Departing Councillor: ‘Social Media Abuse Has Got Out Of Hand'
Duncan, who served six of her 12 years as deputy mayor, has announced she will not stand for a fifth term in October's elections.
'It's now time to hand over the reins,' she said. 'When the negativity outweighs the reward, it's time to go.'
Duncan said each term had had its own challenges, highs and lows, and rewards.
But the role had become more complex over time and took up 'way more hours than intended, which is fine if you still enjoy it'.
She lashed out at the Government and 'keyboard warriors'.
'Costly impositions and criticism from Government and the contempt they direct at us is not deserved by Whanganui,' Duncan said.
'Social media abuse has got out of hand in the past five or so years.
'Keyboard warriors who draw swords before engaging sound thought or seeking facts is truly disappointing. All you're doing is showing your own ignorance and bias.'
The 'dreadful' period during the pandemic when Government-mandated restrictions were in place had emphasised for her how important it was to treat each other well, all the time.
'I love my community, respect my colleagues and can attest to the huge amount of work that goes into our decisions.
'We're often at variance, but with robust discussion and challenge, better decisions are made.
'If you don't understand the decisions, maybe you didn't read the nine reports and attend the seven workshops that we did.'
Duncan is one of several long-serving Whanganui councillors who have announced they will not seek re-election. Deputy mayor Helen Craig and Charlie Anderson are also standing aside after 12 years in the council chambers.
Duncan said she was pleased to be ending her service on a high note.
'The average 2.2% rate increase [for 2025/2026] is a testament to how hard staff and councillors have worked over the past few years to drive up efficiency and reduce cost.
'We've done it sustainably. You don't get to 2.2% without an outstanding chief executive and staff, and a mayor and councillors working hard to make it possible.'
Some high points of her council career included how it handled the 2015 flood, port redevelopment, and the North Mole and Rangiora Street projects.
Reinstating the 'h' in Whanganui and stopping the food scraps collection were also highlights.
She was proud that councillors had consistently refused catered lunches, new furniture and a heat control system in the chamber.
'It's either too hot or too cold. We really are here for our community and not the benefits.'
Duncan said she would have liked to have seen further action on housing before stepping aside, and she put in a plug for Māori wards.
'I'm sorry I'll miss the new Māori ward councillors. Please vote yes to retaining them in the coming referendum. You'll not regret it.'
Duncan said she would take some time out and a long trip to Scotland after her council work.
'Then we'll see what pops up. Something always does.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Newsroom
9 hours ago
- Newsroom
Disregard for indigenous rights comes straight from the top
Opinion: Earlier this week, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said he 'fully agrees' with a letter the Minister of Regulation David Seymour wrote to Dr Albert K Barume, the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples. Barume recently criticised New Zealand for breaching international human rights standards relating to Indigenous peoples. Among other things, Seymour's letter to Barume called these criticisms 'an affront to New Zealand's sovereignty'. This is significant, but the timeline of how we got here is a bit complex, so here's some background. A special rapporteur is a person, appointed by the UN, who has expertise in a particular area of human rights and has a responsibility to investigate, advocate for, and encourage countries to uphold those rights. First, what is a special rapporteur and how does this role relate to NZ? One high-profile special rapporteur you may have recently heard of is Francesca Albanese, who has a specific mandate relating to human rights in Palestine. Barume holds an equivalent position relating to the rights of Indigenous peoples around the world, including Māori. Barume's criticisms, contained in a letter to the New Zealand Government, reportedly addressed a range of things, all broadly related to the Government's failure to