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Wellington watch - GMOs

Parliament’s Health Committee is calling for submissions on the Gene Technology Bill 2024. The closing date for submissions is 11.59 pm on Monday, 17 February 2025.

According to the NZ Parliament website, the purpose of the Bill is:

“to enable the safe use of gene technology and regulated organisms in New Zealand. The intention is to establish a new regulatory regime for gene technology and genetically modified organisms (GMOs).“

They say the Bill seeks to provide (among other things) for—

·         a flexible legislative framework able to accommodate future technological and policy developments without frequent amendment:

·         international alignment, including with key trading partners, to facilitate trade and improve access to new technologies:

·         ways to recognise and give effect to the Crown’s obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi.

Councillor under investigation for code of conduct breaches

The Whangarei District Council (WDC) has appointed an “independent” investigator to consider multiple Code of Conduct complaints against Cr Phoenix Ruka for comments he made against a fellow councillor. His comments criticised Marie Olsen for a Facebook post that questioned the numbers attending the Hikoi to Wellington which was organised by the Maori Party, which Cr Ruka attended.  Cr Ruka is one of two councillors representing the Maori ward. He stood under a Maori Party affiliation. 

Cr Ruka’s comments provoked a barrage of hostile comments and threats against Cr Olsen which LETTERBOX understands has been referred to the police.

What was revealing about the social media comments was the reference to a “Racist Register” that a network of Maori activists use to target certain individuals. That network includes “kaimahi” (workers) within the WDC.

Social media comments... see full discussion HERE >>>

Guest comment - Craig Jepson, Mayor Kaipara District Council

Guest comment by Craig Jepson, Mayor, Kaipara District Council.

The 47^th President of the United States has just been sworn in, but the Trump effect is already being felt. Trump’s re-election is a remarkable thing. Remarkable because he did so in the face of huge opposition from the political and media establishment and Hollywood.

In the end, none of that mattered because in a democracy what matters is what people think, not what the establishment thinks or what the Oprah Winfrey’s of the world say. In a democracy, the vote of the person on the minimum wage flipping burgers at McDonald’s is worth exactly the same as the celebrity who gets paid a million dollars to say Kamala Harris is the best thing since sliced bread. In Trump speak: Democracy - It’s a beautiful thing.

Shortly after Trump’s victory, Facebook made a startling announcement that they were abandoning the use of “Fact Checkers”, because they were politically biased! These are the same Fact Checkers that the mainstream media and socialist politicians embraced to control “misinformation”!

This should be a wake-up call for our mainstream media but history would suggest otherwise. 2025 is likely to see a further decline in the relevance and influence of the traditional mainstream media as a source of information. They are now primarily a source of derision as they continue to push their increasingly less credible agendas.

Councillors apologise

 Two Northland Regional (NRC) councillors have given their apologies for not attending a meeting:

From Tui Shortland (Maori ward councillor and Deputy Chair), 25 January 2025:

"My apologies for the meeting. I am currently at the International Indigenous Women’s Symposium on Environmental Violence in Guatemala. Noho ora mai, Tui Shortland.”

From Peter-Lucas Jones (Maori ward councillor), 26 January 2025:

“Kia ora tatou. Please accept my apologies for missing this meeting. I am currently in Davos, Switzerland, where I had the honour of being an invited speaker in a number of sessions at the World Economic Forum. Next, I will be heading to the United Nations Office in Geneva to attend the Global Dialogue on AI for Developing Nations. The discussions around advancing AI sit at the heart of critical global economic, technological, and environmental conversations. Ngā manaakitanga, nā Peter-Lucas Jones.”

Letterbox asked the NRC the following questions:

I make the following requests under section 10 of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987.

 Cr Tui Shortland recently attended an International Indigenous Women’s Symposium on Environmental Violence in Guatemala. Please advise if the Northland Regional Council incurred any cost, either directly or indirectly, as a result of Cr Shortland attending that symposium, and if so, please state how much and the expense details.

