrastructure.

First our debt levels have risen. All councils use debt to pay for long term assets like infrastructure, as a way of spreading the cost over the life of the facility. Recently our Council has been borrowing money to pay for operating expenses – the day to day costs. That’s like borrowing money to pay for groceries and is something I have opposed. In fact I led a revolt of councillors against the mayor’s plan in 2023 to borrow even more to keep rates down. That debt has locked in substantial rates increases for the next few years.

Second, we have all seen the cost of living rise due to inflation. Council costs have gone up more than households because of the kinds of things we spend most of our money on eg. construction.

Third, we need to upgrade our water infrastructure. For decades the council has underinvested in this and it’s now catch-up time. This will be the biggie for the next few years. I will write at another time about possible pathways forward but the reality is that the government standards have changed and we need more expensive systems to meet them. Estimates are that we need $200 million over the next 10 years and it won’t stop there.

It is incorrect to say, as some do, that rates rises are because council spends money on “nice to haves” like the council building upgrade 3 years ago, the Mitchell Park upgrade, the Boat Harbour and the Rex Morpeth redevelopment. The council building work, which was primarily about earthquake strengthening the Emergency Operations Centre, adds about $50 a year on the average rates bill. The Mitchell Park upgrade costs the average ratepayer less than $2 a year to provide some decent public toilets and add drainage. The Boat Harbour wasn’t funded out of rates at all. At the Rex Morpeth / War Memorial hub the Council has only budgeted money for essential maintenance such as fixing the leaking roof. There is also a small amount to rescope the proposal to something more affordable and to develop a plan to get outside funding to pay for it.

If you look at the council’s budgets, almost all the money is spent on core functions such as hard infrastructure (roads and pipes), community services (the library, swimming pool, sports fields, community halls etc) and things that central government requires us to do. Despite what some candidates say, the only way to stop future rates increases is to not upgrade water infrastructure. That would put the community’s health at risk and put us in breach of the law. It would almost certainly lead to the sacking of the council and the appointment of commissioners.

Cutting out all the so-called “nice to haves” won’t make a significant difference to the rates, but it would suck the life out of our district. I do think there are other things we can do to help control council costs, but they are not enough to stop rates rising. These include:

Less use of outside consultants. It means more staff if we want to bring more things in-house but it would save us money and retain expertise in the organisation.


AI is changing how people work across the globe. We need to carefully make use of new technology such as AI to boost productivity.

The Mayor needs to champion our district. They need to work with outside funders to help pay for community assets, leverage relationships in Wellington to unlock government funding and get the councillors working as a team.

Finally we need to work with other councils to pressure government to fix the funding model for councils. Taking GST off rates and / or returning a portion of the GST raised in a district back to the council would help a lot, as would the Government paying rates on its properties.

I have said that I want Council to be more open and transparent. I won’t spin a story to try to win votes. If anyone is telling you that they will cut rates, ask them how.


(Published in the Whakatāne Beacon 29/8/25)

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13/02/2025
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Activism, Local body politics

MORE THAN MATERNITY SERVICES AT STAKE


The massive downgrading of maternity services at Whakatāne Hospital is just the tip of the
iceburg. Investigations have revealed a hospital in crisis, with dedicated and highly
competent staff struggling to keep servicing the community within a dysfunctional system.
When news first broke that Obstetrics and Gynecology services were closing, the public
was told that it was just a recruitment issue and that secondary maternity services
(obstetrics) would resume in 12 months. After speaking to a number of staff within the
hospital, it is clear that there are far bigger issues that have led to this closure, and which
threaten other departments. The community has a right to know, and to make our voices
heard.
Recruitment is absolutely an issue, with a shortage of obstetricians globally, but more
importantly the recruitment process at Whakatāne Hospital is a shambles. A number of
departments have chronic staff shortages, but they get almost no recruitment support.
When they manage to find applicants, getting contracts signed off by the bureaucracy in
Tauranga can take up to ten months. The coalition organising Saturday’s Hikoi for Health
has heard of multiple examples of great people being recruited by local senior staff, but by
the time their contracts are approved they have moved on.
Other applicants have become so frustrated by the lengthy delays in getting a permanent
contract that they end up applying through a recruitment agency and being taken on as a
locum, at a higher cost and with numerous other disadvantages. Senior staff have
complained at being unable to identify where the hold ups are, with decision-making
unclear to locals. What is clear is that recruitment for Whakatāne takes a back seat to
Tauranga.
This is made worse by the lack of a local General Manager for the hospital, someone who
has oversight over the whole hospital, a local perspective, and who can advocate within Te
Whatu Ora for Whakatāne’s needs.
Even when people are recruited, staff shortages mean that doctors and nurses are
constantly under stress and exhausted, leading to people leaving. The Coalition
understands that of the four obstetricians who recently resigned, leading to the closure of
the unit, three had been recruited from the USA within the last couple of years. They
moved country, relocated families, bought houses here, only to move on within a short
space of time. This is indicative of a dysfunctional working environment and poor
management from Tauranga and our coalition hopes that those people will tell their tale so
the local community can understand what is going wrong at the hospital.
On top of all of that, succession planning seems to be almost non-existent. Te Whatu Ora
had plenty of advance warning of at least one of the obstetricians resignations but didn’t fill
the position, leading to gaps in the roster and only patchy coverage since last year. In
another department a doctor coming up for retirement gave a years notice, but the hospital
sat on it’s hand rather than proactively planning for it. There are enough cases that it
seems to be a systemic issue. Overseas recruitment is vital to keep the hospital staffed,
and at least 6 months is needed to allow to visas to be approved and families to relocate,
so succession planning is a necessity. The lack of dedicated recruitment staff also means
that silly mistakes get made. Recently a number of new staff had to be put on hold
because they had applied for the wrong visa, following faulty advice.

