Explosive Northland council meeting sparks complaint to Local Government Minister

NRC politicians Geoff Crawford and Jack Craw at the council's November council meeting Photo / Michael Cunningham

A Whangārei community leader is calling on Local Government Minister Simeon Brown to investigate what she is calling Northland Regional Council (NRC)’s November leadership coup.

Former Whangārei District Councillor Robin Lieffering has sent a letter of complaint to the Minister about NRC’s council meeting process on November 28, 2023.

However, NRC chair Geoff Crawford said everything about the meeting was legal and above board.

Lieffering is calling on Brown to test the validity of what happened at the meeting under the Local Government Act.

The explosive meeting saw Crawford elected as new council chair and major changes to existing councillors’ involvement on various governance committees. Cr Jack Craw also lost his role as NRC deputy-chair with former chair Tui Shortland elected to this role. .

Five politicians – John Blackwell, Joe Carr, Crawford, Peter-Lucas Jones and Shortland - replaced Craw, Amy Macdonald, Marty Robinson and Rick Stolwerk on a raft of formal council and inter-council committees and working parties where their involvement included leadership roles.

The clean sweep was done via eight notices of motion which the five variously signed. This is a potential New Zealand record for a single council meeting,

All were successfully carried by the group of five, which now makes up 56 per cent of the nine-member council

Lieffering - a former three-term WDC councillor and recently awarded WDC’s highest civic honour - criticised the meeting process.

Newly-elected NRC chair Geoff Crawford moves to sign his oath of office at the November 2023 meeting Photo / Michael Cunningham

She said former deputy chair Craw had been voted off his NRC biosecurity and biodiversity working party position in spite of being the council’s most experienced elected politician in this field, with 40 years’ biosecurity sector experience.

This included working at high levels with the United Nations through the Pacific, on Pitcairn Island and with Australia’s Victoria state government. He had also been biosecurity manager at Auckland Council.

She said Craw had polled highly when re-elected to NRC in October 2022 because the community trusted his skills to lead biosecurity matters in Northland.

In response, Crawford said Craw was still a member of the nine-member council and able to contribute to biosecurity discussions around the table.

“We’re still a council of nine, not a council of five,” Crawford said.

He said the four councillors voted off committees were still well respected despite no longer holding the portfolios they did before the meeting.

They, like the full council, were working for the good of Northland, he said.

Crawford said a new NRC governance system was being developed where everybody, including those without portfolios, had their voice.

He said the meeting had been democracy in action.

“We haven’t broken any rules,” Crawford said.

Crs Amy Macdonald and Marty Robinson vote at NRC's November council meeting Photo / Michael Cunningham

Lieffering said freshwater ecologist Macdonald - who was voted off being an NRC representative on Northland’s inter-council joint climate adaptation committee - was nationally recognised for her knowledge and work in climate adaptation. She also polled highly at the October 2022 local government elections.

Crawford said Macdonald too was still part of the council.

Lieffering said the November meeting didn’t give regard to aspects of the Local Government Act, including that politicians must act in the interests of the entire community, not just those who shared their views or voted them in.

She said Blackwell, Carr and Crawford were farmers whilst Jones and Shortland represented Māori.

They represented these interest groups, she said.

Crawford said this was not the case.

Former Northland local government politician Robin Lieffering Photo / Michael Cunningham

Lieffering also alleged the quintet had failed to meet aspects of the Act’s code of conduct on how councillors dealt with each other and the public.

She said these outlined that councillors conduct their dealings with each other in a way that maintained public confidence; was open, honest and courteous and focused on issues rather than personalities.

Lieffering said the code also indicated elected members should avoid using meeting procedures such as a pattern of unnecessary notices of motion and/or repetitious points of order.

Crawford said the process followed at the meeting had been open and honest and had focused on issues rather than personalities.

He said the November meeting’s use of eight notices of motion was “all legal” with all reviewed before their use.

“Everything was followed to the letter of the law,” Crawford said.

The notices of motion had been included in the council agenda. All councillors were aware of them 21 days ahead of their meeting use. The agenda was also posted on the council’s website.

He said it had been important to get the changes in place with the notices of motion at a single meeting, rather than decision making being spread across several meetings.

Crawford said he had received significant community support for what had happened from Northland and beyond.

However, Lieffering said she no longer trusted NRC to meet the needs of the wider community as a result of what had happened on November 28.

Crawford said in response that constituents would have to watch what unfolded as a result of the November changes and judge for themselves.

■ LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.