January 2025 Newsletter
A monthly e-Newsletter by CityWatch NZ
Welcome to the 12th Newsletter for CityWatch NZ
This special edition represents the end of the first year of CityWatch NZ newsletters and the start of a new year for CityWatch NZ.
We look back at a year of newsletters and what the CityWatch NZ website covered in 2024. Major issues covered in 2024 included double-digit rates increases, massive council debt increases, growing opposition to Raised Safety Platforms, water infrastructure reforms, flood risk modeling, proposed road pricing schemes, and wasteful council spending.
2025 is going to be a significant year for local government politics with local elections and legislative reform. We also highlight other issues which could be significant for New Zealand’s urban areas in 2025. These issues include the changing demand for inner-city office space, the push for AI-driven efficiency improvements within government, and solar storm events threatening infrastructure networks.
In recent years, the established media organisations in New Zealand have facedmant difficulties and journalism is changing. In that context, we discuss the future of CityWatch NZ and our plans for 2025.
Links are provided to relevant events, in-progress petitions, and open consultations at the end of this newsletter.
THE CITYWATCH NZ WEBSITE
The CityWatch NZ website has been a volunteer effort and has published over 130 posts since its creation. A special thanks to all the volunteers who helped with content, editing, and the distribution of pamphlets this year. We would also like to thank those that contributed donations, both small and large, which covered the printing of pamphlets and bumper stickers.
CityWatch NZ is an issue-focused website rather than a news-focused website. The website is designed to be a searchable archive of content which can be sorted by region or a specific issue. We have an aim of holding local government to account, and provoke well-informed public discussions of important issues. We see our role as boosting transparency, educating the politicians, and informing the people.
We have recently added a newsletter archive to the websites.
https://citywatchnz.substack.com/t/newsletters
MAJOR ISSUES IN 2024
The links below connect to the major topics covered in the first year of the CityWatch NZ website.
Rates increases and growing council debt.
Speed bumps, Raised Safety Platforms, and other “traffic calming“ measures .
The Three Waters reforms and water-infrastructure-related issues.
Surveillance, congestion charges, road pricing, and 15/20-minute cities.
Wasteful local government spending, including funding the Te Huia train and organisations such as Taituarā/SOLGM.
2025 LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS
Most councils in New Zealand will be holding elections in September-October this year.
Tauranga City Council is the exception, having recently elected a new council through its post-commissioner election in 2024.
Certain councils will also hold a referendum on Maori Wards during the 2025 election.
Many councils are using the following dates for their 2025 local government elections (Note: All the councils we have checked so far are using these dates. However, we recommend confirming at your local council’S webpage, as we have not checked every council in New Zealand):
1 July 2025 Candidate nominations open and roll opens for public inspection
1 August 2025 at 12 noon Candidate nominations close and roll closes
6 August 2025 Public notice of candidates’ names
9-22 September 2025 Voting documents delivered
7 October 2025 Last day for posting vote by mail. After this date votes must be returned to council’s secure ballot boxes.
11 October 2025 at 12 noon Election day – voting closes midday
11 October 2025 from 12 noon Preliminary results
16-22 October 2025 Declaration of results
October/November 2025 Elected members’ swearing in ceremonies
Key Dates for the 2025 Local Elections from https://www.votelocal.co.nz/
Hamilton City Councillor Andrew Bydder has distributed his How to Fix Councils document, which is subtitled “A guide to help concerned citizens organise for the next election”. He has offered advice to potential candidates and teams around the country in 2025.
CityWatch NZ will continue to offer a platform for candidates to inform the public of their views through opinion pieces. We have extended this opportunity to all candidates, regardless of their politics in order to help voters make well-informed decisions.
ISSUES TO WATCH IN 2025
Most major issues from 2024 will continue to be covered by CityWatch NZ in 2025. We expect the following issues to be important in 2025.
Local government reform, removal of the four well-beings, and fast track legislation.
Before local elections in October this year, the coalition government is planning to legislate local government reforms. Additional tools for people to monitor and compare council performance have been announced along with the removal of the “four well-beings” from the Local Government Act. The coalition government has signaled that councils should focus on “core services”, reduce wasteful spending, and get “back to basics”. Other new legislation which changes the Resource Management Act will have impacts on local communities. Some will welcome reduced regulations and some will have concerns about harmful developments being imposed against local objections.
Three Waters reforms (under the coalition’s Local Water Done Well rebrand).
The previous Labour government’s controversial Three Waters legislation was removed by the new coalition government. Rebranded as “Local Water Done Well“, the coalition government’s replacement legislation is also designed to enable large new water entities (Council Controlled Organisations) to be established. The new water entities are expected to take on higher debt levels to repair and expand water infrastructure. The formation of these Council Controlled Organisations and changes to water services will impact many communities.
Inner city commercial property and COVID-19 behavioural changes.
The impacts of the COVID-19 years are still occurring. More personnel are working from home rather than in offices, more retail activity has shifted online, and there has been lasting changes in social behaviours which are impacting the hospitality sector. Many inner city areas are still lacking their pre-COVID-19 levels of activity. Major cities such as New York are facing some dire predictions regarding their commercial office space market. Expect more discussions about revitalising inner city areas and competing visions for the future of those areas.
