Predator Free Wellington Wins The Supreme Award At The 2025 LGFA Taituara Local Government Excellence Awards
Predator Free Wellington was selected from a field of 60 entries submitted by councils from across the sector, underscoring its exceptional impact and innovation.
The judging panel praised the initiative, stating 'Predator Free Wellington is an exemplar of building social licence and deputising the community to assist with delivery. The clear and meticulous plan for rolling this programme out is both readily scalable and highly transferable to projects of any type. We were also highly appreciative of the clear and unambiguous evidence of the success of this project.'
The Supreme honour follows Predator Free Wellington's success in also securing the GHD Award for Excellence in Environmental Leadership. This marks the second year in succession that the winner of the Environmental Leadership category.
Last night's ceremony marked the 11th year of the Excellence Awards in their current format. Over this period, a remarkable 11 different councils have proudly taken home the Supreme Award, showcasing the diverse and widespread excellence within New Zealand's local government.
Other entries recognised with Excellence Awards last night were:
The Beca Award for Placemaking: Ashburton District Council for Te Whare Whakatere – Recreating the Heart of Ashburton
The Award for Excellence in Collaborating for Results: Hastings District Council, Napier City Council and Hawke's Bay Regional Council, Stronger Together: Council's buyout puts people at heart
The Datascape Award for Excellence in Digital Local Government: Auckland Council, Buzzly
The FrankGroup Award for Excellence in Community Engagement: Wairoa District Council for Wairoa Whakapiri - Uniting Through Recovery
Te Tohu Waka Hourua (the Buddle Findlay Award for Māori/Council Partnerships): Taupō District Council for He Whare Hono o Tūewharetoa
The Award for Excellence in Cost Effective Impact: Hurunui District Council for Hurunui District Water Safety Programme.
In addition to winning the Placemaking category, Ashburton District Council's entry won the Members' Choice Award – voted for by the members of Taituara.
Other winners announced on the night:
The Sheffield Emerging Leader of the Year Award – Ashley Hurua, Horowhenua District Council.
The AskYourTeam Overseas Manager Exchange to Queensland – Brent Harvey, Horowhenua District Council
The AskYourTeam Overseas Manager Exchange to Victoria – Steven May, West Coast Regional Council
The Civic Financial Services Overseas Manager Exchange to the United States – Steve Gibling, Selwyn District Council
The Marsh Overseas Manager Exchange to British Columbia – Jenni Cochrane, Matamata-Piako District Council
The Auckland Council team, Rarunga, won the NZ leg of the Australasian Management Challenge from a field of 14 teams. Rarunga will represent New Zealand at the Australasian final in the finals in Perth.
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All of these will be highly relevant to Auckland's economic recovery, given it is largely underpinned by population growth (driving the property sector) and the service sector. FYI, 'high frequency' just means the regular monthly numbers we get for second-tier economic data as opposed to the quarterly numbers we get for the biggies like GDP, inflation and unemployment. All of this stuff will be relevant to the Reserve Bank as it tries to get a handle on the extent of the slowdown. It will be fed into the RBNZ Nowcast, which is its version of the AI-driven, real-time GDP forecaster that has become popular (Massey University and Westpac have their own version). The Nowcast model has New Zealand's economy contracting again from mid to late June and it has been flatlining at about negative 0.3% ever since. It's not clear how much weight the RBNZ puts on this model, but at face value, it will only add to the case for further rate cuts this year. Liam Dann is business editor-at-large for the New Zealand Herald. He is a senior writer and columnist, and also presents and produces videos and podcasts. He joined the Herald in 2003. To sign up to hisweekly newsletter, click on your user profile at and select 'My newsletters'. For a step-by-step guide, click here. If you have a burning question about the quirks or intricacies of economics send it to or leave a message in the comments section.
