31 July 2025: wellbeings gone from local government, local election

Media: Local Democracy Reporter

Topic: Removal of wellbeings from local government purpose

Enquiry

Reporter sought an interview with Mayor Tapsell regarding the government’s removal of the 4 wellbeings from the statutory purpose of local government.

He provided the following line of questions:

• Firstly, what are your general thoughts on the amendment and a shift toward more traditional core services?
• I am specifically interested in the cultural wellbeing aspect of the bill, how can Council deliver those core services but still allow Rotorua to thrive culturally?
• If not the Council’s responsibility, then who should be ensuring culture is upheld as a bedrock of Rotorua’s appeal?
• Specifically, Maori culture is often highlighted as one of the big attractions of Rotorua. How or will this bill impact an area Rotorua has traditionally led the way?

Council have previously stated that the “Rotorua Museum reopening programme is part of the Council’s wider goal to celebrate Rotorua’s identity, protect its heritage, and create a high-quality cultural experience” for residents and visitors. Two questions on this:

• Does the function and restoration of the museum still fall under Council’s remit, or have the same level of priority, given the removal of the ‘cultural’ well-being provision?
• Is creating a ‘high-quality cultural experience’ likely to be a priority for Council moving forward? If not, should it be?

Response

Mayor Tapsell made the following key points:

• This change has been in the making for a while now
• As soon as previous govt returned responsibility of 4 wellbeings to councils there was concern locally and nationally about how we could deliver this in a meaningful way – no additional funding was provided
• Important for councils to focus on core business but also on getting a return on investments we make – what we do really well is supporting local events, our tourism industry and wider economy
• We have the strongest Māori tourism in the country – really proud of this
• Being a bicultural community and known as the heart of Māori culture in NZ we already have very strong foundation
• Council’s role is to support this and regardless of recent govt changes we’ll continue to find ways to support the many orgs, hapu, iwi and businesses that provide this
• It’s an exciting opportunity of change that makes sense
• As councils we can focus on core services and govt can provide the additional funding required for wellbeing areas
• The quality of cultural wellbeing in our community relies on public and private investment and leadership – urge govt to continue to invest in opportunities to promote and grow our culture that also benefits our local economy eg, NZ MACI at Te Puia – fortunate to have this facility on our doorstep – further investment from govt into operations like this will significantly enhance cultural wellbeing, above and beyond what a local council can do
• Pleased to see museums libraries & pools continue to be considered council core services
• Museum remains top priority for our council
• We’ve received significant govt funding and support to finish it
• Thank govt for their confidence in us to continue with important community projects like this
• While generally not profitable, museums play a big part in attracting visitors to Rotorua who stay on and enjoy our tourism and hospitality industries
• Museums also provide opportunity to share our history and culture with locals and visitors

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Media: Local Democracy Reporter

Topic: 2025 Local Elections

Enquiry

Reporter sought an interview with RLC chief executive Andrew Moraes to discuss his pre-election report and upcoming local elections and other local government matters including the removal of the 4 wellbeings from the statutory requirements for local government

Response

Mr Moraes made the following key points:

Re upcoming election and goals for voter turnout:

• I’ve set myself and my team an ambitious target of 50%. That will buck a whole lot of trends nationally and internationally, if we get there.
• One way to try and do that was to release the pre-election report early to get people talking about elections early. I launched it with the Business Chamber which is an important community for us.
• I’ve taken it out on the road, taking it to a number of marae and other parts of the community…

Asked if he was targeting any specific demographic to encourage them to vote:

• All demographics have an opportunity to increase, Rotorua is behind in all of them, so I’d like to see all of them lift if we are going to reach our ambitious goal.
• It will be challenging given we’ve got an incumbent Mayor standing. I’ve been told when you are getting a new Mayor there is a lot more voter turnout.

Opportunities and challenges those who get elected will face:

• I’ve covered them in my pre-election report the key opportunities are the sustainable funding of public facilities. This is a challenge for us because we are a tourist destination. We have a lot of people who use our facilities but don’t have to pay via rates. It’s a classic dilemma…
• For our own residents our own tamariki and rangatahi we have a lot of sports being played and a diversity of sports and we have to think about how we invest to give people choices and find out the right balance…
• I’m also interested in innovative ideas that councils haven’t used in the past. Like private investment in our facilities and getting them up and running. The Blue Baths is the type of asset that has inherent value but because the council doesn’t have funds to put into it now. Every day, it's an opportunity wasted, so looking into private investment to make our city more vibrant.

Removal of wellbeing provisions and how Council will maintain the cultural footprint:

• What I’m hearing from the Government, they’re saying to councils, ‘don’t go out and look for something new to do to create cultural well-being’. I think it’s a bit different for us here in Rotorua. It (culture) is part of everything we do. It’s not something new. The diversity of culture we’ve got in Rotorua, obviously, Māori culture has a huge part and we have a huge range of other cultures that are absolutely a part of the fabric of our society and they are woven into how we work. We are not going out and doing new spending on projects that are to create some sort of cultural icon or artifact. For us, Māori culture and other cultures is just how we do our work.