Why Anne Tolley wants new faces on Tauranga's next council | Q+A 2024

A number of the candidates in Tauranga's upcoming local elections are former elected officials. Former Local Government Minister Anne Tolley says while it's good old faces are putting their hands up once more, she'd prefer to see new blood on the next council.
It comes as Tolley wraps up her time as the chair of the Tauranga Commissioners, who were brought in to replace the city's "dysfunctional" elected council in 2021. She says bringing professional Commissioners to Tauranga has been good for the city. Tolley adds other local authorities could benefit from a hybrid model where a council could be made up of both elected representatives and appointed professionals, with a balance favouring councillors chosen by the community.
Join Jack Tame and the Q+A team and find the answers to the questions that matter. Made with the support of NZ on Air.

[@petertrott5107]

I don't think you can break a democracy. There are variations of it around the world. It is necessary for every NZer to monitor and maintain our democracy, it's an on going job.

[@sarahsutherland3392]

Don’t forget that Nanaia Mahuta appointed Ann Tolley as chair and it would have been that Nanaia would have known the competence of Ann as one was spokesperson and the other minister of local government.

[@Digmen1]

She talks about recycling at 22:30, and then we find out that they were shipping it all to China in containers

[@brett7989]

Tauranga has benefited from mostly Aucklanders cashing up and moving to Tauranga for decades. Most of that time house prices stayed reasonable. The housing boom in Auckland around 2015 put people moving to Tauranga on steroids. It was insane and unnecessary. To much immigration and interest rates far to low . All this has done is made Tauranga only a rich place to live and poor people pay high rents off the rich landlords that also moved from Auckland. I’v lived in Tauranga and tepuke since 1970 , owning 20 odd houses and commercial buildings and its shocking now. But people don’t realise Tauranga needs Aucklanders demand to keep prices up. Basically the people in Tauranga don’t earn enough for these high prices so you have to have high Aucklander demand and fighting for property. Like 2016 to 2018, and 2020 to early 2022 (pandemic). I think Tauranga is in for a very big shock. Even if Auckland went back to average housing sales Tauranga’s future doesn’t look good. I think the nz national average housing price outside Auckland will collapse and Tauranga will follow. While rates and insurance are ridiculously high , high with lots of pensioners and low wage earners . Council RVs will slowly come down . I had a rental in tepuke once , 2008 the RV was $335000, the next RV after the GFC was $285000. Building will plummet and many will leave. In a way reversing the last decade as if it should never have happened. And what will Tauranga end up with. To many houses and a lower population and a real need for higher incomes to attract people

[@MG-fr3tn]

So it's speculation not substance, greed has bad connotations for reason, exparance.😂

[@kentonge1812]

Why would we elect a previous mayor or councilar again just to go through the same old B.S.

[@janicehemi8983]

As the Minister that brought in 7aa, I'd be curious about her thoughts on what has happened to it

[@karenbaddeley6150]

Check out how many Airbnb bookabach whole homes/houses there are available… these could be for local people not just weekends 😢

[@NZ-ms3vc]

Home owners have the freedom & right to choose what they want to do with their homes!

[@karenbaddeley6150]

@@NZ-ms3vc shame on home owners keeping homes for airbnb weekend accommodation, ruins communities & neighbourhoods & pushes up rents & house prices for everyone 😢

[@jimwalker2469]

Why is the actual Tauranga city so empty

[@scottnz411]

mainly cause its hard to park, much easier to go to the malls with ample free parking

[@jemma_19988]

A democracy is when the majority makes the decisions not minorities It may sound unfair but looking at how many people around the world want to live here obviously works!!

[@jasonpoihegatama1347]

If you did your job right, then you wouldn't lose your job because you didn't break the law. Its when people start making decision over the law because they think they are right not the law.

[@Digmen1]

Yes the commissioners did get things going. But they gave the contractors an open cheque book to build Cameron road and no one knows what it has cost and what was hidden in the contract.

[@kiwi2035]

And yet it happened. Good!

[@howstupidcanyoube100]

And you know if the architects were Warren and Mahoney that it’s going to be significantly over budget

[@Itssmial_Ova]

Honestly the same thing happened with the previous council! Got to keep an eye on them, Even after they get out of office they try dodgy stuff with the contacts they made in Council.

