“New Zealand’s coastal climate change planning system is built on a simple legal standard: councils must plan for the likely effects of climate change, using the best available evidence. But across the country, planning is being anchored to a future that scientists now say is implausible—and, legally, should never have been treated as “likely” in the first place.
This matters to Northland because RCP8.5[*] has been
widely used by central government and local councils to shape climate change
policy. Those policies have imposed significant costs on consumers — including
higher power and fuel prices — and restrictions on local property owners.
This represents a major shift in climate science and should serve as a wake-up call for climate policymakers at every level of government. Politicians now need to follow the IPCC’s lead: remove RCP8.5 from policy frameworks and review all policies that have been based on this implausible scenario.
The proposal now before councillors stems
from recommendations arising from a “Te Tiriti o Waitangi health check.” As
reported in LETTERBOX #30, the audit was commissioned by the council’s Māori
Outcomes Department without the knowledge or prior approval from councillors, for
$77,293 funded from “spare” money.
The stated purpose of the Treaty of Waitangi “health check” was to help councillors better understand their “obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi and He Whakaputanga,” assess the state of relations between the council and Māori, and provide recommendations for improvement.
Budd is presenting his candidacy as something of a homecoming. The 43-year-old grew up in Whangārei before pursuing a career in real estate in Auckland and overseas, including serving as chief executive of Bayleys Auckland. His father, Mike Budd, stood for the Whangārei mayoralty in 2022.
Part 1 of Schedule 1 of the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002 lists categories of non-rateable land. This includes certain land owned or occupied by organisations such as the Department of Conservation (DoC), the Ministry of Education, Health New Zealand, the Defence Force, and KiwiRail. Rating exemptions also apply to some churches, marae, Māori customary land, and unused Māori freehold land.
According to the council’s 2026 LGNZ remit
application, the proposal calls for:
“LGNZ to advocate for legislative changes to
devolve decision-making authority for officiating specified geographic place
names from the Minister for Land Information to local authorities…”
The request follows a 2025 decision by the Minister for Land Information, Chris Penk, to decline an application by the Kororāreka Marae Society to change the name of Russell to Kororāreka. If these naming powers were devolved to councils, would the FNDC overturn the Minister’s decision?
We question the value of removing carparks to create a pedestrian corridor when the core issue in the CBD is a shortage of car-parking and a lack of pedestrians.
“Because I don’t like other bastards making decisions that affect my life when they so clearly don’t know what they are doing… I just don’t like the idea of people making decisions as to how I am going to live my life without some sort of input into it.”
