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January 7 2025
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The year in retrospect The Kaipara Lifestyler welcomes you to 2025 with a retrospective of the stories which made the headlines through 2024. We recap the memorable moments of Kaipara life in this special edition as we wish you a happy and prosperous new year.
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A hot summer’s reel excitement
p The weather was scorching hot, and the fishing action was too, as anglers gathered at Kellys Bay to compete in the 36th annual King of the Kaipara. A day of fishing fun from the beach or boats culminated in a big weigh-in at 4.30pm, and some excellent friendly rivalry as anglers waited to see who had landed the biggest gurnard, kahawai, trevally, kingfish and snapper. The King of the Kaipara launched a season of summer fishing all across Kaipara for the summer of 2025.
Councils on report for 2025
Council wins in High Court
The Kaipara District Council has won in court, with a significant ruling by Justice Neil Campbell quashing the appeal …
u by Andy Bryenton
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Barrows of fun for show day
The organisers of Paparoa’s annual A&P show were looking forward to a busy show day on February 3, and they …
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The role of councils is being focussed and redefined by the coalition government, with reforms promised that will add more scrutiny and less freedom to the working of local authorities. The 2002 Local Government Act put four measures of wellbeing first, instructing councils ‘to promote the social, economic, environmental and cultural wellbeing of communities in the present and for the future’. This ethos is now scrapped, with reforms promised to make councils into core service providers. “Homeowners face the fastest rates rise in more than 20 years. Rates are out of control, and the government is taking action for councils to do the basics brilliantly, rather than pursuing expensive extras that burden ratepayers,” says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown.
Opponents of the reforms have been quick to note that many of those rating pressures come indirectly from Wellington, for example, through cuts to roading funding support and the lack of fiscal assistance to implement water infrastructure upgrades following the demise of Three Waters. Nevertheless, as well as legislating to refocus councils on core maintenance functions, the coalition’s reforms also promise to ‘guide council decisionmaking’, remove the duplication of roles with the central government, modernise outdated rules and, critically, to publically
benchmark council performance. By June this year, a report card for the council will be handed down from Wellington, marking the mayor and elected members on rates forecasts for the next decade, council debt management, the cost of roading and water services, the condition of roads and general fiscal competency. “This report will be released ahead of the next local council election to give ratepayers and residents clear information about their council’s performance prior to going to the polls in October 2025,” Mr Brown said.
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