 Cr Jones recently attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and Global Dialogue on AI for Developing Nations in Geneva.  Please advise if the Northland Regional Council incurred any cost, either directly or indirectly, as a result of Cr Jones attending these meetings, and if so, please state how much and the expense details.

The NRC has replied (4/2/25) as follows:

The Council does not hold any information relevant to either of your requests.

 Ngā mihi

Bruce Howse

Pou Taumatua – Group Manager Corporate Services

Deputy Chief Executive Officer

Northland Regional Council » Te Kaunihera ā rohe o Te Taitokerau

From this reply we can say ratepayers did not incur any cost as a result of the councillors attending the events.  

WDC told to fluoridate or face fines

The Ministry of Health is adamant the Whangarei District Council (WDC) has to fluoridate its water supply by the 28^th of March 2025. In a letter dated 6 December 2024, the Ministry informed the council,

“As advised in previous correspondence, it is an offence under section 116J of the Health Act 1956 for a local authority to contravene or permit the contravention of a direction. The penalty for such a contravention upon conviction is a fine of up to $200,000 and a further fine not exceeding $10,000 for every day or part of a day during which the offence continues. I expect councils to comply with their directions. The Ministry will consider whether to take enforcement action where there is evidence of non-compliance with directions by a council, particularly where there is deliberate or continuing non-compliance. In addition to the other options set out in the legal advice provided to the Council by the Council’s legal advisor, the Ministry will also consider whether to seek contractual remedies in light of the significant funding support provided to the Council to enable fluoridation…I strongly encourage elected members to heed the advice provided to them by their officials regarding the risks of the proposed course of action. “

The WDC has responded by saying it would be taking legal steps to “pause the directive”.

High Court throws out Maori seats challenge

The High Court has tossed out a challenge made by Te Runanga O Ngati Whatua to overturn a decision by the Kaipara District Council (KDC) to “disestablish” its Maori ward. The basis of the claim was that the Council failed to consult with local iwi and hapu before making the decision. They were seeking a declaration from the High Court to that effect.

Part of their argument was “that the Council…failed to consider or give any weight to the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi…and the Council’s decisions were not in accordance with tikanga.”

Those arguments failed to impress the judge. He ruled a special consultative process did not apply to a council decision to retain or disestablish the Maori ward, but he found the council “did decide to engage with Kaipara iwi to give them an opportunity to make their views known to Council before the decision was made“, even though it was not required to do so.

Reti dumped from health

Local MP, Dr Shane Reti has been dumped from his health portfolio. In the first major cabinet reshuffle since gaining office, the PM said, “Kiwis’…expect to see even more progress – ensuring they can access the care they need when they need it. To deliver on that expectation, I have decided Simeon Brown will become Minister of Health.”

Clearly, the PM thought that was not possible with Dr Reti in charge. Dr Reti will take the Science and Innovation portfolio and remain in cabinet. Losing health will be a major blow, more so as he has “owned” the portfolio for many years, long before National became government.

The obvious question now is does Dr Reti have a future in politics? Will he be content warming the seat in lesser ministerial roles or will he call it quits at the next election and return to medicine?

Support Letterbox

Letterbox is a copyright-free citizen press, produced by Democracy Northland. Back issues are available from our website. If you would like to support us in bringing about better local government, please consider donating to the cause. Our bank account number is: 12-3238-0590622-00.

To receive future issues of LETTERBOX by email, please contact us at info@democracynorthland.co.nz with “e-letterbox” in the subject line.
 

Frank Newman: Councillor’s “you piss me off” rant against fellow councillor

A Whangarei District Councillor is now subject to multiple Code of Conduct complaints following an online “racist” rant directed at another councillor.

Cr Phoenix Ruka made the remarks about Cr Marie Olsen on Instagram on the 14th of November. He is one of two councillors representing the council’s Maori ward. He stood under a Maori Party affiliation and gained 889 votes (the least number of votes of any WDC councillor). Cr Olsen represents the general urban ward, gaining 3564 votes.

In the Instagram post Cr Ruka said,