
Waitākere Ranges Co-Governance: Better Councillors Needed To Protect Democracy
Auckland Council's plan to set up a co-governed committee to manage the Waitākere Ranges shows why Kiwis need councillors who believe in democracy, says ACT Leader David Seymour.
'The Waitākere Ranges belong to all Aucklanders, and should be managed democratically. But Auckland Council's plan would see unelected decision-makers closing tracks and dictating land use in the surrounding rural areas.
'The ranges are governed under the Waitākere Ranges Heritage Area Act. That is a local act, which means any change to the legislation, such as a prohibition on co-governance arrangements, has to come from the elected council.
'We've seen the same problem with the Ngāi Tahu Representation Act, where the Minister for Local Government has had to go cap-in-hand to a left-wing regional council asking them to repeal co-governance. The council (Environment Canterbury) declined.
'The Coalition is rolling back co-governance of public services. But when it comes to local co-governance, local action is needed.
'This is exactly why ACT is standing candidates in council elections, not just in Auckland, but across the country. ACT councillors will fight for democracy, equal rights, and accountable government. That means ensuring beloved public spaces are governed by people directly accountable to ratepayers.'
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


NZ Herald
4 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Aaron Smale: Jail for a haka? The arrogance of ignorance in Parliament
Act MP Parmjeet Parmar wanted to know if imprisonment was an option for Te Pāti Māori members who did a haka in Parliament. Photo / Supplied Recently, I took a crack at Te Pāti Māori for being big on theatre but not backing it up with being an effective opposition party. The obvious example was their haka in the House in protest at the Treaty Principles Bill. But I didn't think the haka was the problem. Since then, the government has focused on dishing out utu for Te Pāti Māori daring to bring its brand of political theatre into the House. A privileges committee headed by Judith Collins – who inaccurately claimed the haka prevented Act from voting at the bill's first reading – recommended a punishment of 21 days' suspension from Parliament for Te Pāti Māori's co-leaders and a week for Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke. Even that delicate flower Gerry Brownlee, Speaker of the House, seemed uneasy about the harshness of the proposed penalty. But not Act MP Parmjeet Parmar. She wanted to know if prison was an option. When questioned about this, she rolled out the 'just asking questions' line, supposedly wanting to know what the whole spectrum of options were to punish the unruly natives. So, in the spirit of just asking questions, here's a few Parmar might like to consider. Speaking of a whole spectrum of options, does she realise Te Pāti Māori MPs not only represent but belong to communities who had members who were imprisoned, raped, hanged or shot for expressing their political opinions in ways the crown objected to? Does Parmar know the white feather Debbie Ngarewa-Packer often wears in her pōtae is a symbol and reminder of Parihaka and the government invasion of the Taranaki pacifist community where men were imprisoned without trial and, as the Waitangi Tribunal reported, women were raped? Does she know this community was resisting the confiscation of land taken by the crown she represents? Does she know UK newspaper reports about the leaders of Parihaka, Te Whiti and Tohu, influenced Gandhi, who influenced Martin Luther King? Does Parmar know Rawiri Waititi is from the Whakatōhea iwi, whose rangatira, Mokomoko, was hanged in 1866 for a murder he did not commit? That it and the neighbouring iwi Waititi also belongs to had their land confiscated? Does she know Mokomoko's body was exhumed from Mt Eden Prison and taken back to be buried with his people in 1989 and he was eventually pardoned by the crown in 1992? Does she know his final words before he was hanged were a request to sing: 'Tangohia mai te taura i taku kakī kia waiata au i taku waiata' (Take the rope from my throat that I may sing my song)? Then his neck was broken. Does Parmar know Maipi-Clarke whakapapas not only to Taranaki but also Waikato, who were invaded by the crown and lost a million acres through confiscation? Does she know about Rangiaowhia, where civilians, including women and children, were burnt and shot as they sheltered in a whare? Does she know Waikato men were imprisoned when they refused conscription in World War I because of the invasion and confiscation of their lands? Since Parmar objects to Māori gathering in their own spaces at universities, does she know government policy was opposed to Māori even attending university until the 1960s? Has she heard of Sir Āpirana Ngata, Sir Maui Pōmare and Te Rangi Hiroa, who went to Te Aute College and on to university to become lawyers and doctors, only for the government to pressure the school principal to desist from preparing Māori students for tertiary study? Does she know these three men, along with many iwi leaders, led a targeted – ie, race-based – health campaign that helped save Māori from extinction after the population plummeted due to poverty and disease resulting from land loss? I recently spoke to a leader of an NGO that supports Māori and Pasifika children in education who told me many of the kids they support end up dropping out of university because they are suddenly alone in an alien environment without community support. Does Parmar think that is a problem that should be addressed? Has she ever bothered to read the history of Māori political figures like Ngata and Pōmare, whose portraits hang in the halls of Parliament? Does she know Pōmare walked those halls with a limp, due to an injury he suffered when he was one of the children who welcomed the troops who invaded Parihaka with singing, only to be trampled by horses? In March, Parmar pronounced the University of Auckland should scrap its compulsory Waipapa Taumata Rau course. Does she think a history lesson might be of use to MPs like herself who claim to represent the country but know little of its history? Or does she take her history lessons from her party leader, who mangles or ignores the past to create a constant stream of political controversies to hold the media's attention and misinform and distract the public? And was Parmar's question about the option of sending Te Pāti Māori to jail for a political protest really her question? Or was she simply doing the party leader's dirty work for him?