uphold both te Tiriti o Waitangi and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). We don't know all the details of the letter but the part that seems to have annoyed Seymour relates to the Regulatory Standards Bill. Alongside his comment about New Zealand's sovereignty, Seymour called the letter 'presumptive, condescending, and wholly misplaced'. Remember, there has been virtually unanimous condemnation of the Regulatory Standards Bill by te Tiriti experts, as well as by the Waitangi Tribunal. So, you can decide for yourself whether Seymour's comments are accurate. Didn't the coalition agreements say something about UNDRIP? Yes. The NZ First and Act coalition agreements with National both mention the New Zealand Government should no longer recognise UNDRIP. However, an Official Information Act request last year revealed nothing had been done about it – there was no correspondence with the UN and no express withdrawal of the government's endorsement of UNDRIP. In any case, the rights of Indigenous peoples now carry weight on their own, as they are a recognised set of norms in international law. How did the PM get involved? In comments to reporters this week, the Prime Minister said that Seymour shouldn't have sent the letter because this was Foreign Minister Winston Peters' job. But while initially appearing to criticise Seymour for not following the right process, Luxon then said he 'completely agrees' with Seymour's letter to Barume. He called Barume's letter 'bunkum' and said the special rapporteur's comments were 'completely without substance'. Remember that Barume is appointed as a world-leading expert on these matters, so again, you decide who might be right here. To summarise so far, Seymour – in his capacity as the Minister of Regulation – wrote to a UN official criticising him for criticising New Zealand for breaching Indigenous peoples' rights, and then the Prime Minister publicly agreed with Seymour's comments. Indigenous rights scholar Tina Ngata has pointed out the message from New Zealand that we reject Indigenous peoples' rights therefore isn't a matter of Seymour going rogue. It is a message that comes straight from the top. This matters and is something we should all be embarrassed about. How did the UN find out about this so quickly? This week, an annual meeting was held at the UN by a group called the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (known as EMRIP). On the same day Luxon made his comments, New Zealand had its speaking slot at EMRIP. The Prime Minister's comments were reported by members of the New Zealand delegation to the group, such as Auckland University professor Claire Charters (members are independent, not part of the government). So, the UN, and therefore the rest of the world, heard about it the same day it happened (credit again to Tina Ngata for highlighting this). What's the bigger picture here and what happens next? As much as this might seem like just an egg on your face moment for the government, the broader implications are pretty serious. We all know by now about this Government's willingness to repeatedly disregard its Treaty obligations here at home, with the Waitangi Tribunal conducting an unprecedented number of urgent inquiries in 2024, all of which found breaches of te Tiriti and its principles. But this is bigger. The statement made by Seymour, and later endorsed by the Prime Minister, that the letter from the special rapporteur 'is an affront to New Zealand's sovereignty' will weaken our standing internationally when it comes to human rights. This is because the affront to sovereignty line is one wheeled out any time a country commits human rights abuses and gets told off. Israel and the US, for example, are currently using it in response to Francesca Albanese's criticisms of human rights abuses in Palestine. So, when New Zealand says the same thing, we undermine any moral authority we might have had to call out other countries over other things. This is one of the things Claire Charters pointed out this week when she spoke to EMRIP. It's bigger than just te Tiriti. We'll probably hear more about this in the next few weeks, but sadly it may not persuade the Government to do anything differently. We have seen over and over this term how willing the coalition is to disregard Māori rights. The only difference is that this time it has happened on a global stage.
