Never noticed on Kāpiti Coast District Council's flood mapping project portal they have this cool tool showing the extent of housing development over the past century. Demonstrates how Kāpiti has grown over the decades. storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/53e3...

Falsifying evidence seems like the kind of thing that should disqualify you from doing a job where being trustworthy is a key requirement #nzpol www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

At 42, nearly done retraining for a new career, and I’m somehow back at “need experience to get the job, need the job to get experience.” Feels like déjà vu, just now with a mortgage, back pain, and less hair. 🫠

Between you and me, if I were a freshly elected mayor who had just called out the toxic behaviour towards my predecessor, I wouldn't then go and reward one of the central figures in creating that toxicity by making them chair of an influential subcommittee... 🤦‍♂️ www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Four job rejections in and I feel like I'm right back where I was 12 months ago despite being on track to have completely retrained in five weeks time, with glowing marks and recommendations, into a professional that's meant to have a huge shortage of staff... 😞

What I love most about this story is that you can almost sense Luxon's press team in their response hoping nobody asks him questions in person so he doesn't deliver another "I'm wealthy and sorted" foot in mouth moment www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/prime-min...

The way the house is creaking and watching the TV aerial on the roof re-orient itself with each gust, I really just want to put a pillow over my head and go to sleep until the storm has finished.

That wind went from nothing when I woke up at 5:30am to gales really quickly. Going to be a wild day if it gets as bad as is forecast with the warnings…

Feeling a sense of supercity déjà vu? Wellington’s push for a single unitary council is back for another round. 🥊 localaotearoa.substack.com/p/wellington...

I think we can safely conclude that Waikanae Beach’s NIMBYs have completely jumped the shark 🙄🦈

The photographer who took this snap understood the brief!

If you’re going to make a case about how important local government is, maybe making your myth busting point about a service that plenty of councils let private contractors do instead of delivering themselves isn’t the endorsement of councils existence you think it is 🤦‍♂️

Me after I get a triple bogey on the 18th:

To me, Jim Bolger's legacy will always be how he prevented NZ from becoming a nuclear superpower by declining the offer of a nuclear submarine as payment for butter www.theguardian.com/world/2013/o...

In which @drdeanknight.bsky.social and I say suspiciously similar things ... I think he's living in my mind ... how do I evict him help please I am so scared.

When The Washington Post introduced its slogan “Democracy dies in darkness”, it was warning about the dangers of an unaccountable government and a weakened fourth estate. But what happens when the darkness isn’t censorship or a vanishing press, but apathy? localaotearoa.substack.com/p/stand-up-f...

Glad I braced up the back fence yesterday seeing as the neighbours removed all their trees which I suspect were holding it in place. Given that two other sides of it have already blown over in the past couple of years, and we can’t afford to replace or fix it anytime soon, hopefully it holds…

Turns out the corner Luxon keeps telling us that we’ve been apparently turning for the last 18 months has been over the edge of a cliff.

78 local authorities is really stupid in a country of 5m people. Especially when a single local authority represents 1.7m of those people #nzpol

From making sure you've read all your council papers through to the special joy of reply all emails, a former district councillor shares his advice to help the incoming 2025 cohort of councillors, mayors, and chairs survive the coming triennium. open.substack.com/pub/localaot...

Congratulations to the sub who wrote this headline, the Graun should give them a raise

Maybe instead of punching down on young people who are struggling to find employment during an economic downturn, the Government’s MPs should get out of the Koru Lounge and actually be in Parliament doing their job.

Rare misstep for Christopher Luxon

Completely re-writing your CV and covering letter after 20 years of corporate life to apply for your first teaching role is a lot harder than you expect.

Love local democracy? 🧡 Show it by making sure to cast your votes in your local government elections by 12 noon, Saturday 11 October. 🗳 localaotearoa.substack.com/p/vote-befor...

It will be very funny if, due to the Coalition’s efforts to dog whistle over Māori wards, they end up scoring an own goal through motivating progressives to get out and vote en masse to not only retain Māori wards but also to elect progressive councils.

Begging media folk to do their job here.

