Government needs to step in to stop Council screwing the democratic scrum and appointing unelected members to stack committees

The Taxpayers' Union is slamming Tauranga Mayor Mahé Drysdale and his Council's decision to appoint unelected, unaccountable, iwi representatives onto every one of the Council's powerful standing committees, with full voting rights.

Responding to today's vote, Taxpayers' Union Executive Director, Jordan Williams, said:

"This is a fundamentally undemocratic move. By shifting so much power to the Committee, Drysdale is screwing the scrum so that he has extra votes in the pocket."

"But it's also undemocratic in that appointments are not accountable to voters. In the same way the Taxpayers' Union ridiculed the Hastings District Council's decision to appoint teenagers from their 'youth council' to Council committees, Iwi appointments are inherently unaccountable to voters."

"The people of Tauranga only recently got their local democracy back. Now, without even putting it out for public feedback, Mayor Drysdale is driving it into a ditch. He's clearly out of his depth."