A recent headline by Radio NZ suggests the NPDC has stepped up Waitangi Treaty duties. The Alliance took away different messages.

A Radio NZ news headline on 17^th April states:

"New Plymouth District Council steps up Waitangi Treaty duties despite ACT challenge"

Reading this story one wouldn’t be blamed for thinking significant plans are afoot for the next Long Term Plan, and the Te Huinga Taumatua Committee will be making big changes happen at the NPDC. There is also a lot of mention in the story about Te Tiriti and Treaty Obligations.

There have also been some stories in the news with a few controversial things happening with other Councils across the country with unelected decision making.

The Alliance went to this workshop last week, because we are looking for a better understanding of what these obligations are and how they will affect Ratepayers and Renters. And we wanted a better understanding of what is happening here in New Plymouth.

This workshop was totally focussed on the next Long Term Plan which is due to be in place in July 2027.

It was mentioned by the Chairman for this meeting, Gordon Brown, multiple times, if anyone had concerns about agreement on the ideas put forward, the decisions of what would be adopted for the Long Term Plan will be voted on by the 15 elected officials on the Council.

Whatever is put forward for the Long Term Plan will also be consulted on with all of the Community.

There were also a number of mentions from Councillors in this workshop that this newly elected team are highly focussed on keeping rates down and that budgets for the 2027 Long Term Plan will have constraints.

So in case anyone who read this story was concerned all sorts of things have already been decided, and budgets are unlimited from Ratepayers funds, this is not the message that was sent during the workshop.

We also see the Local Government Minister, Simon Watts, has announced changes coming from the Coalition government about unelected voting on Local Councils. We will update on this soon.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/ldr/592702/new-plymouth-distrcit-council-steps-up-waitangi-treaty-duties-despite-act-challenge