■ With the upcoming 2025 local body elections Lesley Immink feels it’s time to reflect on the learnings and experiences that she’s had being a Whakatane-Ohope ward councillor and deputy mayor in the past two terms.

Affecting change when you’re a councillor is not as easy as it might seem and I have to admit that coming with a business background, I thought it would be easier to develop a vision, set some objectives, work hard and follow the rules to achieve some meaningful outcomes for our community.

But I’ve been proved wrong amidst trying to make sense of the bureaucracy and legislation that we have to adhere to.

In saying that, I’m enjoying my time on council with our councillor team, management and staff – contrary to what is often challenged by members of the public in the media.

What have I learned over the past six years?

1. Council decision-making is consensus decision-making. While you, of course, as an independent person and councillor are able to have your own personal opinion, the name of the game is to get five other people to agree with you – meaning having a majority of six/five since we have 11 elected members.

This is especially important if a new policy, activity or piece of infrastructure is needing a decision.

Councillors are generally privy to more information than the wider community and we have to weigh up all the pros and cons, consult when/where necessary and then make a decision based on sound advice and due diligence.

Sometimes this might mean voting for or against something different than what community members want.

The consensus decision is always made with the best long-term outcome for the community.

Good and proper governance means that once a consensus decision has been made, it is the responsibility of all councillors to support that decision “publicly”.

It’s okay to say “my personal decision is this, but the majority decision was this … which is why that particular decision was made.”

Good leadership is about supporting your team’s majority decision, and I hope to see demonstration of this whomever the next mayor and council might be.

1. Knowing when and how to get change means understanding the lifecycle of the 10-year Long-Term Plan (LTP), review of the LTP every three years and the Annual Plan.

The LTP Plan essentially represents the “business as usual” (referred to as BAU) infrastructure, renewals and operations, and new projects budget.                                

For example, if you want a local mountain bike park you need to:

A. Have some concept and vision drawings to present to council to the 10-year LTP with a potential budget

B. Present every year to the annual plan to remind the councillors, management and the community that this is a “much needed community asset”, revising the scope of the plan and budget each time – but with some consistency.

Even if it does not get included in the next year’s annual plan, you need to keep up the momentum and visibility

C. It’s at the three-year review of the LTP that you need to get serious about it getting on the programme of work in the next few years with an allocation of budget

D. Six months before the upcoming annual plan process starts, have public community conversations, talk to potential funders/media and have all those who would like to see it proceed, submit to the annual plan – in written form and a presentation in front of the councillors and media.

The more written submissions for a potential project and the more people you have in the room at submission hearings, the better.

There seems to be a myth out in the community that councillors are frivolous with spending and not sticking to the basics.

Taken from our end June 2024 Annual Report, 83 percent of our budget is spent on roading and water infrastructure.  

The remainder, 16 percent, is divided between corporate and district activities (operations) with only 9 percent spent on community experiences.

For example, parks, playgrounds, swimming pools, libraries etc. This 9 percent also includes where future projects are mooted, which often attracts external funding.

How we spend our leisure time in the future will be an important part of our community lifestyle, so it's councillor’s responsibility to keep up with the important infrastructure/basics and look to the future.

1. Māori wards work for our community. This year, with your election papers, there is a referendum on Māori wards regarding whether Whakatāne District Council should keep our three Māori ward seats, or not, from 2028? Acknowledging that for the 2025-2028 triennium, we will still have Māori wards.

Before I dive into this, a point of clarification. I am proudly Māori of Ngāti Haaua, Ngā Wairiki-Ngāti Apa and Tūwharetoa descent – with my ancestors from the Central North Island, Tāumarunui and Whanganui region.

I didn’t know I was Māori until my late 30s and only in recent years have started to learn te reo and more about our ancestors. I did not grow up on a marae and knowledge of tikanga Māori is limited.  

So yes, I am Māori, but I cannot, and would not, say I represent our local Māori iwi or hapū.  

As per the 2023 census, our community is 48.6 percent Māori, surpassed only by Tairāwhiti region with 56 percent, compared to the New Zealand census figure of 17.8 percent.

We have a unique community, and it was my “best day at the office” (May 20, 2021), when councillors unanimously voted to have three Māori ward seats as part of council.  

The unanimous vote should not be underestimated as during the period of deliberations, it was clear that for our district and population mix, that working with iwi Māori was critical to the future of the region.

An effective governance board should represent the views of your shareholders or constituents-community.

And, aside from the age demographic (youngest councillor is 50 years old), our governance team does that with five from the rural-satellite communities and six from the urban – including five who whakapapa Māori, five who whakapapa Pākehā New Zealand (born) and one who whakapapa’s directly from Europe.

Our skillset range includes business, finance, farming, construction, social organisations, health and iwi interests.

We all have different hats we wear at different times, and we respect each other even when we do not support the majority decision made.

Being a part of a council without Māori ward councillors (2019 triennium), and with Māori ward councillors (2022 term) has been illuminating.

Before, we made best guess decisions trying to involve iwi after we’d the made the decision.

Expecting them to rubber stamp the decision and then feeling cross when they didn’t agree or had alternative feedback.

Now, we have insights to co-design and involve iwi/hapū at the outset of all projects and our relationships have been much stronger.

There might still be some disagreement, but it’s respectful and can be worked through.

Our Māori ward councillors have shared great insights into their communities (which are not just Māori), with good common-sense and respect for all who sit around the table.

Directly and indirectly, they have educated councillors, management and staff about te ao Māori, and made us feel comfortable about this.

Not part of their job description but something that has happened organically and we’ve learned a lot. The hats they wear are not just to represent Māori – in fact they bring social, health and environmental expertise to the table.

I’d like to encourage all those who say that we shouldn’t have Māori wards as a matter of principle, ask themselves why we consistently go on about equal urban vs rural representation?

And for good governance, we know that boards/councils should have fair representation of age, gender, ethnicity and business knowledge.

We’re not having a referendum on any of those per se, so its undemocratic for government to mandate we do so for Māori wards.

I’ll definitely be voting “yes” to keep Māori wards and hope voters out there will respond similarly.

It’s been a pleasure and privilege representing our community since 2019 and I’m keen to continue this representation as one of your Whakatāne-Ōhope ward councillors.

■ NB: The views expressed here are my own and do not reflect those of any organisation I am associated with.