Rotorua Daily Post
  • Rotorua Daily Post 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
    • All Lifestyle
    • Residential property listings
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Rural
  • Sport

Locations

  • Tauranga
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō & Tūrangi

Media

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

Weather

  • Rotorua
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō

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.
Premium
Home / Rotorua Daily Post

Bay of Plenty councillor abstains from Māori engagement funding vote

Kiri Gillespie
By Kiri Gillespie
Assistant News Director and Multimedia Journalist·Bay of Plenty Times·
14 May, 2021 06:00 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

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Bay of Plenty regional councillor, and aviation fan, David Love makes a stand during Long-term Plan deliberations. Photo / File

Bay of Plenty regional councillor, and aviation fan, David Love makes a stand during Long-term Plan deliberations. Photo / File

A Bay of Plenty regional councillor has declared that he will abstain from voting on matters relating to Māori partnership deliberations after raising concerns about ratepayers covering the cost of engagement.

The Bay of Plenty Regional Council met on Wednesday for Long-term Plan deliberations, which included consideration of funding $1 million for engaging Māori on freshwater matters.

Councillors were asked to consider funding the $1m, as well as an additional $600,000 over three years, to Toi Kai Rawa, Bay of Plenty's Regional Māori economic development organisation.

Following the presentation in which staff recommended the funding, councillor Matemoana McDonald spoke in response to an earlier comment councillor David Love made about "ratepayers footing the bill".

"I just want to remind everybody Māori are ratepayers as well, and can I also state that they are probably the longest standing ratepayers, in the Bay of Plenty," she said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"When making comments like that it's inferenced that Māori do not pay rates. When you say 'ratepayers are responsible for this', Māori are ratepayers too".

Bay of Plenty regional councillor Matemoana McDonald pulls no punches in Long-term Plan deliberations. Photo / NZME
Bay of Plenty regional councillor Matemoana McDonald pulls no punches in Long-term Plan deliberations. Photo / NZME

Love indicated that was not what he meant but McDonald said that was the message she took from the comment.

Chairman Doug Leeder reminded councillors that helping iwi and hapū to engage in forums such as the draft Long-term Plan was in alignment with Crown expectations and the funding being discussed was part of the regional council's contribution to that.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Love questioned why the regional council was put in such a position.

"I've had no real explanation about why this is fully a ratepayer responsibility, especially since we lead the way in regional councils in funding far more than anyone else in this particular area. Until I've had that explanation I can't accept it or I can't accept the way we fund it. Therefore, for all recommendations, I will be abstaining from all of them."

Councillor Stuart Crosby, who is also president of Local Government New Zealand and a former mayor of Tauranga, reminded Love that as a councillor he had a duty to meet Government expectations, including those of Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta.

Former Tauranga mayor now Bay of Plenty regional councillor and LGNZ president Stuart Crosby (centre). Photo / NZME
Former Tauranga mayor now Bay of Plenty regional councillor and LGNZ president Stuart Crosby (centre). Photo / NZME

"When a minister comes up to you and says 'this is now your core business'; this is now your core business, whether you like it or not. That is the way in which government legislation works," Crosby said.

"It's very much our core business ... it's also very much ... added value to the economic development of the Bay of Plenty. We [the regional council] have been in that fortunate position to do it and we should continue because the spinoffs from that are significant in a positive way.

"Overall we just need to come to grips that significant changes [are] happening in this country.

"We have 39 [iwi] and 260ish hapū [in our region] so we have to develop a system as an organisation, that will be required under legislation current and future, to manage those relationships.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council's building on Elizabeth St. Photo / File
Bay of Plenty Regional Council's building on Elizabeth St. Photo / File

"So while it's hard for a number of people, both in council and definitely in the community, to come to grasps with this, the reality is that this is something that has to be done and it has to be done as best we can."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Crosby said he supported the recommendations and looked forward to seeing how they were rolled out.

He said most of the submissions were about building relationships and progress "and doing that pays huge dividends as we move forward".

Love did not respond to this, as his time to speak had previously ended.

The decisions will now be incorporated into the regional council's draft Long-term Plan for adoption next month.

Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

Rotorua Daily Post

'It's on in the Tron': Robertson looking forward to final test

Rotorua Daily Post

'It is unacceptable': Decorated NZ soldier lies in unmarked grave

Rotorua Daily Post

No ‘alarm bells’ about Malachi before his death, daycare says


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

'It's on in the Tron': Robertson looking forward to final test
Rotorua Daily Post

'It's on in the Tron': Robertson looking forward to final test

'It’s rugby country ... you walk down the street, everyone’s so passionate.'

17 Jul 05:00 AM
'It is unacceptable': Decorated NZ soldier lies in unmarked grave
Rotorua Daily Post

'It is unacceptable': Decorated NZ soldier lies in unmarked grave

17 Jul 03:00 AM
No ‘alarm bells’ about Malachi before his death, daycare says
Rotorua Daily Post

No ‘alarm bells’ about Malachi before his death, daycare says

17 Jul 02:32 AM


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
  • Rotorua Daily Post e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Rotorua Daily Post
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • 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