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Security called to remove "disruptive" councillor

Security was called to remove a “disruptive” councillor from the debating chamber during the fluoride debate. Waipu ward councillor Ken Couper was ordered from the chamber following a terse exchange with Mayor Cocurullo, but refused to do so, saying, “you will have to physically remove me”.  The Mayor adjourned the meeting for 10 minutes, which resumed without the disruptive Cr Couper.

We cannot recall a previous occasion where security has been called to remove a member from the chamber. While councillors sometimes have acrimonious exchanges, very rarely does it escalate to the point of calling security to remove a belligerent councillor from a meeting. 

Fluoride or jail time?

 

A motion put by the WDC’s Chief Executive to revoke earlier decisions by councillors to ignore a directive by the Director General of Health that requires the Council to fluoridate its water supply has been voted down by councillors. At a meeting held on the 12^th of February, Mayor Cocurullo used his casting vote to break a 7-7   deadlock.

The extraordinary meeting was called after the Council received a letter from the Director General of Health on the 30^th of January. That letter restated their position that it was an offence under the Health Act for a local authority to contravene a Ministry of Health direction.

A staff report prepared for the meeting said the council had received legal advice that councillors may be held personally liable for any losses incurred as a result of their “unlawful” action or imprisonment!

Northport buyout

 

A consortium made up of the Northland Regional Council (NRC), the Port of Tauranga, and the Ngāpuhi Investment Fund Limited (Ngāpuhi) have made a conditional offer to buy out the minority shareholders of Marine Maritime Holdings (MMH, formerly Northport), which is listed on the NZ stock exchange. The offer price of $5.60 a share is a 73% premium to the $3.24 last sale price before the offer.

Should the offer go ahead, MMH will be delisted from the stock exchange. The Port of Tauranga would own 50%, NRC 43%, and Ngāpuhi 7%.

Currently, the NRC owns a 53.6% controlling stake in MMH. The proposal would see it sell down its holding to 43%, and it has stated that it may make a further 7% available to other Maori groups which would reduce its holding to 36%. LETTERBOX has asked the NRC to clarify whether it will be consulting with the public on the sell-down. We will publish their reply in the next issue.

The deal effectively gives the Port of Tauranga control of the port and the substantial land holdings owned by MMH.

Well-beings going going soon to be gone

 In December, the then Minister of Local Government, Simeon Brown, issued a press release headed “Government getting local government back to basics”. 

He says poor decisions have added to rate increases. “Rates are out of control and the Government is taking action for councils to do the basics brilliantly, rather than pursuing expensive extras that burden ratepayers…”.

The specific changes include:

Hundertwasser Woes

 A recent report appearing in the Northern Advocate began, “Three years since opening, the Hundertwasser Art Centre and Wairau Māori Art Gallery is still struggling to make its budget and is reliant on the Whangārei District Council to stay afloat…In the year to June 30, 2024, it had 38,000 visitors against 70,000 forecast. It made a loss of $1.36m - $703,000 worse than budgeted - due to less income from admissions, shop sales, and grants.”

The 70,000 visitors “forecast” is considerably less than the numbers presented to the public at the time the project was promoted by Prosper Northland Trust, which had been formed to steer the project.  This is how they described it:

“Hundertwasser & Wairau Maori Art Centre is an unprecedented catalyst for growth in Whangarei District. The Deloitte Feasibility Study and Economic Impact Assessment have been reviewed and updated by leading Wellington-based consultants Crowe Horwarth, engaged by Prosper Northland Trust…This review confirms the Deloitte report as being conservative…Deloitte’s representatives stood in WDC’s Council Chamber in 2011 and expressed the utmost confidence that their findings would be vindicated. They found that even in the prevailing circumstances some 150,000 people would visit the art centre annually…

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: