By DaveForCouncil, on October 3rd, 2025
Source Diane McCarthy PDF
REAL Rates Reform is upon us and the way to get is to make it an election issue in 2026
You can stand on the sideline and rubbish the idea, or you can roll up your sleeves and support the campaign to bring real relief to unaffordable rates.
Who’s side are . . . → Read More: Article: Candidate promises to focus on rates reform
By Dexter, on October 1st, 2025
This campaign of lies and misinformation has found it’s way into the election campaign meetings now and the problem is that candidates have a limited time to address audiences with their policies and vision for a better Whakatāne, without having to correct politically motivated BS. . . . → Read More: Letter: Frustrating campaign of misinformation
By DaveForCouncil, on October 1st, 2025
Source Dave Stewart PDF
I feel I must respond to Keith Melville’s latest letter “GST refund not the answer” (Beacon, September 24).
Mr Melville has been vocal in claiming he wants the council to offer ratepayers a better deal but supports only candidates who offer very little in the way of substance.
Nationally, the local . . . → Read More: Opinion: Real reform required, not tinkering
By DaveForCouncil, on September 15th, 2025
Source 1News PDF
While the National led coalition government is busy telling local councils how to spend money, they’re spending $70 million doing exactly what they’re telling councils not to.
The Government has announced a $70 million investment package aimed at supercharging New Zealand’s events and tourism sectors, introducing new money to attract global . . . → Read More: Article: Govt unveils $70m fund to lure global acts, support major events
By DaveForCouncil, on September 9th, 2025
Source Charlie Mitchell PDF
ANALYSIS: The price of clean water will not be shared evenly. As councils plan to pump $50 billion into water infrastructure over the coming decade, some households face paying thousands of dollars more per year, while others escape with only modest rises.
The figures, revealed in council plans submitted to . . . → Read More: Article: The great water divide: Winners, losers, and the price households will pay
By DaveForCouncil, on September 7th, 2025
A central criticism he made of New Zealand was the erosion of Parliamentary processes by successive governments – particularly the use of urgency for passing legislation, by which normal processes scrutinising bills are skipped. “If you want to process a great deal of legislation, the Parliament’s not sitting enough to deal with it,” said Palmer, noting that drafting legislation effectively was time-consuming and difficult. . . . → Read More: Article: Former PM Sir Geoffrey Palmer’s stark warning about NZ’s democracy
By DaveForCouncil, on September 5th, 2025
Source Diane McCarthy PDF
OVERSEERS: MC Rob Meharry and timekeeper Murray Orr at the Matatā Residents Association Meet the Candidates event.
The support amongst the Matatā community for a sewerage scheme was loud and clear at a Meet the Candidates event organised by Matatā Residents’ Association.
The Matatā Rugby Club was filled to . . . → Read More: Article: Wastewater still an election issue for Matatā
By DaveForCouncil, on August 30th, 2025
Rates are going through the roof and people are struggling. Even so, I’m going to say something that most mayoral candidates won’t admit. Rates are going to keep going up and anyone who promises that they can stop that happening is lying to you. The Government would sack the council and install commissioners if we did what it would take to stop rates increasing. . . . → Read More: Opinion: What the heck is happening with rates?
By Dexter, on August 30th, 2025
Since the election of the National-led coalition government, 33,000 more people were unemployed, we’re in the deepest recession in 30 years (aside from Covid), record numbers of people are needing government support to get by, free prescriptions have been cut, half-priced public transport has been cut, food bank funding has been cut and all this despite borrowing $15 billion dollars to fund tax cuts that we were told would fix the cost of living crisis. While the Government shovelled billions to big tobacco and mining companies, 2700 businesses went bankrupt in the last year, and to top it off I read that Nicola Willis burned $671 million from the Bank of Taxpayers on no new ferries. . . . → Read More: Letter: Who’s to blame for dormant town centre?
By DaveForCouncil, on August 28th, 2025
Barry told The Post he was concerned that some candidates in the coming local government election were suggesting that shifting water services from council balance sheets opened up new spending or debt to invest. “It’s a dangerous position because there will potentially be the desire to load up with additional spending, additional debt ‒ councils may want to do that because their financial or balance sheet may look a lot better. “But of course, it will be the ratepayers who get hit with that, because they will still have to be paying water bills.” He said with rates rises already unaffordable in many places, there should instead be a corresponding drop in rates, in line with that of water bills. For example, he said if the new Wellington water provider had already been created, the rates rise at Hutt City Council would have dropped from 12.6% to 7.6% — a 5 percentage point decrease. Any decrease in rates less than 5 percentage points would therefore actually be an increase to the ratepayer. . . . → Read More: Article: Hutt mayor Campbell Barry warns against council spend-ups after water reforms
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