1News
21 hours ago
- 1News
Nationwide public transport card delayed again, minister 'concerned'
Transport Minister Chris Bishop has urged officials to get "back on track" as fresh delays hit the roll-out of NZTA's new national public transport ticketing system. The Motu Move system was supposed to launch in Timaru and Temuka by mid-2025, but has since been delayed due to "challenges with delivery". Transport officials didn't provide an updated date for when the new card would actually launch, when queried this week. It's the third missed launch target the project has faced in the past nine months. The setback comes as an independent review has been launched into the National Ticketing Solution (NTS) by the programme's governance group. ADVERTISEMENT Bishop told 1News he met with the group to "stress" the significant sums being spent and to encourage them "to exercise leadership to get the project back on track". Chris Bishop said he wants the governance group to "exercise leadership". (file image). (Source: Getty) A spokesperson for NZTA said: "Work is underway to understand the options with a revised delivery plan for Canterbury expected to be confirmed in the next few months. "The National Ticketing Solution team is also working on a revised regional roll-out plan and timeline for the rest of the country. This is expected to be confirmed in August." The NTS project will replace all transit cards used on buses, trains and ferries around the country with a single national card, which will be branded under "Motu Move". It will include the phasing out of several existing payment methods, including Snapper in Wellington, Metrocard in Christchurch and Bee cards. The project has cost $146 million since 2018, according to figures up until December and released to the Taxpayers Union. NTS has been budgeted to cost $1.3 billion over 15 years. ADVERTISEMENT An initial December 2024 launch date in Timaru and Temuka - a smaller region with relatively limited public transport services - was pushed to early this year and then mid-2025. A January launch date for Greater Christchurch was also delayed to September. It follows a tortured multi-year process to develop the national smartcard system, which includes the ability to pay with contactless debit cards and smartphones. Kiwis will have the option of paying for public transport with their debit or credit card, or digital payment method. (Source: 1News) Bishop said he was "concerned" about the programme and "delays to rolling it out". "I have recently met with the National Ticketing Solution governance group to stress the significant investment the Government is making in the project, and to encourage them to exercise leadership to get the project back on track," he said in a statement. "The group has commissioned an independent review into the project to identify opportunities for improvement in the programme, and I expect to receive a copy of its findings in July, along with a plan to deliver the project." 'Alternative delivery approach' being considered ADVERTISEMENT In December, a "pilot" of the system was deployed on one bus line in Christchurch, which allowed people to use contactless cards to tap on if they were paying adult fares. The pilot hasn't included the wide distribution or use of Motu Move cards. An NZTA spokesperson said findings from the pilot would be used to potentially roll out "features" of the new system sooner in "phases". "The NTS programme team has been exploring alternative delivery approaches for Canterbury to implement Motu Move features in phases, building on the success of the contactless payments pilot on the route 29 bus." A Motu Move card reader. (Source: Supplied) They said the independent review of the programme was "expected to be completed with a final report presented to the NTS governance board at the end of July". The most recent delay follows a long development process for the smartcard system, which has been put together by NZTA in various forms since 2009. Subsequent developments have seen a litany of delays and posited launch dates scrapped. In March, Bishop was briefed that US system supplier Cubic was bringing in "additional capacity" to "accelerate progress" on the project after the first set of recent delays. ADVERTISEMENT Release one testing of the system was expected to be finished in early May, the Transport Minister was told at the time. Meanwhile, a review carried out on the NTS project in October found "significant issues already exist requiring management attention", according to a brief summary provided by NZTA. The agency refused to release a full copy of the report to 1News. The review came shortly before the roll-out was first delayed from its December target. It also concluded the programme was "well governed, led and resourced" and that the significant issues were "viewed as resolvable at the time of the review".


NZ Herald
a day ago
- NZ Herald
The case for our taxpayer-funded national radio network to appeal to a wider audience
Vaughn Davis says RNZ must evolve to serve all Kiwis – not just liberal, urban listeners. Photo / AFP THE FACTS I learned something about RNZ the other night that could have saved a lot of time and effort in audience surveys. The bloke on the street isn't listening to them. Worse than that, this particular bloke on that particular street hasn't even heard of them. As it happened,