Bay of Plenty Times
  • Bay of Plenty Times home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport

Locations

  • Coromandel & Hauraki
  • Katikati
  • Tauranga
  • Mount Maunganui
  • Pāpāmoa
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Bay of Plenty Times

Journalist joins mayoral race

By Kiri Gillespie
Bay of Plenty Times·
14 Aug, 2013 12:04 AM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Journalist Richard Moore has announced he is standing for Mayor of Tauranga plus a seat on Tauranga City Council in this year's local body elections.



Mr Moore, 52, is a columnist for the Bay of Plenty Times and announced the decision yesterday.

"I'm a journalist. I've always listened to people and put their views forward. But that's not why I'm doing this job, or why I'm going for mayor. I'm doing it because I can make a difference," Mr Moore said.

The father of two said the decision was born out of anger at a lack of action from current council members and desire to curb the city's spiralling debt.

"The city owes $450 million and of that, interest is $80,000 a day out of ratepayers' funds."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Mr Moore said community members had expressed alarm at the debt level, which put the city in the same boat at Kaipara District Council, now led by commissioners.

"The fear is, because the debt level is so high, the commissioner could come in, could sack the city council and then they could charge whatever they like of ratepayers," Mr Moore said. "This is what happened in Kaipara. The level of debt per head of the population is about the same as Tauranga city [about $10,000]. The commissioner came in and ratepayers not able to pay high rates have been bankrupt and lost their houses.

"If I don't have money, I don't spend it. Whereas council, despite their high experience, seem to spend money with no budget and treat ratepayers as ATM machines."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Mr Moore said the council needed young blood to help lead a new vision and direction for the city. "To me, the council seem very good at appearing to listen to people, then doing their own things, anyway," he said.

Mr Moore was also aiming at a councillor's seat for the Mount/Papamoa ward to help address the issue of tsunami sirens "which is a complete and utter debacle".

"We've been waiting for six years for these sirens and they've stuffed it up along the way and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars."

Mr Moore said money spent on Route K could have been spent on more access routes desperately needed by Papamoa residents, particularly Papamoa east residents at risk of flooding in a natural disaster.

Discover more

NZTA to take on Route K, less the debt

12 Sep 09:16 PM

"That's tens of thousands of people's lives are just being ignored," he said.

"Council says it can't afford to put the roads in but it can't afford not to. If they have developers going in there, make the developers put roads in. It's not that complicated."

"It's about being smart with money and prioritising things."

Mr Moore said he was also eager to create arts and cultural events to bring more people into Tauranga during winter and try to retain cruise ship passengers who travel to Rotorua.

Nominations for Tauranga City Council elections


  • Mayor: Mike Baker; Kelvin Clout; Stuart Crosby; Richard Moore

  • At Large (four vacancies): Mike Baker; Bill Faulkner; Kevin Millin; Jim Pringle; Clare Wilson

  • Mount Maunganui/Papamoa ward (two vacancies): Clayton Mitchell; Steve Morris; Wayne Moultrie; Richard Moore

  • Otumoetai-Pyes Pa ward (two vacancies): Richard Kluit

  • Te Papa-Welcome Bay ward (two vacancies): Kelvin Clout; Bill Grainger; Delwyn Walker
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Bay of Plenty Times

'Sustained period of cruelty': Starship doctor slates child protection agency failings

Bay of Plenty Times

Eastern BoP mayors unite against council amalgamation

Bay of Plenty Times

'Mind-blowing': Chef's two-ingredient meringue breakthrough


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

'Sustained period of cruelty': Starship doctor slates child protection agency failings
Bay of Plenty Times

'Sustained period of cruelty': Starship doctor slates child protection agency failings

An almost identical case occurred two months after Malachi's death, the doctor said.

16 Jul 05:15 AM
Eastern BoP mayors unite against council amalgamation
Bay of Plenty Times

Eastern BoP mayors unite against council amalgamation

15 Jul 10:57 PM
'Mind-blowing': Chef's two-ingredient meringue breakthrough
Bay of Plenty Times

'Mind-blowing': Chef's two-ingredient meringue breakthrough

15 Jul 09:44 PM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Bay of Plenty Times e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Bay of Plenty Times
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP