This week in council we are adopting the long term plan, setting rates, appointing some commissioners, receiving LGNZ correspondence amongst other things. The paper I wanted to focus on this week is in relation to water security and river quality. Water is the future, which is why I am for further protection of the Waingake ...
My ‘What’s going on in Council – May 18’ column caused a massive stir amongst readers regarding cost blow outs, the quality of voice across the district and powers. This is my reply to those readers. These are fair comments and ones already echoed around the council table. Forgive me, but my column is limited ...
Last week in council we spent the week in hearings, listening to the community about our priorities. We heard submissions on sports parks, rates and roads but I would like to focus on the Representation Review. On Thursday council voted to change the make up of councillors in the next election. In a nutshell, council ...
Recently council voted to change the make up of councillors in the next election. We voted to reduce the numbers of councillors from thirteen to nine. The mayor would bring the number of our council to ten. We added three community boards; one in the East, one in the West and one in the city. ...
I’ve always been a good dad. I’m good at dad shit. Being creative, making messes, playing, disciplining, planning, working hard, protecting. I wanted to fill in the gaps that I didn’t get. So I focussed strongly on individualised pathways of learning for my children, to support and affirm their dreams. We all have shit days, ...
There were many great things that happened here over the weekend. Congratulations to Rangataua o Aotearoa on the success of their event, Te Ihi a Tū, on Saturday night. The event was run well and everything handled with seriousness and care. I’d like to acknowledge the whānau from Mangatū for their exhibition on Friday, titled ...
This week in council we have no council meetings. However we do have a Titirangi walk, a coast trip, a long term plan to release and I’ve managed to get in a couple of ministers ears. On Sunday I attended the Honorary Advisers dinner for the Asia NZ Foundation at Government House. I had the ...
Waru Reflections. DISCLAIMER: If you haven’t seen Waru then I suggest you don’t read any further, because this does contain spoilers! In part one, I am Mihi, I refer to myself as broken and fractured. This piece of writing is about how those fractures started and took root. I want to dedicate this to those ...
My Waru Reflections DISCLAIMER: If you haven’t seen Waru then I suggest you don’t read any further, because this does contain spoilers! Now that Waru has been out for a while, I wanted to write why it spoke to me. Because it spoke to me like nothing else I’ve ever seen. It spoke to my ...
I’m writing all of this post event, with better ‘sight’ for lack of a better word. I recently read about a technique that helps people down from anxiety. I was going to be having a hui with a whānau that included an almost 8 year old Māori boy who has some anxiety issues. I wanted ...