Dunedin Council Link Down
March 18, 2025
By NZB3
Today’s Otago Daily Times suggests something that Dunedin City Council have hidden something they didn’t want us to see. So I want to see it!
“A video link showing two Dunedin City Council committee meetings was taken down for two days because of “potential legal concerns”. Footage of last Wednesday’s meetings was pulled by the council that evening and restored on its website on Friday…Cr Lee Vandervis chaired the second of the day’s meetings, “I was given an explanation after the video take-down which the ODT have also been given — there was a potential legal issue that needed to be investigated before the video was made public again in case there was a liability problem,” Cr Vandervis said.” Ref. ODT (18/3/2025. Paywalled)
The State was up to a couple of interesting things being shown up at the end of the video after the 6hr mark which you can now view online here.
Cr Carmen Houlahan features either side of Cr Jim O’Malley and both have seperate issues.
Houlahan just wants somebody to tell her that $345,600+ is not being spent on free Maori lessons for staff. The report indicates that to her but nobody can reassure her otherwise. Maybe that’s why the entire video was torpedoed?
Whereas, O’Malley (and my old mate ex-Deputy Mayor Sophie Barker) was going after an even bigger fish. That is, a “Better Off” payout of $11,540,000 in association with Labour 6.0’s old ‘Three Waters‘ scheme that flopped. Where did that go?
Following the conversation it sounds like Labour 6.0 offered it as a sort of bribe with no strings. Much in the same way that Grant Robertson slushed inflation-financed money around for anything at all but covered by a pretense of being for “COVID.” I think it was bribe money for councils to join the 3 Waters bandwagon though officially they were given it ‘for free’. Unofficially the public don’t get to know what’s really going on or who is leaning on who to do what. Ref. How Covid funds bolstered Budget ’22, Kate MacNamara, NZ Herald (Nov 2022)
The Dunedin City Council had resolved to spend the $11 million on water though. Very responsible of them. And, again going by O’Malley’s statement, the new National 6.0 had directed retrospectively that the fund was indeed to be used thus rather than as a do-as-you-please.
Yet, the minions at the Council apparently had other ideas. Rather than follow instructions for how to spend the money they had somehow been making their own choices as Labour 6.0 had intended. What stopped this was the new government’s policy and somebody making an Official Information Request (which I cannot find) that came into the hands of O’Malley and Grant Miller of the ODT.
Under the Council’s nose, and against their will, the Labour 6.0 Ministry cash had gone to a “Treaty of Waitangi partnerships package” and a “A climate action category” and goodness knows what else? Probably some items that were vaguely water-related that were channeled to Labour-friends? And that has been put a stop to. There was a report but the likes of Cr Barker couldn’t understand what it was talking about because the details were hidden behind terminology without appendix. “I was confused as well,” she says on the 12/March Council meeting.
We Caught You
Cr Jim O’Malley said…
“But the fact remains that no matter what, there was a change in how we directed staff to spend the Better Off funding. Three Waters funding wasn’t allocated correctly, and it was members of the public who pointed out that the Council resolution itself had not been upheld.
“So yes, we are now aligning with the government’s position, but that was already the Council’s position before the government made that statement. While this is written in a way that makes it appear as if we are reallocating the Better Off funding due to external direction, the reality is that the funding was misdirected in the first place—against the Council resolution.
“The public spotted this, and the Council responded by saying, “Hang on, we’ve caught you misdirecting that spending—please direct it back.” Now it has been redirected back, which happens to align with the current government.
“I want to be clear that I don’t believe any of the staff here today are to blame. This is not about playing the blame game. In fact, I want to acknowledge that the redirection back to Three Waters has been well handled and aligns with the objectives of the original Council resolution.
That said, I do want to examine the wording carefully. We shouldn’t be looking at this as…”
It seems that, like Dunedin of old, there is some “little enemy” within. Not someone who can be identified or called out or gotten rid of. Cr Barker seems to be amused, almost giggling or chortling, about how They almost got away with it.
Then Cr O’Malley took his more direct shot but while also mitigating any accusations by saying there was no “blame game” being played. At least, not against anyone who was physically seated in the room at that moment!
“They” are someone with the power to reshuffle $11.5 million dollars even when it is explicitly directed by the Council how to spend it. “They” are someone whose ability to do that answer more to the Beehive than Dunedin’s elected council. And “They” evidently have the power to cut the public video feed and restore it again at a time more suited to themselves.
The elected Councils in New Zealand are bad enough before you factor in the secret un-elected staff playing “Yes, Minister” behind the scenes like this.
Councils are bogged down with endless workshops, meetings, and committees, wasting time without solving core issues like infrastructure and water management. The elected folk don’t really control anything. “The important stuff is farmed out to separate agencies, so no one is ever to blame when it all falls apart.” as Hilary Calvert was discussion with Michael Laws this week. Ref. The Platform
What will happen, sooner or later, is local government reform. I bet it wont be enough to undo the damage of The Great Amalgamation of 1989 though.
What must happen is we quit The State and its failures. Get back to Anarchy.
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