Tonight me and my whānau got to see the official mayoral portrait done by Pōneke artist, Clark Roworth. This felt like a lovely end to this chapter with my mana intact and we will leave behind a progressive long term plan for the next council. I’m proud of of us 💚

It is offensive for the person supposedly in charge of the government and its economic levers to suggest that youths, and their playstationing ways, are responsible for the most rapid surge in unemployment since the Great Financial Crash

Our household has done our democratic duty and voted in our local government elections. 🫡🗳️ Love local democracy! ❤️

Kāpiti News’ editor and our local affordable housing trust absolutely trolling the selfish Waikanae NIMBYs.

New Zealand has 1,095 different zones for a nation of 5m Auckland has around 35 for a city of 1.7m Japan has 12, just 12 for a nation of 123 million And Bishop wants a piece of that Japanese action

So basically Megan Woods was trying to engage with Simon Watts on establishing some sort of bipartisan agreement, Watts took his sweet time in replying, and then Luxon comes blundering in over the top of his own minister and butchers everything. Omnishambles! 🤦‍♂️ www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360...

A big tick for more transparency! ☑️ That's the message from GWRC candidates who responded to a question about whether they supported the council opening up its currently closed-door workshops and briefings in line with most other councils. localaotearoa.substack.com/p/greater-we...

Local Aotearoa reached out to Kāpiti's six mayoral candidates to give them an opportunity to share their views on Kāpiti's role in any possible amalgamation of councils in the Wellington region. localaotearoa.substack.com/p/three-kapi...

Greater Wellington's CEO and Chair kept a warning letter from the Ombudsman secret from councillors and their risk committee, raising questions about the commitment of GWRC's two most senior figures to basic principles of transparency and accountability. localaotearoa.substack.com/p/councillor...

Mate, I don't know if you have ever been to New Zealand, but "pride" isn't a national value even on occasions when the government isn't Pontiusly auto-piloting a denial of genocide. www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/5...

Nice to see the Herald joining the call for the minority of councils which haven't opened up their closed-door workshops and briefings yet to do so. www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/councils-...

Investing in professional development is a positive thing, but with public money it comes with transparency and accountability. So what's with a Kāpiti Coast councillor launching a Trumpian attack on their "political enemies" over a LGOIMA request? localaotearoa.substack.com/p/councillor...

Can't build more homes in existing urban areas. Can't build more homes outside of existing urban areas. People wonder why central government had to step in after decades of politicians appeasing NIMBYs stuffed Aotearoa's housing supply and affordability. 🤦‍♂️

The key thing about a joke - perhaps its most important defining element - is that it’s funny. We'll leave it up to you to decide if a candidate joking about te reo Māori is funny and what doing so instead of answering an easy question says about them. localaotearoa.substack.com/p/act-candid...

I mean, if even King Charles III can use Aotearoa to refer to our country… 🤷‍♂️ localaotearoa.substack.com/p/act-counci...

Candidate from the purported party of free speech weirdly triggered by me exercising my free speech to call my blog Local Aotearoa.

Four of the "We love Kapiti" candidates don't actually live in the district/ward they're standing in. Their mayoral candidate doesn't live in Kāpiti and their Ōtaki, Waikanae, and Paraparaumu candidates don't live in those wards. Must be more of a long-distance relationship with Kāpiti. 🤣

Having previously warned that a financial crisis was looming for councils, I’m not the slightest bit surprised that the Chatham Islands Council looks like it is in serious trouble. 📈🚨 newsroom.co.nz/2025/09/17/s...

Another day, another dumb campaign policy to call out. localaotearoa.substack.com/p/candidates...

Despite early setbacks, Wayne Brown has used the profile, powers, and resources of Auckland's mayoralty in a way that his predecessors were unwilling to embrace. He now looks set to win an even bigger electoral landslide than he achieved in 2022. localaotearoa.substack.com/p/from-flood...

Would’ve been Dad’s 80th birthday today. 💔

As we've been saying...

If teachers (primary, secondary, area), principals, education support staff, and nurses all strike together, would that be one of the biggest strikes in recent history?