Bye for now - Mā te wā

As you may or may not have noticed in your voiting papers, I am not standing in this election. But I'm not seeing this as the end of my journey in local government, just a pause. I’ll see you all again on the campaign trail in three years time, all going to plan. This blog today covers three main things. First a thank you for support, second a reflection on some key moments in my ORC years, with a focus on some of the good things that have happened, and third, my thoughts on the current election and a request to consider our two Queenstown based candidates for the Dunstan ward. Then a disturbing story from the Waikato Regional Council.

And a note about the Māori kupu (words) I've used here. My time in local government has run concurrently with my journey learning about te ao Māori. At about the time of my first election to local government - 2012, I realised partnership with Iwi was vital to local government and responsibilities around Te Tiriti were enshrined in the Local Government Act (parts 2 and 6 in particular). Similarly there was responsibility under the RMA also. Realising I had lots to learn, I started with lessons in te reo. More than a decade down the track, I love to use and promote the reo when I can along with Kā Toi - the arts, and tīkanga - Māori ways of doing things. I'm extremely grateful for what I've learned and to the generousity of those who have patiently taught and supported me.

Kā mihi atu mō ō tautoko - Thank you for your support

Over the past 12 years in local government, 2 terms - 6 years as a Queenstown Lakes District Councillor and a further 2 terms on the Otago Regional Council, I've enjoyed and relied on the support of so many people, and most of you are on this email list. It's very hard to explain how important that support has been. Local government can be lonely and worrying. Decisions can seem huge and I often felt unsure, questioning whether I had something right, or was I missing anything. Interaction with people who care about their communities and their environment gave me confidence to make decisions or champion something that often turned out right. Thank you.

Reflections from the ORC years

Elected October 2019 the very first council meeting brought dire news in the form of the Skelton Report that the "immediate issue facing the Council is the challenge of developing a fit for purpose planning framework ahead of the expiry of the deemed water permits on 1 October 2021." That was where the crash course began...

Then came COVID...

Key at ORC was raising the initial $70K to support AJ Hackett's pivot from tourism business to conservation champion. This was some months before Jobs 4 Nature but played a part in building the fund that moved the tourism workforce to conservation work maintaining their livelihoods and keeping those people in the town.

Off and running, a list of other key moments

• Increased funding for the EcoFund

• Strategic direction to support those delivering ORC priorities in the environmental, climate change and biodiversity spaces. This brought an openness and a willingness to collaborate with communities and people working on the ground.

• Fairer funding for Waiwhakaata Lake Hayes restoration - spreading these costs around the district and to some degree, across the region.

• Systems view of transport building a functional team. Connecting with other South Island transport teams and building alignment so governmental discussions were cohesive.

• $2m per year fund for landscape scale environmental projects. This year that fund will be paid for from reserves. It needs to be built into our rates demands so it becomes accepted and inviolable. Will need to keep pressure on this to make sure the fund doesn't disappear.

• New bus route Arrowtown to Jack's Point via Arthurs point finally delivering the long requested Malaghan's Road route

• Mana to Mana. Bringing Kai Tahu representation into two council committees and encouraging greater manaaki for Māori perspective

• Establishment of the Great Lakes Working Group

• Establishment of Integrated Catchment Management with Catchment Action Plans now in place for both the Catlins and Upper Lakes

• Ensuring correct process in the Regional Deals committee and welcome councillors of all three councils to receive papers and observe discussions

• Waaay more science collecting data and mapping the environmental systems of our region

• Patronage on our buses consistently increasing on both Dunedin and Queenstown routes despite a lack of government support and the rudimentary nature of the service.

Elections

You will likely now have your voting papers. While it’s not my place to try and influence anyone’s voting, people ask me about the ORC candidates and what they need to look out for. Here I put my perspective with a bit of history for context.  I am focusing on Queenstown Lakes resident candidates because I don’t believe this area has been or will be well represented by those further down the catchment. As a general rule, I encourage you to prioritise those in your area unless those from elsewhere can express special knowledge and interest. Whereever you are in the region, if your values are pro community and pro environment over and above all other considerations, look to candidates that promote those things and to those existing members who have consistently voted in ways that support community and environment.

Context

Dunstan Ward will this year elect 4 councillors, one more than last time to reflect its growing population.  Dunstan Ward is made up of all Central Otago District and all Queenstown Lakes District.  It’s a diverse ward with different geographies, issues, demographics and economies. This means approaches and priorities aren’t always aligned. This is an important consideration when considering your candidates.

