Tauranga council: Another 2.5 years of commissioners 'plain wrong' - Bridges

Friday, 11 March 2022

Simon Bridges has blasted Nanaia Mahuta’s decision to extend the commissioners’ roles until 2024.

Simon Bridges has slammed today’s decision to extend the stay of Tauranga City Council’s commissioners for a further two-and-a-half years, calling the government’s decision “plain wrong”.

Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta confirmed the extension earlier on Friday, with local elections now on hold until July 2024 and a continuation of the commission model she installed last year.

Bridges, the National MP for Tauranga, has cited “power, convenience and control” as the reasons behind Mahuta’s decision, and questioned a lack of achievement since the four-person commission was put in place by Labour in February 2021.

“Today’s decision by Nanaia Mahuta is plain wrong,” says Bridges.

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“The commissioners have achieved nothing real other than rate rises and ballooning staff wage bills in the time they’ve been appointed by Labour.

This is the “death of democracy for Tauranga”, former Tauranga Mayor Greg Brownless says.

“Now we will get more of the same lack of achievement for the people of Tauranga for at least another couple of years.”

Bridges also sees the Government’s three waters reform as an ulterior backdrop behind the decision.

“Everywhere else will have local body elections this year apart from us, and for no good reason other than power and control and convenience.

“Nanaia Mahuta’s three waters agenda looms in the background of all of this. She knows with local democracy there is another significant council opposed to her shameful asset grab.

“For Tauranga, its now two more years at least without any council accountability for rates and staff growth. I repeat, that’s plain wrong.”

Local Government Minister Nania Mahuta made the announcement in Tauranga on Friday morning.

Another figure deeply opposed to the move is former mayor of Tauranga Greg Brownless, who held office in the Bay of Plenty city from 2016 to 2019.

Brownless has labelled the news the “death of democracy for Tauranga,” and says the city is now being run by what is “effectively a dictatorship”.

“I don’t use the word dictatorship lightly given the severity of what’s going on in the world, but this is effectively what is happening in Tauranga,” he says.

“The community’s right to have a say in their city has been removed.

“I am outraged. I would have never imagined this in my lifetime or in all my days I’ve lived in Tauranga, the city which I love.”

Brownless says the decision should not have been made on the basis of whether the commissioners are currently doing a “good or bad” job.

“The issue is democracy,” he adds. “It’s a fundamental human right, and today it has been removed from the people of Tauranga. If the current commissioners are doing a good job for the city as the government is saying, then they could have stood for election this year and they would have rocked in.”

“I think most people accepted government intervention at the time given the dysfunction, but that was on the understanding that democracy would return in 2022.

The former mayor also flagged a perceived lack of “community consideration”, and took aim at council officials for not opening the meeting up to the public. When Brownless asked if he could attend in person, he claims he was told it was “invite only” after turning up this morning.

“I have no more right to attend this meeting than any regular person in Tauranga. I was not trying to attend in the capacity of a former mayor but as a citizen of Tauranga.

“They have created a situation where the powerful can ride over the powerless. That is the very reason we have democracy. Democracy sometimes may be ‘inconvenient’ for those in power, but it is the Tauranga people’s right, and today that right has been removed.”

Another in disagreement at the decision is former Tauranga councillor Andrew Hollis, who says he is “not surprised” at Friday’s announcement, and claims the government have purposefully intervened in a city that is traditionally conservative.

“Labour has deliberately interfered in a city that is typically conservative, to trial an idea where the people do not have representation,” he says.

“This process between Nanaia Mahuta, the commissioners and council staff is absolutely disgraceful.

“Tauranga residents are now paying rates to people who do not have their best interests at heart.

“The idea that the commissioners are there because of previous dysfunction is ludicrous. Every decision may have been hard fought but the last annual plan was widely considered to be one of the best in the country.

“I look forward to the election in 2024, where many of the decisions imposed on ratepayers can be undone.”