GUEST OPINION - Cr Craig Jepson

Northland Doesn’t Need a Super‑Council — It Needs Local Democracy That Works

By Craig Jepson - Kaipara District councillor and former mayor.

For all the noise about “simplifying” local government in Northland, one question remains unanswered: where has bigger ever proven better? No one can point to a single example in New Zealand where amalgamation has delivered lower costs, better services, or stronger communities. What we can point to are the failures — and Northland is being pushed down the same path.

The proposal to amalgamate Whangarei District Council (WDC), Far North District Council (FNDC), and Kaipara District Council (KDC) into a single super‑authority is being sold as efficiency. In reality, it risks creating a distant, debt‑laden bureaucracy that weakens rural communities, strips local voice, and repeats Auckland’s mistakes on a smaller scale.

MINISTER WAVES A BIG STICK

Local Government Minister Simon Watts is not happy with the Kaipara District Council (KDC). He says it needs to commit to the Government’s local government reform programme, and has directed officials to “work” with the council on the matter.

Although the Minister is touting the reform as a local initiative, in practice it is a Government directive with a predetermined outcome. Neither the councils nor the public are likely to have a genuine say on the matter. The Minister has previously signalled that he would step in where regions fail to produce a plan outlining how their councils will work together as part of major reforms. He expects the new local government governance structures to be in place for the October 2028 local elections.

Kaipara CEO resigns

Kaipara District Council Chief Executive Jason Marris has resigned, stepping down mid-term after serving since February 2023 (following an interim role from October 2022). The reason for his early departure, which ends on 10 April was not stated. The council has yet to publicly disclose whether Mr Marris will receive a severance package. Mayor Jonathan Larsen thanked Marris for his contribution.

Fomer councillor Paniora guilty of assault

Former Kaipara Maori ward councillor and barrister, Pera Paniora, has pleaded guilty to two charges of assault. She will be sentenced on the 28^th of November.

The assaults took place in a Whangarei shop on the 15^th of September, but suppression orders prevented her from being named during the election campaign.  An application for permanent name suppression has been denied.

Her lawyer is seeking a discharge without conviction. If this is not granted, she could be sentenced to up to six months in jail and/or a maximum fine of $4,000.

Paniora failed to retain a seat on the Council, polling fifth in the Wairoa ward (3 elected). 

She previously worked for WRMK Lawyers in Whangarei, but more recently says she has been developing Te Runanga o Ngati Whatua's Te Taiao department.

Photo credit: Stuff

Mayor Larsen's vision for Kaipara

In an address that bore the hallmarks of a Parliamentary Speech from the Throne, the newly elected Mayor Larsen outlined the groundwork laid over the previous three years and presented a vision for the future. 

He promised a line-by-line review of council expenses, more enabling planning rules, and greater focus on building more resilient infrastructure. Larsen clearly knows the key issues and understands the concerns of the communities within the district. Kaipara is now well-positioned to be an outstanding performer over the next decade. 

A link to the speech is here >>>

And the results are in...

Whangarei District Council

Whangarei has a new mayor and six new faces around the council table. In a close race for the mayoralty, two-term councillor Ken Couper beat the incumbent Vince Cocurullo by 435 votes.

In the Urban Ward, Marie Olsen topped the voting and is joined by newcomer Brad Flower, re-elected councillors Nic Connop and Paul Yovich, and Crichton Christie, who is returning as a councillor after a six-year absence. Carol Peters lost her seat, as did Jayne Golightly. 

Kaipara District Council - war of the wards

 

Thirty candidates are contesting the mayoralty and eight council seats. In response to requests from LETTERBOX readers, Democracy Northland has reviewed the campaign material of the candidates and identified those we believe will advance the democratic values that are important to a healthy democracy. The candidates who we believe will respect and represent the interests of the community are:

Kaipara District Council - mayoralty race

Four candidates are running for the Kaipara mayoralty. Jonathan Larsen has been on the council for 11 years, the last 3 as the deputy mayor. He is endorsed by the current mayor, Craig Jepson who has opted to stand for the Kaipara-Mangawhai ward.

His main competition is likely to come from Jason Smith, a former mayor who resigned in 2022 to pursue a career in central government politics. He was unsuccessful, so he has opted to step-back into the mayoral role.

The other contenders are councillor Ash Nayyar, and Snow Tane, a prominent iwi leader.