AI transformation of local government.
Both internationally and locally, there is a noticeable increase in discussion about using artificial intelligence to make government more efficient. There is also enthusiasm for applying AI in local government to improve efficiency and reduce staff numbers. Will AI actually deliver reliable improvements? Will the potential negative impacts and risks of AI implementation be properly considered?
Solar events, impressive aurora, and urban vulnerabilities
The sun is now near the maximum of its 11-year cycle. This peak in the sun’s activity is expected to last for most of 2025 and cause greater intensity of sunspots, solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and geomagnetic storms. The NZ Herald’s coverage of the approaching solar maximum ranged from the ‘go outside and look at the impressive aurora‘-type articles in mid-2024 to the late-2024 articles which hint at the damage a “Carrington Event”-level solar storm impact might do to our infrastructure networks. The 1859 Carrington Event caused damage to the electricity and telegraph networks of the time. How vulnerable will our high-tech infrastructure and smart cities be to major solar storm impacts?
NEW ZEALAND MEDIA IN TROUBLE
Former TVNZ anchor Peter Williams commented this month on the recent rounds of staff losses and closures across the New Zealand media landscape.
“From memory, which may be wrong, only the government funded RNZ hasn’t had to shed staff in recent times. Newshub has closed, TVNZ has reduced numbers, Stuff has cutback and now NZME has joined the trend.
We often listen and read the reasons put forward for the demise of the traditional or legacy media. While modern technology is the root of the problem, the real issue is why the companies now enduring staff layoffs haven’t been able to use technology to their advantage.”
Peter Williams, Another Nail in the Media Coffin, 22 January 2025
Political analyst Bryce Edwards commended last month on the difficulties faced by New Zealand media and used the phrase postjournalism to describe the recent changes in the situation.
“New Zealand is also experiencing the emergence of more explicitly partisan media. Sean Plunkett’s Platform and The Spinoff itself are both postjournalism projects. In Holden’s feature on the state of media she notes that the proportion of journalists employed at state owned organisations is increasing. By the end of next year, Radio New Zealand might be the only non-paywalled mainstream news website offering traditional media content, and based on the trajectory of public trust surveys, increasing numbers of citizens will seek their news from alternate sources.”
Bryce Edwards, Democracy Briefing: The Politics of NZ’s “postjournalism”, 07 December 2024
Bryce Edwards quotes from a 2021 book review in The Spinoff. In the book review, Wellington-based writer Danyl Mclauchlan covers Andrey Mir’s book titled “Postjournalism and the Death of Newspapers. The media after Trump: manufacturing anger and polarization”. Both Mclauchlan and Edwards express concerns over the future of media in New Zealand in the post-journalism age and note that in New Zealand the state is a major funder of journalism (in contrast to the US).
“There’s a story we can tell ourselves about journalism being good and postjournalism being bad; or that the former was true while the latter is “fake news”, and that is very much not Mir’s story. A lot of journalism was bad; a lot of postjournalism is good. But he’s not that invested in the quality or the content or even the truth-value of either format. He’s a disciple of McLuhan: the medium is the message. “The ad-driven media produced happy customers. The reader-driven media produce angry citizens. The former served consumerism. The latter serves polarization.” The medium of postjournalism delivers the fragmentation of the public sphere. We lose the consensus reality of the journalism era: different consumers of different media can now occupy profoundly different realities.”
Danyl Mclauchlan, Things fall apart: why journalism might not survive what’s coming next , 21 August 2021
With CityWatch NZ being ‘new media’, we are aware of the issues impacting the wider media landscape. As we plan for the website’s future it is important that we consider the risks of audience-capture, advertiser-capture, sponsor-capture, and government-capture to avoid many of the problems impacting other media entities.
THE FUTURE OF CITYWATCH NZ
Our website and newsletter will be more solutions-focused in 2025, offering a platform to candidates and commentators to present their views on how to improve local governments.
Over the next few months we will be using Substack to survey subscribers and get their opinions on the future of CityWatch NZ. We are considering the following changes to the newsletter and website.
Newsletter format changes
This could include changes to the length of the newsletter, a shorter summary, bullet points with links at the start of the newsletter, and other changes to improved readability.
A separate email for consultations, petitions, and events.
This would be two separate emails send out each month to all CityWatch NZ subscribers. One email being the newsletter focusing on articles and opinion pieces. The second email will be a list of open consultations, in-progress petitions, and other relevant events for the month.
Funding models to sustain and grow CityWatch NZ
Options could include enabling paid Substack subscriptions, merchandise, collecting donations, advertising, discount cards & affiliate marketing, and government funding. The CityWatch NZ team will aim to keep the burden on subscribers low and avoid options which compromise journalistic integrity (such as becoming reliant on government funding).
Other types of media and content.
CityWatch NZ is considering adding other media-types to the website and/or newsletter such as podcasts, short video, or long-form documentaries. These additions will be dependent on available time and resources. We will also consider if we would just be duplicating the types of content that other groups are already doing well.
Regional or single-city newsletters.
This would involve separate email subscriptions and different versions of the newsletter which each focus on a specific region or city. Doing this well will likely require more support and input from around the country.
OPEN CONSULTATIONS, PETITIONS, AND EVENT NOTICES
PUBLIC CONSULTATION ON HAMILTON DISTRICT PLAN CHANGE 14 -FLOODING
CLOSES FRIDAY 28 FEBRUARY 2025
Plan Change 14 makes changes to the District Plan (our rule book for development) to ensure that as we grow, our community and housing are resilient to flooding caused by extreme weather.
Rules to protect us from flooding are not new – we have had rules in place about building in flood hazard areas for some time.
We now have new flood modelling data that maps the entire city, so we can better understand the full range of impacts.
This includes more accurate and detailed information about different types of flood information.
Links:
https://hamilton.govt.nz/property-rates-and-building/district-plan/plan-changes/plan-change-14/
https://haveyoursay.hamilton.govt.nz/plan-change-14-flooding
PUBLIC CONSULTATION ON WAIRERE DRIVE SPEED LIMIT REDUCTION, HAMILTON
CLOSES FRIDAY 7 MARCH 2025
Hamiltonians can now have their say on a proposal to reduce the speed limit on a section of Wairere Drive, between Arthur Porter Drive and Pukete Road, to enable a PAK’nSAVE supermarket to be built.
Hamilton City Council is proposing to reduce the speed from 80km/h to 60km/h to make the intersection of Wairere Drive and Karewa Place safer for those accessing the new supermarket.
As a requirement of the PAK'nSAVE's resource consent, traffic lights will be installed at this intersection to allow for a right turn into (but not out of) Karewa Place from Wairere Drive. This consultation does not revisit that decision, and no further feedback on this is being sought.
Links:
https://haveyoursay.hamilton.govt.nz/wairere-drive-speed-limit-reduction
INTERNATIONAL SPEAKER ON WATER FLUORIDATION TOURS THE NORTH ISLAND
Fluoride Free NZ has organised for US Lawyer Michael Connett to tour New Zealand in February 2025. Michael Connett led and won a historic legal battle against water fluoridation against the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Michael Connett will be visiting major towns and cities around the North Island in February. He will be speaking with policymakers, the media, communities and giving a series of free public talks.
Michael Connett’s NZ Speaking Tour on Water Fluoridation
PUBLIC SUBMISSIONS ARE NOW BEING CALLED FOR THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT (WATER SERVICES) BILL
CLOSES SUNDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2025 AT 11.59PM NZST
This bill provides for:
arrangements for the new water services delivery system
a new economic regulation and consumer protection regime for water services
changes to the water quality regulatory framework and the water services regulator.
This is the third bill that the Government has produced as part of its “Local Water Done Well” policy programme. The first bill repealed the previous Government’s water services legislation. The second bill established the preliminary arrangements for the new water services system. This third bill establishes the enduring settings for the water services system.
Link:
PUBLIC SUBMISSIONS ARE NOW BEING CALLED FOR THE RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (CONSENTING AND OTHER SYSTEM CHANGES) AMENDMENT BILL
CLOSES MONDAY 10 FEBRUARY 2025 AT 11.59PM NZST
The bill would amend existing provisions in the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) relating to infrastructure and energy, housing growth, farming and the primary sector, natural hazards and emergencies, and system improvements. The bill would:
specify default maximum time frames for consent processing and establish default consent durations for renewable energy and infrastructure consents to improve process and outcome certainty for system users
make it optional for councils to implement the medium density residential standards (MDRS) and provide plan-making processes that are more flexible and support housing growth
clarify the relationship between the RMA and the Fisheries Act 1996 to balance marine protection with fishing rights
provide more tools to deal with natural hazards and emergency events to improve decision-making and efficiency
increase penalties for noncompliance, remove insurance against penalties, enable cost recovery for councils, and enable the consideration of an applicant's compliance history in consent decisions.
Link:
“SAVE THE CHATEAU TONGARIRO HOTEL” PETITION
CLOSES SUNDAY WEDNESDAY 30 APRIL 2025 AT 11.59PM NZST
The petition can be found at this link…
https://petitions.parliament.nz/c9ffd862-08cd-46a0-5a8d-08dc72d04919
The petition text is copied below…
“The future of the Chateau Tongariro Hotel hangs in the balance, with negotiations underway and decisions pending from government officials. There is a strong desire from the local community, as well as from people across New Zealand and around the world, to see this iconic building saved. By imploring the Government to act with urgency to save the Chateau, we seek to preserve a treasured piece of our cultural heritage along with the economic prosperity and tourism excellence that it represents.”
Posting of event information, petition information, consultation viewpoints, or other content on the CityWatch NZ newsletter or website does not constitute endorsement of those views by CityWatch NZ or its editors. This section is largely based on information readers have sent to us on issues they think are important.
If there is a political/regulatory consultation, petition, or event you think might be of interest to CityWatch NZ readers, email the details to contact@citywatchnz.org