Secondly, ORC has different voting system this year.  It’s moved to Single Transferable Vote which means you rank the candidates you like and leave blank the ones that you don’t (don’t invalidate all your votes by writing anything in the box of candidates you don’t want.) Leaving blank the candidates you don't like means you don't accidentally give them a vote in any form. More about this system here: https://www.orc.govt.nz/your-council/local-body-elections/how-does-single-transferable-vote-work/#i-dont-want-strawberry-how-do-i-stop-it-getting-my-vote.

As the first person from Queenstown to be elected to the ORC, my focus was to get the importance of the headwaters, Queenstown, Wānaka, all the small communities and their ecosystems and waters,  firmly embedded in the psyche of a Dunedin-centric organisation. In this mission,  I followed Maggie Lawton and her daughter Ella Lawton, both from Wānaka who shared a term on the council (2016-2019).  Ella was elected to Maggie’s seat in a by-election following Maggie’s passing in 2017.  Maggie and then Ella, both climate scientists in their own fields, began the awareness-creating journey by raising issues of water quality in the headwaters, before my time on the council. I acknowledge them both as paving the way for much of the work I have been able to do since then. I was elected to ORC in 2019 after Ella stood down.  This followed two terms on the Queenstown Lakes District Council.  Standing down this year, I’ve had a great interest in looking for others who will take on the role from a similar values base with understanding of what’s come before and where we might want to head.

Current opportunity

We have three candidates from Queenstown Lakes.  We have the numbers to elect two most likely.  This time around, newly elected councillors will find good awareness of our area firmly embedded within ORC and its work programme. There is a strong recognition of the importance of this region with programmes looking at the decline in health of the great lakes, restoration of Waiwhakaata Lake Hayes, hazard management, and data collection that will inform future decision making. There has also been a concerted push towards a greatly improved and efficient public transport system for Queenstown with plans to extend both inter- and intra- regionally, first into the Upper Clutha.

In Queenstown itself we have two strong candidates willing, able, committed and well supported to take this work forward. 

They are:

Matt Hollyer 

Many of you who’ve supported my journey will know Matt from his work with the Conservation Alliance or Southern Lakes Sanctuary, or as AJ Hackett’s special projects leader. I know Matt well and can vouch for his commitment, authenticity and integrity.  He is a pragmatic person who also has the people skills to bring people together and to find ways through different perspectives. Matt has been great support to me over the past two terms, rallying people behind environmental initiatives that are important in the headwaters.

Ben Farrell

I don’t know Ben so well yet, but I greatly respect his skills and knowledge which will be useful and helpful around the council table.  His working knowledge of the RMA and other planning regulations and how they have and continue to apply in our region should be valued.  Ben has met with me on several occasions to get a feel for what will be needed from him in this role.  I’m confident that he is well worth your vote.

There is also a candidate from Wānaka who you may want to consider. I’ve had no interaction but understand she is aligned with two of the Central Otago based candidates.  

Candidate profiles:

https://www.orc.govt.nz/your-council/local-body-elections/candidate-profiles/

In making decisions around candidates, I urge you to look carefully at promises made. If it sounds too good to be true, it is.  Particularly when it comes to reducing rates.  If you’re thinking about reducing rates, look carefully and think. We’d all love things to cost less. But what in the work programme would you have your councillors take out?  Some will say the new building, if you are one of those, I suggest you investigate that funding model because there’s been mischievous misinformation spreading about the impact on rates. It’s just not true to see this building as an impost on ratepayers. Port Otago is redeveloping the building and will own it then rent it to ORC. (I’ve outlined the funding model for you below)

Or would you reduce spending on environmental monitoring and implementation? There is a growing awareness in our community about environmental health and the dependence of our economy on its health.  Matt Hollyer is well across this having worked in exactly that field since 2020 and Covid.  For Ben Farrell this intersection is paramount to his thinking.

Would you like it if we didn’t map the wetlands and fault lines, figure out where natural hazards might strike and what might be the consequences – then communicate this and your options to you? Do you think it's important to count the galaxiids so we can understand what’s happening in the tributaries, measure the nitrates and phosphates in our waterways to understand the impacts of our land-based activities, understand when too much of a river is being diverted?  Will you be the person to complain when work you expect ORC to do isn’t done?  

Further thoughts as you consider who will get your vote

• If you want a better economy, restore your environment. While I sit more in the space of the intrinsic value of healthy ecosystems, I recognise and accept that every cent of ORC’s investment in the understanding of our environment needs to be economically justified. The combination of our own data gathering plus the knowledge contained within Iwi– mātauranga Māori) - offers long-term, long-lasting payback through our economy.  In my view, understanding this and driving better knowledge and better implementation of that knowledge to improve our environment will serve our economy even with some shorter term costs and the need to change some no-longer-sustainable ways of doing things.