Treaty obligations

An argument has erupted over a report commissioned by the Kaipara District Council that spells out a local council’s obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi. The report was prepared by Franks Ogilvie and peer reviewed by Simpson Grierson. That report concluded local councils are not the crown and therefore are not treaty partners. It said the obligations local authorities have arise from specific consultative and engagement requirements in legislation such as the Local Government Act and the RMA.

It seems Simpson Grierson may have come in for a bit of flak from other councils and, we are told, LGNZ for its role in reviewing the report. It subsequently released a statement “clarifying” the extent of its role. 

"Spare" Money and Treaty obligations

 The WDC Maori Outcomes Department has found “spare” money to fund a Treaty “audit”. The council agenda states:

“As the 2023–2024 financial year drew to a close, unallocated funds across the Māori Outcomes and Te Kārearea cost centres was identified. To ensure this funding was not lost, and in acknowledgement of the longstanding calls from hapū for this work, Māori Outcomes initiated the audit.” (Page 26.)

In response to an Official Information request, the WDC has advised $77,293 has been spent on the audit to date, and confirmed the spending was done without obtaining the approval of councillors.  

Council legal obligations to the Treaty

The Kaipara District Council has engaged Franks Ogilvie to provide a legal opinion on local government obligations to Maori, arising from the Treaty of Waitangi. They did this to inform elected councillors and council officers of their obligations and how these may be performed.

Here are extracts from the summary of that legal opinion.

Maori wards - the Kaipara experience

 

By Frank Newman

The Kaipara District Council stands alone as the only council to disestablish its Maori ward. By doing so, it has avoided the need for the referendum that is about to be held by 42 other councils that introduced Maori wards without obtaining a mandate from the public before doing so.

I spoke with Kaipara District Council Mayor, Craig Jepson, about his experience with their Maori ward and why his council thought disestablishment was the appropriate path to take.

He said that’s an easy question to answer.

“The Maori seats have become radicalised. Our Maori ward councillor continually disrupted and undermined our council. Although she took an oath to work in the best interests of all people, she clearly put the interests of Maori first, at the expense of everyone else.

Mayor Jepson changes seats

 Kaipara Mayor, Craig Jepson, will not be contesting the Mayoralty in the forthcoming elections but will instead stand for the Mangawhai ward as a councillor. Jepson said the move would allow him to focus on local issues in his ward.

He is endorsing his deputy mayor, Jonathan Larsen, for the mayoralty. He said Larsen is the perfect person to build on the solid base that has been established during his term as Mayor.   

Larsen is standing on a platform of “Stability – Unity -  Leadership”.  He has been on the council for 12 years, the last 3 as the deputy Mayor. 

[Photo credit: NZ Herald]

NZ Herald article: 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.

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.

Mickey Mouse councillor

Kaipara district councillor Mark Vincent wears a Mickey Mouse T-shirt to council meetings. It’s his way of protesting about “the worrying state of democracy” in the organisation.

Ironically, in October 2020 Mark Vincent had little regard for democracy when he voted in favour of introducing a Māori ward on the KDC, without first consulting the wider community. Clearly, he doesn’t think electors should have a say in how they elect their representatives.

MAORI WARDS

A requirement for councils to vote either for or against the retention of their Māori wards has brought mixed results for Northland.

Frank Newman: Councillor shows why Māori wards are not needed

I recently attended a meeting of the Kaipara District Council and was one of several people who spoke during the Public Forum session, which is an opportunity for a member of the public to address councillors on whatever their topic of interest may be.

The topic of interest was a motion to either retain or disestablish the Kaipara’s Māori ward.

I was part of a team from Democracy Northland who in December 2020 set about gathering signations to force the Council of the day to hold a binding referendum. Some months earlier the council had created a Māori ward without consulting the community at large.

The outrage that followed was such that we set about challenging that decision by using the petition right available at the time.

Craig Jepson and Ash Nayyar led the team in Kaipara and did a sterling job. Both subsequently ran for office and were elected, Craig as mayor and Ash as a councillor representing Dargaville.

How they voted - Kaipara District Council - Disestablish the Maori ward

HOW THEY VOTED

"That the Kaipara District Council agrees to disestablish its Māori ward, Te Moananui o Kaipara, and undertakes a shortened representation review for at least the 2025 triennial elections." (Extraordinary council meeting, 7 August 2024)