[@geecee1288]

Can she come back to Gisborne and sort out our shambles of a council.

[@Digmen1]

So why does Tauranga City need a new council building that can house 700 people? What do they all do other than occupy chairs and screens, make rules and think up ideas to control us all

[@kiwi2035]

Because the old one was full of black mold?

[@garycody1929]

And a Library. They all build new Libraries.

[@kenking3188]

In Europe council buildings last centuries, our old rotting one only lasted a few years!

[@panic_chords]

@@garycody1929 Nothing wrong with libraries mate. Basic sign of civilisation.

[@garycody1929]

@@panic_chords First of all I am not your mate. And libraries are becoming useless as any book can be read online and there is more information available on your phone. You said it. It is only a sign.

[@pbrown1050]

A mediocre politician was appointed to "sort out' Tauranga. She got into bed with the developers and iwi, shafted the community and has adopted the developers works program to pump over one billion dollars into vanity infrastructure in the dead CBD. The suburbs get nothing. But there is no money so the answer is to borrow more. And the ratepayers must pay it back, forever in the future. And now she tries to meddle in the governance model by claiming very arrogantly that any elected councillors are not able enough to govern. Anne Tolley's legacy will be a mess of overpromising and very little delivery.

[@elizagoodytwoshoes9140]

BINGO!

[@caitlynr.r.]

Honestly what an absolute joke and lie this interview was first of all half the people in the city didn't even know a commission had been appointed in the council had been taken away. Second the city is no better the drugs here at rampant and the violence and crime is insane if anything I no longer feel safe in a city I've lived in for 20 years and I'm now looking at leaving. The price of housing has gone up 10 fold it is unaffordable no one can afford to live everyone is on the bones of their ass here the city has wasted money on the city centre that no one uses because there's nothing there to attract anyone. Average price for rent here is $800 a week and there are people living in their vans at every beach access and public reserve this city is not any better off that is a lie . We have not had a vote in the last 4 years and a lot of us weren't even aware. Tauranga is now the main port of New Zealand meaning it's the main port for all the drugs that are coming into this country by boat hence our drug problem. What absolute propaganda this was

[@MG-fr3tn]

Your the very apitame of why our tax system needs balance. Subliminal incentive that undermines all the collatril aspects of a economy's robustness. 😂

[@pradeepmagan6951]

She should take over Wellington

[@morgan_kemp]

Now we just need her to come down to Welly and sort our fractious council out

[@brycemoller3393]

Jack Tame uncharacteristically leads a super-cosy interview here that sounds like he’s interviewing his grandmother. Everything aside, Anne Tolley will be remembered as the person who overruled a panel of experts and allowed (subject to ministerial sign off) 54 hectares (yes 130 acres) of Residential Mount Maunganui to be built as 22 meter high-rise with no further consent required. According to Anne she did an amazing job and turned Tauranga around. My view is that she ruined the e Tauranga CBD (which is an absolute ghost town) and is now looking to ruin Mount Maunganui. I would rather have democracy with all its faults.

[@Itssmial_Ova]

The CBD has been a ghost town for as long as I can remember.

[@panic_chords]

@brycemoller3393 - Mate 4 - 6 storeys in the Mount cbd is a gimme. So much wasted space and potential there. Bring on some serious redevelopment I say, with good contemporary architecture. Corner of Grace Ave and Marine Parade is a prime example. A mixed use 4 + 2 podium/tower arrangement there with a rooftop would be wicked.

[@kenking3188]

Jack tame is one of our best interviewers, and he is hopeless!

[@LadyP001]

The commisioners in place was a joke considering Anne Tolley is more worried about lining her pocket. The Cameron Rd/Joint venture project was a joke because what has occurred is that you alienated a large portion of people from shopping in the Tauranga CBD and with all the roading projects, you wasted money on things like bus lanes that are used as left turning lanes, 60-minute carparks and not once has these bus lanes used by the buses. Buses are never on time and all the money was wasted on things that line the pockets of TCC and not the community.

[@elizagoodytwoshoes9140]

It is all a joke, perfect answer. These muppets think they are above the ratepayers and know better than the rest of us. Be interested to see who really has benefited from all these shenanigans.

[@uggali]

Damn we lost a gem! Can we do local election after winter when we have a few less boomers?