Rotorua iwi-council committee’s Lakeland Queen decision prompts complaints

A councillor has questioned the process behind a council notice to remove the Lakeland Queen. Photo / Laura Smith

A Rotorua councillor tried to have a committee of mostly unelected representatives disbanded after a decision-making process he believed was secretive and a “slap in the face of democracy”.

Robert Lee believes the Ngāti Whakaue Gifted Reserves Protocol Committee makes decisions and directs council staff – which the Rotorua Lakes Council initially said the committee had no power to do.

It later clarified committee decisions need council agreement to have legal effect. A council official also said the committee’s meetings were not secret.

It comes after the council sent the embattled owner of a dry-docked tourist paddle steamer a letter describing the committee’s “decision” that his vessel must leave an iwi-gifted reserve.

The Lakeland Queen has dry-docked at Motutara Point on Lake Rotorua free of charge since going into hibernation in October 2021.

Owner Terry Hammond needs a new jetty to resume operations and has been told that, as a commercial operation, he must pay to build it – potentially costing up to $460,000 – then gift it to the iwi lakebed owners and lease it back.

The steamer was described as an “eyesore” at the closed-door July meeting of the protocol committee, which comprises three elected council members and six Pukeroa Oruawhata Trust appointees representing Ngāti Whakaue.

After another discussion about the vessel in the November meeting, the council ordered Hammond to remove the boat by July 15.

Lakeland Queen owner Terry Hammond. Photo / Andrew Warner

The council letter said the protocol committee “worked on matters relating to the gifted reserves of the city”, including Government Gardens.

“This letter therefore serves as formal notice that the vessel must be removed from the reserve by 15 July, 2024, as per the committee’s decision,” the letter stated.

‘Slap in the face of democracy’

Lee told Local Democracy Reporting he believed the “secret” nature of the meetings where the boat’s future was discussed and the decision-making process were a “slap in the face of democracy”.

He was concerned about council staff acting on decisions of the protocol committee.

He and former Rotorua resident Justin Adams have lodged complaints with the Ombudsman claiming the protocol committee process was not fulfilling requirements for the public notification of meetings, public availability of agendas and reports, and public access to meetings or minutes.

Adams previously received the committee’s November meeting agenda – marked “confidential” – via an official information request.

Lee submitted a notice of motion for January’s full council meeting calling for the protocol committee to be disestablished and for elected members to review and reconsider any decision it had made. He said, in his view, it offered an opportunity to “correct improper decision-making arrangements”.

Councillor Robert Lee wants the Ngāti Whakaue Gifted Reserves Protocol Committee disestablished. Photo / Laura Smith

The notice of motion was rejected. Interim council chief executive Gina Rangi told Lee in an email the meeting chairwoman, mayor Tania Tapsell, can direct the chief executive to refuse a notice of motion for specific reasons.

Rangi said the motion did not provide enough information to satisfy the decision-making provisions of the Local Government Act and allowing it could open the council up to judicial review.

Tapsell said in the meeting that a transparent local government followed standing orders and processes to have as accurate as possible information on the table.

“We must ensure order in this council agenda and we can’t have people bringing their personal opinions to the table when this council has no ability, or perhaps no desire, to disestablish a committee.”

In a later item, councillor Trevor Maxwell said he was not impressed by Lee’s “constant criticisms of Te Arawa”.

“This is one person’s view.”

Lee responded by repeating his concern staff were acting on decisions made in protocol committee meetings.

Council response and committee explainer

Council corporate planning and governance executive director Oonagh Hopkins told Local Democracy Reporting the Gifted Reserves Protocol was negotiated between the council and Ngāti Whakaue.

The council approved the protocol in 1996 for the management of the Ngāti Whakaue-gifted lands, such as Government Gardens and the Lakefront Reserve. This would involve casual or other regular meetings at least six-monthly.

The protocol committee was formed for this reason but she said it had “no delegated decision-making power and does not have the ability to direct staff”.

Asked about the letter referring to the committee’s “decision” on the Lakeland Queen, she said the protocol committee “may make resolutions/decisions but these don’t have any legal effect unless the council [organisation] agrees with the committee’s views”.

She said council staff concerns about the Lakeland Queen’s extended slippage were noted in a report to the committee in July.

Hammond was told after the meeting he would need to plan for its removal, she said.

In November, the committee “formally requested” a six-month removal notice.

“In this case there was agreement and staff took the appropriate action, having previously granted a number of extensions to the Lakeland Queen owner.”

Asked why agendas and minutes of the committee’s meetings were not on the council website, Hopkins said meetings with iwi partners were not “meetings of a local authority” under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act.

“However, the meetings are not secret.”

Hopkins said a summary of each meeting was included in its progress reports to the council.

Pukeroa Oruawhata Trust was approached for comment.

Laura Smith is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based at the Rotorua Daily Post. She previously reported general news for the Otago Daily Times and Southland Express, and has been a journalist for four years.

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