West Coast-Tasman must stop regional decline, election candidates say
By local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:
Putting a stop to regional decline was a prevailing theme delivered by West Coast-Tasman’s hopeful candidates during an election debate.
Six candidates voiced their policies for a small crowd in Motueka on Friday, with the focus often turning to national issues.
The first question posed to the candidates by Grey Power Motueka, who hosted the meeting, asked what the main challenge was for the region over the next three years.
Labour’s Damien O’Connor, the current MP for West Coast-Tasman, said the region needed further investment in housing, while also addressing inequality and healthcare issues and improving resilient infrastructure.
“If we don’t have that, then people feel very exposed and feel insecure, and that undermines the value of collectivity within our community. Generally, in small communities like this, we work really well, but we’re stretched for resources.”
He also asked voters to consider Labour’s performance in the region over the last six years rather than the messages coming from opposition parties.
“Please judge us and judge me on my record, not on the rhetoric that we have heard.”
Maureen Pugh, National’s challenger and a current list MP in parliament, said an exodus of young people was a driving factor for regional decline and without a strong economy, they would keep leaving.
“We need to focus on our young people, break that dependence on welfare support, get them into work training, upskilling, and get them into paid employment. There is ample opportunity in this area for young people to be working.”
Patrick Phelps, an independent candidate and current Westland District councillor, also highlighted the region’s decline as a critical issue but said that he could truly deliver as he wasn’t also beholden to a party.
“We’re in the fortunate position as an electorate where we’ve got two outstanding MPs in Damien O’Connor and Maureen Pugh who’ll both be in parliament after the election anyway because of the party list system,” he said.
“[West Coast-Tasman] needs independent representation in parliament where the person representing you, their loyalties lie only with you – the people living in the region.”
Inequality was Green Party candidate Steve Richard’s main concern for not only the region, but the country, and reiterated the Greens’ proposed wealth tax which he said would have flow-on effects to help address other issues like crime and homelessness.
“It all comes back to money, there’s plenty of it, if we can just share it more evenly.”
Outdoors and Freedom Party co-leader Sue Grey said the region needed to overcome divisive rhetoric and return to grassroots and local approaches to dealing with issues.
“We have to find ourselves again, and we can, we just need a change in leadership that gives us that inspiration.”
Richard Osmaston, leader of the Money Free Party, used the meeting to reiterate his position that money was the root of all troubles plaguing the country.
“We are never going to fix the multiple problems that we have today for all the time we have a monetary system.”
ACT’s Kelly Lilley, New Zealand First’s Jackie Farrelly, and New Zealand Loyal’s Sebastian Marinkovich were not able to attend.
* Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
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$700,000 mistake left to fester at Coast council for three years
By local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:
A billing mistake that saw a debt of just over $701,000 sit on the West Coast Regional Council books for three years should never happen again, according to the head of its finance committee.
Council this week congratulated itself on the recovery of long standing debt in the past few months, the ongoing rebuild of its finance management system, and a pending report back on four internal audits driving the rebuild.
However, Risk and Assurance Committee chairperson Frank Dooley (pictured) said the error made back in 2021, leaving a $701,718 debt on the council's books, still needed to be cleared up through the council's annual reporting.
Caused by a "clerical error", the debt was indicative of the council's previous dysfunction where a billing mistake was left to fester instead of being proactively followed up, he said.
"It was a double up in an invoice.
"You just don't follow up three years later," Dooley said.
A public outcry in late 2023 spurred a flurry of activity by council to sort out its rates and debt systems after some ratepayers were overcharged by up to 300% in the first installment for 2023-24.
It has already adopted a new system to chase up external debt and internal audit reviews are currently underway into:
* cash handling
* credit card and fuel card expenditure
* procurement (capital and operational)
* rates setting and charging processes.
Chief executive Darryl Lew said the findings should be reported directly to the committee by June.
He said it reflected "a significant body of work" with new actions out of it needing to align now with the 2024-34 long-term plan and a planned revision of council's committee structures, he said.
Councillor Peter Haddock said council's commitment to do a fix up had been quite a resource commitment when it was "running low".
But it was essential to rebuild the organisation.
Councillor Peter Ewen said that was significantly helped by changes at the top in the past year, with the chair replaced and a new chief executive.
"A lot of the progress that has come about is because we now have communication between the chair and the chief executive.
"It's made a hell of a difference," Ewen said.
On May 16, Dooley told LDR the $701,718 dated back to a claimant being invoiced twice and the amount then being carried over in council's debtors' ledger.
He said there had been no inquiry until recently about it when it became clear the amount was disputed.
The "mistake" had made a $700,000 impact on council's bottom line.
"The impact of that $700,000 reversal will probably be in the annual report."
Dooley said at this point he was unsure if that particular mistake could have been repeated.
"I don't really know but that's why you have to drill down debtors on a regular basis - that's when you pick it up.
"Errors have to be investigated and corrected, and that hasn't been happening," he said.
Council was now working with its auditors to build new systems including ensuring accurate rendering of rates debt.
"We're starting to drill down, asking are they accurate or not?
"I've got a lot of confidence now … we're putting in place the appropriate procedures and controls so we can manage this on a day to day basis and make it effective."
Dooley said part of the issue had been inadequate staff numbers - despite some question around an increase in staff at council.
"If you don't have those people doing the right job, it creates inefficiencies, and creates a massive cost to the ratepayers - every time we make a mistake it costs.
"I'm really pleased about the progress."
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