Hi Friend,

We're just off a conference call with some of the Councillors in Tauranga who are standing up to the Mayor.

Yesterday, at the last minute, the Mayor pushed back the critical vote. Whether or not Tauranga City Council gives voting rights to unelected iwi committee members is now scheduled for late this afternoon.

That gives us a small window of time to lobby the rest of the Councillors. Will you take 60-seconds to use our email tool to ask them to defend democracy and vote down the Mayor’s proposal to appoint unelected iwi representatives?

Friend, we are told that the vote will be very close – there is only one or two votes in it. 

That means your advocacy (a call, an email or even just a text message to the councillors) is absolutely vital.

Click here to email the councillors, or click here for the phone numbers.

We are told that Councillors are under enormous pressure from both officials, and local iwi leaders to vote through the Mayor’s proposal.

Please take a moment of your day to encourage the Councillors to stand up to the bullies and defend local *democratic* accountability.

Thank you for your support.

Jordan @ Taxpayers’ Union

From: Jordan Williams
Date: Monday, 9 December 2024 at 10:41AM
Subject: BREAKING: Mayor trying to sneak through unelected Iwi appointments with full voting powers 🚨

Dear Friend,

A few months ago the Taxpayers’ Union took on the Hastings District Council and their ridiculous decision to appoint unelected teenagers from its “Youth Council” onto its council committees as full voting members.

Later today, another council is trying the same trick. But this time to use the powers to appoint unelected Iwi reps onto all of Tauranga City Council's Committees.

We took on the Hastings issue because, here at the Taxpayers’ Union, we are democrats. By that, I mean we believe those making the top decisions affecting public bodies should be democratically elected and accountable to voters.

We managed to get Hastings to back down. To save face, instead of permanent appointments, Hastings' youth councillors will only be drafted in for a limited scope of “youth related” matters on an ad hoc manner.

But as we feared, the practice of Mayors using their powers to make appointments to committees, and then delegate most council decisions to the same committees is spreading.

We need your support to fight for and protect the principle of democratic accountability in local government.

Tauranga City Council is proposing to make unelected permanent appointments of Iwi reps on every one of the Council’s standing committees.

Over the weekend we became aware that the newly elected Mayor of Tauranga, Mahé Drysdale, proposes to appoint two wholly unelected Iwi reps as permanent members of Tauranga City Council’s Council Committees.

Despite no formal public notice or public consultation he's scheduled the vote for later today.

We’ve been reviewing the council documents until late last night and this morning. It’s clear what Mayor Drysdale is doing: with Māori wards now requiring public referenda, he proposes to cut out the middle man (i.e. you, the voter!) and put his unelected proxies Iwi reps onto the Council’s committees where most of the decisions are actually made.

To do it, he's proposing to change the City Council's whole committee structure so that almost everything flows through a Committee that includes unelected Iwi representatives appointees.

Let me be clear, Friend: while the Taxpayers’ Union supports all councils having healthy engagement with local Iwi (and all community interest groups), we say that those making the ultimate decisions should be accountable to voters.

That’s the principle we are fighting for, but we need your support right now.

Friend, we’ve seen some social media responses from the Mayor who is claiming that his proposal is simply a "continuation of the status-quo" because there have been Iwi reps on various committees since 2016.

But the Mayor's spin is simply not true. In 2016, the Iwi representatives did not have voting rights.

The Mayor's proposal would elevate Iwi appointments to be councillors in all but name – fully paid with full voting rights on the Committees.

While it is true that the former Tauranga Commissioners operated on a 50/50 "co-governance" model of three Commissioners (appointed by Nanaia Mahuta) and three Iwi appointments, what was the point of returning to a democratically elected Council if half of the unelected decision makers continue anyway?

And despite what the Mayor is implying, most decisions by Committees do not go up to the elected Council for ratification. A Councillor told me this morning that "on most matters" officials take their instructions from the Committee votes directly.

Friend, I know it’s nearly the end of the year, and it can’t be a coincidence that this is being pushed through while attention is elsewhere.

We need your support right now so that we can swing into action, and fight this decision. 

Today's proposal has not even been put out for public consultation. That fact alone is disgraceful and it needs to be called out.

What's clear is that the law needs changing. Mayors and ideological councillors shouldn't be able to run roughshod over democracy and make unaccountable, unelected, and undemocratic appointments without an election. That's the effort I'm asking you to support.

We know that the National Party doesn’t like to ‘take-on’ issues involving the Treaty or Māori interests. But this isn’t about race, it’s about the principle that local decision-makers should be elected and accountable to voters.

Click here to make a donation so the Taxpayers' Union can get to work. Only with your support can we book advertising, instruct the lawyers, and fight for local democratic accountability.

If we can get this issue into the national media, I’m confident we can get the democracy loophole that allows Mayors to propose this change.

Can we count on your support Friend?

Jordan Williams Executive Director New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union