Taking Back Our Council from Unelected Bureaucrats For too long, we’ve been fed the illusion that our votes for council actually determine how our district is run. The uncomfortable truth is that real power doesn’t sit with the people we elect—it’s held by unelected officials who never face the ballot box.
What passes for local democracy today is a carefully managed charade.
Time and again, major changes are imposed without genuine community input—whether it’s the so-called 15-minute city plans, cycleways that don’t serve our rural communities, or costly water reforms. These decisions are made long before they reach council chambers, driven by consultants and bureaucrats rather than ratepayers.
Councillors receive thick briefing documents filled with technical jargon and pre-selected options, all designed to steer them toward predetermined outcomes. When Councillors dare to question these recommendations, they’re met with warnings about legal risks and process requirements. The result is a governing body reduced to rubber-stamping decisions that lock us into years of rising rates, prioritise ideological projects over essential infrastructure, and burden future generations with debt for services we didn’t properly get to approve.
The consequences surround us - water bills and rates skyrocketing while infrastructure fails, community concerns ignored in favour of consultant reports, and accountability that mysteriously stops at the council chamber doors. We now face a perfect storm of massive debt repayments looming alongside unfunded "visionary projects" in the pipeline, including new water services and costly urban planning experiments that don't suit our district. While our basic needs like roads and bridges crumble, pet projects continue receiving funding. Worst of all, this financial pain is just beginning - with future rate hikes already locked in and more inevitable unless we demand immediate change.
This isn’t how local government should work. We need fundamental changes starting with genuine consultation before major spending decisions, plain-English reporting with real alternatives, priority given to essentials over vanity projects,with fundamental changes that give elected representatives genuine authority over senior staff appointments and direct accountability for unelected decision-makers.
The coming election offers us a critical opportunity—not just to change faces around the council table, but to change the very balance of power in our local democracy. Only by electing a cohesive group of Councillors committed to governing rather than just presiding can we reject the rubber-stamp culture, restore proper community control, and stop the endless cycle of rising rates for projects we never asked for.
The power to change this system rests in your hands the Voter, by electing our Better Waipā candidates as a united group, we can finally counter the unelected officials who seek to control us through division.
Their strategy is simple, keep us fighting among ourselves while they make the real decisions behind closed doors. But together, as a cohesive voting bloc, we can break their grip and begin the long road back to a true local democracy."
Yours for real local democracy.
