10 January 2022
Media: Local Democracy Reporter
Topic: Representation review appeals
Enquiry
I'm working on a story about appeals on the representation review decision.
I have some questions, as well as some comments for right of reply. They're from Te Taru White and Justin Adams. I've attached Justin's full appeal for your convenience - the council will have a copy of this also. Please consider Justin's full appeal, not just the comments below, in any response.
Questions:
How many appeals has the council received total on its representation review decision? When were they forwarded on to the Local Government Commission?
Who are the appeals from? Can you please supply the appeals?
What are the next steps for the council in this process?
How many public-excluded workshops discussed the representation review?
--
COMMENTS
On Thursday[JAN5], Te Tatau o Te Arawa chairman Te Taru White said his organisation had submitted an appeal on the council’s representation review decision.
He said Te Tatau’s appeal was against the model, which adopted one Māori ward seat.
White said the model had “lacked consultation” with Te Tatau o Te Arawa and was introduced and adopted “at the last minute”.
“It was a fait accompli on behalf of the council. It had no resemblance to what they went out and consulted on.”
He said while the council had argued about “equity and parity” with the model, particularly around the number of votes available to Māori roll voters, Te Arawa wanted to maximise guaranteed Māori ward seats at the council table.
“That’s what our people want.
“We had no say [on the final model]. What kind of equity is that?”
He said history showed Māori were statistically “not good voters” so equity in voting power was not as important as seats at the table.
--
Rotorua businessman Justin Adams said the entire representation review process and the circumstances surrounding it had “significantly damaged my faith in democracy”.
Among his issues were that he believed the council had based its decisions on a maximum of 10 councillors, a decision Adams said was, in his opinion, “predetermined”.
His appeal also said the adopted model, with only one seat in the Māori and General wards, did not give the Treaty of Waitangi and the Rotorua Township (Fenton) Agreement “the mana they deserve”.
He said the council also appeared to not have analysed alternative models presented by the public via submissions.
In his appeal, Adams suggested a model with one general ward with three seats, one Māori ward with three seats and seven at-large seats. He later clarified to Local Democracy Reporting the mayor, also elected at large, would be in addition to the 13 councillors, bringing the full council to 14 members.
In his appeal, he also said the initial proposal the council had consulted the community with and the ultimate model adopted differed significantly.
Adams also took issue that Te Tatau o Te Arawa was the only “community interest group” included in public-excluded workshops “throughout the [representation review] process” and he did not believe the discussions needed to be entirely outside of the public eye.
His appeal stated there had been “clear bias and predetermination by some elected and or unelected officials” and in his opinion the “predetermination” was “extremely disturbing”.
Response
FromActing Chief Executive, Craig Tiriana:
“As part of the 2022 Representation Review process, Council received 12 appeals on the final decision for representation arrangements (more information about this decision is available HERE). These were sent to the Local Government Commission (LGC) on Tuesday 21 December 2021.
“Council will now wait for LGC to assess the appeals and determine whether or not a hearing is required. While this process is underway it would not be appropriate to comment on the nature of the appeals received. LGC has advised that the appeals will be made public if a hearing is deemed necessary.
“In the meantime, Council is pursuing a draft Local Bill to be presented to Parliament to achieve Council’s preferred representation model which does not conform to current legislated requirements (more information is available about this HERE).”
The following background information was also provided:
In the lead up to Council making a decision on representation arrangements, elected members participated in four forums to define the principles on which to structure the initial proposal for consultation, and one forum following consultation to discuss submissions received.
Consultation on Council’s initial proposal for representation arrangements ran from 8 September until 8 October 2021. During this time, members of the public were invited to participate in any of the six public webinars Council hosted about the review process. Information about the review was also available on Council’s consultation platform Korero Mai/Let’s Talk, on Council’s social media channels, on the radio, and in local newspapers and community newsletters.
Prior to consultation, Council ran a community awareness programme, providing information on what a representation review involves and the factors needing to be considered when developing a model. More than 500 community groups and/or associations were directly contacted and provided with awareness material, directing them to Council’s Let’s Talk/Korero Mai platform for more information. Additionally, a number of public presentations were made, giving the community opportunities to learn about the representation review and ask questions.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Media: Rotorua Daily Post
Topic: Spending data for year to October 21
Enquiry
I am working on a story about domestic tourism spending by electronic card transactions in the region based on this data provided by MBIE, to October 2021.
The data makes the following points:
- Rotorua earned $294 million from domestic tourism card transactions in the year ending October 2021.
- This was $8m more than domestic tourism earnings before Covid-19.
- Domestic tourists spent $270m the previous year and $286m in the year before the pandemic.
- Last year, the month of highest revenue for Rotorua was January, when visitors spent $39m.
- Domestic tourists spent most on retail sales, a total of $76m by October 2021 up from a total spend of $65m in 2019.
- As of March 2020, tourism accounted for $1999m or 10.6 per cent of the Bay of Plenty's GDP.
- Before the pandemic, Rotorua earned $128m from international tourism. Last year that figure was reduced to $16m.
In light of this information, I'd really appreciate it if you could put the following questions to Steve Chadwick and come back to us with responses before 4pm today.
- Is this information surprising? Why? or Why not?
- Do you think this information accurately captures the experiences of business owners in the region?
- Can we expect this upward trend to continue into 2022?
- Do you think vaccinations contributed to the increase in spending? How?
- What do businesses in the region need to recover from Covid?
Response
From Rotorua Deputy Mayor Dave Donaldson:
It’s good to see domestic tourism spending is holding and that’s not surprising given people are holidaying in New Zealand or at home. From what has been reported and what I’ve been hearing so far, many businesses have had a good Christmas/New Year period and places like our lakes and forest facilities have been really busy. The investments in the Lakefront Playground and forest redevelopments, completed just prior to Christmas, are certainly proving drawcards.
There is still a level of anxiety and uncertainty about what the rest of summer will bring and more government funding support may be needed with vaccines, boosters and mask-wearing also vital to keep the workforce at the coalface servicing the visitor industry.
Ultimately, we need domestic visitors to keep coming, several key events to go ahead – such as the Six60 concert, Xterra and Whaka 100 – and we look forward to the return of international tourism, which we hope can happen sooner than later.
Rotorua Economic Development CE Andrew Wilson provided the following response:
“Domestic spend has remained relatively flat for the past three years and we expect that this will continue through 2022 with strong repeat visitation from the domestic market expected to continue.
Businesses can start to gear up for a strong return of international visitors however there will be an urgent need for those businesses who have exhausted their balance sheets to get financial support so they can re-engage with international markets and be in a strong position to receive visitors as well as travel offshore to market themselves.
They would strongly benefit from a funding package consistent to what was received last year by the five regions in the south island identified by the government as regions most affected by the absence of international visitors. As a destination that has always been heavily reliant on international visitors, Rotorua has been similarly impacted which presents a strong case for additional funding support.
Businesses will also need to have staff retention strategies in place, and be actively pursuing productivity improvements.”