The Systemic Failure of Local Government in New Zealand.

6/09/2026 – Join the Dots with Doug Owens.

These are dark days for our community of Tauranga with the reality of the Mauao slips and the loss of six lives bringing back the memory of Cave Creek and the repercussions from the mismanagement of a project that haunt us to this day, as will the Mauao tragedy.

If the TCC are not held properly accountable there will not be closure and the resignations to make the change that the public now expect shall happen, or there will be hell to pay.

We have all had enough of this ‘sick politics’ which includes the manipulation of the TCC ‘special election’ in 2024 which elected councillors who have failed to read crucial reports, who have been misled and lied to by management and some who have had to lodge LGOIMA requests to get information denied to them by the same managers when it is their job to fully inform Council, which is the absurdity here.

To date I have served 10 years in local government and it was during my mayoral campaign in 2024 that I met council candidate Suzie Edmonds and discovered that we shared a common understanding about the corrupt practices, the systemic failure of Tauranga City Council management and the consistent failure of management to uphold the interests of ratepayers and our local democracy.

Commissioners were appointed in 2021 to fix the inherent problems identified at that time, but they have failed and in fact all they achieved was to embed an autocracy, as if this was to be the solution to the toxic environment that has existed within the TCC for decades. The Commissioners failed to do the job they were entrusted to do, as a result the situation has worsened and this fact is now obvious to us all.

My complaints are focused on the Tauranga Marina Society and the Tauranga Racecourse reserve. Both are valuable public assets that remain targets for privatisation, which the commissioners allegedly covered up. In the case of the Sulphur Point marina this matter remains before the court when it could have simply been resolved in the interest of the ratepayers by Marty Grenfell and/or Mayor Drysdale both of whom are allegedly culpable and have refused to discuss the matters publicly.

In the case of the racecourse, Council staff promoted the establishment of a new hospital on the reserve, something that the Government knew nothing about initially. The community was misled by senior council managers who claimed this proposal was initiated by Government when it clearly was not. Later management publicly lied about it and how Mana Whenua had been consulted which they were not. The Racecourse Recreational Reserve is confiscated Iwi land and ultimately shall be returned to Iwi, if there is a change of current use (the racecourse has operated since January 8th, 1874).

This pattern of ongoing public deception has been clearly described by Suzie Edmonds and between us both we have significant clear evidence that demands immediate public investigation as further reports surface about the Mauao tragedy and this furore deepens.

The Racecourse, the ‘Marina heist’, the underselling and further public funding of the marine precinct, Bellavista, the failed carpark in Harington Street, and the proposed memorial pool complex, are all about assets and money for others, at the ratepayer’s expense.

These are just some of the matters corrupted by the same council managers who shall now be held responsible for the deaths of six people due to their incompetence and malpractice of Council business.

All these matters run deeply into the fabric of our council and should have been cleaned out in 2021, but frankly, the appointed commissioners did not have the skillset to both fully realise what was going on, do their job and fix it. Their efforts are a monumental failure for Tauranga and all at a significant cost to the ratepayers which included rate hikes of 100%.

What happens next is uncertain, but one thing is for sure, we will continue to join the dots, and the next Local Government election is in October 2028.

Doug Owens