• Prioritising spending to restore our environment is the cheapest investment in the economy we will ever make. Restoring an environment degraded by a century or more of non-reciprocal extraction costs money. So, anyone promising to reduce rates is planning, no matter what else they say, to reduce spending on this cheapest and most effective way to invest in our economic present and future.   

• You cannot reduce rates AND restore environmental health. The two are mutually exclusive unless you have an inefficient council.

• We do not have an inefficient council.  The rates-reducers faction had us embark on a $35,000 efficiency review last year. It was an excellent call and a testament to accommodating different views around the table.  The review has been super useful, worth every cent. On the 5-point scale ORC came in at a solid 4.  There are of course areas where efficiency can be improved and those are detailed and being worked on. You can learn much more about it here:  https://www.orc.govt.nz/your-council/latest-news/news/2025/february/orc-welcomes-evaluation-report-work-to-be-done-ce/  The most important thing to note is that while some efficiency gains will be made, rates are not going to decrease much as council gets more efficient.  The law of diminishing returns is likely already in play.

• So why are rates what they are? There was a huge rates increase in the last two trienniums.  This was widely acknowledged then as finally getting the ORC up to speed and doing the work its mandated to do by central government – work which frankly hadn’t been done in the years prior and particularly work that needed to be done as a result of the then government’s National Policty Statement Freshwater Management and the need to move away from the old mining consents. Refer to the Skelton Report.

Apart from that, and the continued massive expenditure as a result of successive governments whiplashing from one set of policies to another, the series of rises over the past few years has resulted in much more work done and much more satisfaction with the council.  It’s also brought the council in line with other regional councils in terms of rates. 

• This year's average rise of 5.5 percent is settling into a better place.  To reduce from this point in the face of increasing environmental issues is not likely no matter how much your rate reduction candidate promises to vote against any rise.  Rather than asking what they might do about rates, maybe ask what is on your work programme?  How will that work improve my world and that of my children and our communities? How much does it cost? Is there anything on the work programme that shouldn't be there?  For example, do you think there should not be funds for community led environmental action?

• Watch for questionable assumptions, flawed logic, flimsy rationale and debateable evidence. it's in abundance in the voting season!

Disinformation? Disingenious?

A Waikato regional councillor sent me a concern that looks as though government overreach is rising to new levels. ACT MP Simon Court put out a press release claiming a Waikato Regional Council Plan Change would "require thousands of consents from farmers for everyday rural activities. The plan would restrict production in one of the most productive parts of the country - this makes no sense at a time when NZ has committed to double exports from primary production." He then goes on to point out the knock-on economic evencts that would eventuate and then brings in the Treaty... Here's the release. https://www.act.org.nz/news/pc1-will-slash-waikato-productivity-here-s-how-we-fix-it. So far, so everyday humdrum political drama fearmongering around the usual racist, anti-treaty tropes. (Interestingly, this plan change wasn't restricted by government's cancelling of all regional council planning under the RMA because it was already before the courts.) But what is unusual is that the disinformation was enough to actually elicit a strong response from the council seeking to call out MP Court and set the record straight. https://www.waikatoregion.govt.nz/community/whats-happening/news/plan-change-1-setting-the-record-straight/. It concerns me that MPs might get this involved in local politics and actually see their way clear to spread disinformation which is in turn picked up by the ACT supported candidates who don't feel constrained by the actual truth of the matter. I think this is a new level of low meaning we need to put our candidates (and MPs) under ever increasing scrutiny.

Stay in touch

I'll still be about and getting into projects over the next couple of years. Please do stay in touch. My ORC email address won't work after October 11 so please contact me on alexaforbes@me.com find me on substack, facebook, LinkedIn, or call or text me on 0212964255. I will continue to post here every now and again so keep me on your email list if you're keen to stay engaged. And once again, thank you.

Appendix

Funding of the New ORC Building (“Aonui”)

1. Total Development Cost

   • The redevelopment project totals NZD 54.5 million Otago Daily Times Online NewsOtago Regional Council.

   • Of that, Port Otago—which is wholly owned by ORC—covers the NZD 43.3 million for the core building redevelopment Otago Daily Times Online News.

   • ORC itself contributes NZD 11.2 million for the tenant-specific fit-out to meet its operational requirements Otago Daily Times Online NewsCrux+1.

2. Where ORC Funding Comes From

   • To finance the NZD 11.2 million fit-out, ORC is using its building reserve, supplemented by proceeds from the sale of a site on Birch Street/Kitchener Street to Port Otago for NZD 7.9 million Crux+1.

3. Lease Agreement

   • Following construction, ORC will lease the building from Port Otago, paying approximately NZD 2.6 million per year in rent. This is an increase of around NZD 339,000 annually compared to the original estimate in 2021 Crux+1.