Scoop
12 hours ago
- Scoop
Departing Councillor: ‘Social Media Abuse Has Got Out Of Hand'
Long-serving councillor Jenny Duncan is calling it quits after four terms at Whanganui District Council. Duncan, who served six of her 12 years as deputy mayor, has announced she will not stand for a fifth term in October's elections. 'It's now time to hand over the reins,' she said. 'When the negativity outweighs the reward, it's time to go.' Duncan said each term had had its own challenges, highs and lows, and rewards. But the role had become more complex over time and took up 'way more hours than intended, which is fine if you still enjoy it'. She lashed out at the Government and 'keyboard warriors'. 'Costly impositions and criticism from Government and the contempt they direct at us is not deserved by Whanganui,' Duncan said. 'Social media abuse has got out of hand in the past five or so years. 'Keyboard warriors who draw swords before engaging sound thought or seeking facts is truly disappointing. All you're doing is showing your own ignorance and bias.' The 'dreadful' period during the pandemic when Government-mandated restrictions were in place had emphasised for her how important it was to treat each other well, all the time. 'I love my community, respect my colleagues and can attest to the huge amount of work that goes into our decisions. 'We're often at variance, but with robust discussion and challenge, better decisions are made. 'If you don't understand the decisions, maybe you didn't read the nine reports and attend the seven workshops that we did.' Duncan is one of several long-serving Whanganui councillors who have announced they will not seek re-election. Deputy mayor Helen Craig and Charlie Anderson are also standing aside after 12 years in the council chambers. Duncan said she was pleased to be ending her service on a high note. 'The average 2.2% rate increase [for 2025/2026] is a testament to how hard staff and councillors have worked over the past few years to drive up efficiency and reduce cost. 'We've done it sustainably. You don't get to 2.2% without an outstanding chief executive and staff, and a mayor and councillors working hard to make it possible.' Some high points of her council career included how it handled the 2015 flood, port redevelopment, and the North Mole and Rangiora Street projects. Reinstating the 'h' in Whanganui and stopping the food scraps collection were also highlights. She was proud that councillors had consistently refused catered lunches, new furniture and a heat control system in the chamber. 'It's either too hot or too cold. We really are here for our community and not the benefits.' Duncan said she would have liked to have seen further action on housing before stepping aside, and she put in a plug for Māori wards. 'I'm sorry I'll miss the new Māori ward councillors. Please vote yes to retaining them in the coming referendum. You'll not regret it.' Duncan said she would take some time out and a long trip to Scotland after her council work. 'Then we'll see what pops up. Something always does.'
Scoop
12 hours ago
- Scoop
Council Pushes Ahead With Changes Despite Government's ‘Plan-Stop' Policy
Marlborough's council will charge ahead with changes aimed at airline safety, despite the Government pushing pause on plan amendments. The district council's environment plan changes aim to ensure buildings or objects that could compromise aircraft safety could not be built close to Marlborough's three airports. Resource Management Act (RMA) reform minister Chris Bishop announced on Wednesday the Government wants to stop councils from passing amendments to environment and land use plans. Councils should not be wasting resources on making changes to plans under the RMA, ahead of major reforms expected in 2027, he said. 'Even though councils know the RMA's days are numbered, many are required to continue with time-consuming, expensive plan-making processes under the RMA,' Bishop said. 'The Government's intention is that stopping plan requirements for councils will enable them to focus on critical work to prepare to transition to the new system.' Councils would be required to withdraw any planned changes that had not progressed to hearings within 90 days of the RMA Amendment Bill coming into effect in early August. The Marlborough District Council environment and planning committee unanimously voted to prepare a change to their Proposed Marlborough Environment Plan on Thursday, 24 hours after Bishop's announcement. Council strategic planner Clementine Rankin said the planned change would ensure buildings or objects that could compromise aircraft safety could not be built within the vicinity of Marlborough's three airports. 'For safety purposes, it's critical to provide protection for air corridors used in approaches to, and departures from, our airports,' Rankin said. 'It is a civil aviation safety issue when structures like buildings or frost fans penetrate into [air corridors].' Visual and structural objects that penetrated into an airport's approach air space were already prohibited under Civil Aviation Authority rules. But the council could not legally deny resource consents for people who wanted to build those objects without a change to the Proposed Marlborough Environment Plan. Rankin said there were recently constructed frost fans that had become a safety risk. 'This issue has occurred due to the focus [in rural zoning] on noise only. 'The controlled activity rule does not include an airport protection standard.' Rankin said that the council would move forward with the plan change, despite Bishop's announcement, and would ask the Environment Minister for an exemption if they had to. Only private plan changes, natural hazard changes, and changes directed by the minister were automatically exempt. All other exemptions had to be requested from the minister within three months of the policy becoming law. Councillor David Croad greeted the announcement with a shake of his head, calling it 'disingenuous'. 'I don't often participate in politics, but yesterday's plan-stop thing, [saying] 'we're stopping that because we want to save ratepayers' money', it's a little bit disingenuous in my opinion,' Croad said. 'Ultimately it implies that the staff that we have in our planning departments are going to go home and go off payroll for a period of time. 'We have great people in this building and it takes a while to build good teams. 'We just don't get to turn these things on and off at will.'