Some of the problems are not new but recent moves to a more centralised system have
made it worse, with Whakatāne staff having little autonomy to make decisions about what
is best for our community. Added to that is cost cutting driven from Wellington, including
the downgrading of the back office functions that front line staff rely on to do their job.
I am deeply disturbed at what has come to light since the closure of Obstetrics and
Gynecology services. It is apparent that a number of other department’s are on the edge of
collapse. We cannot allow this to happen. Whakatāne has always had excellent medical
services, as many of us know from personal experience. We need to join together to fight
to keep them.
The Hikoi for Health Coalition is a broad coalition of people behind the Hikoi for Health
thus Saturday. Members come from a wide range of backgrounds and ages and from
across the political spectrum, united in their determination to protect local medical services
and staff . They include concerned members of the community, health professionals, as
well as representatives of organisations such as Whakatane Action Group, Whakatāne Act
Local, NZ Labour and the Green Party.
We are not medical experts but from talking to people who are, it is clear that there are a
number of things that could be put in place straight away to ease the situation. Allowing
heads of departments to appoint staff to vacant positions without having to go through
Tauranga is one. The appointment of a local General Manager to the hospital is another.
Third is to appoint some recruitment specialists. Lastly Te Whatu Ora needs to improve its
management of people and rosters and support our amazing medical staff. We will be
marching on Saturday Feb 15 at 12 noon from Mitchell Park to call for urgent action to
reinstate full maternity services in Whakatāne, and to fix the broader systemic issues at
the hospital.


Published in the Whakatāne Beacon 12/02/25

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22/01/2025
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Activism, Local body politics

MAKE OUR VOICES HEARD ON OBSTETRICS CLOSURE

The decision to close down secondary birthing services at Whakatāne Hospital will put mothers and babies at risk. Not just in Whakatāne, but across the wider Eastern Bay area and up the coast. It means that only low risk births will be supported in Whakatane, with an estimated 300 deliveries a year having to transfer to Tauranga. That’s a long way to go in an emergency. Whānau will have worse outcomes and reduced choices. We cannot allow it to stand.

The closure has already taken place, last week. We are assured it is temporary, and that the service will reopen in 12 to 18 months, once new specialists can be recruited. I find it hard to believe that this will actually happen. My concern is that it will become the victim of a broader push by this government to slash spending in the public health service. This is already happening in other areas of healthcare. Once we have become used to the lack of services in Whakatāne it becomes too easy to just let the restart deadline slide, and keeping sliding, until it just becomes the new normal. Even if that is not what Te Whatu Ora intends right now, without a strong community pushback other priorities will come to the fore as local health bosses grapple with increasing central government demands for savings.

We are told that the service is closing because the hospital has not been able to recruit the specialist staff needed to run it. There has been some internal criticism that they haven’t been actively recruiting, and that the shortage of staff was foreseeable. Could this closure have been avoided? I am not an expert and I know how easy it is to criticise people when you don’t have all the facts. I believe that Te Whatu Ora regional leadership has done the best it could do with what it had. The question for us as a community is how do we make sure that our opposition to the closure is heard, and that we don’t allow it to become a permanent thing? Taking Te Whatu Ora at their word, how can we best support them to ensure that the funding is there to restart when new staff have been recruited?

It is not Council’s job to fix the public health service. We don’t have the expertise, the resources or the mandate. I do think it is council business, however, to talk about the closure of critical local medical services, to advocate for our community and to pressure the government to do better by this sub-region. We are a growing area and right now the Government should be investing in us – in housing, in workforce development, in business support, and yes, in increased medical services. It is not a time to go backwards.

The pressure must come from the community. It is about our willingness to stand up for ourselves. A number of people have said that we need a march to demand the reopening of the service, and after talking to Kat Walsh (who started the petition) and others I am putting my hand up to be the contact point. We need to keep this issue on the table and not allow it to slide into oblivion. A strong show of support from the community will make a huge difference right now, to make sure the issue doesn’t get forgotten. If you are willing to help organise the march, please get in touch. We need a strong team of us to make it a success.

Following a successful march, I think there are a number of other things that the council can do to support the community. It just takes some political leadership and skill. Council is not just about roads and water pipes. Civic leadership, backing our communities and supporting local action on important issues like this are all part of a council’s role.

If you can help organise the march please contact Nandor at <nandor.tanczos@whakatane.govt.nz> or 021 887 011

Published in the Whakatāne Beacon 22/01/25

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