By Graeme Mead (Hamilton West Ward Candidate)
It’s election year in Hamilton, and the question every ratepayer should be asking is: when will someone inside the elected Council finally say enough is enough?
We’ve had two terms of spending under the current majority-voting Council. The results are plain to see, rushed projects, poor coordination, and infrastructure that’s already failing. Rifle Range Road is the poster child for this mess. Council admits they couldn’t do everything properly due to time-limited government funding, so they only did “some” of it and are going to rip up the road again. Now businesses and residents are left dealing with the consequences, over and over again. This time it’s another 5-6 months of construction work planned on the road and cycleway. And if you think it’s just Dinsdale, take the time to look around the city and at the lack or maintenance, potholes, speed humps and roundabouts full of million dollar mess ups. And the debt grows, over 1 billion dollars now and climbing every day.
Tuhikaramea Road just had two separate rounds of footpath repair and then replacement, because contractors couldn’t be coordinated. Speed humps designed for supermarket carparks were installed on busy roads with the wrong bolts. Tactile tiles for the visually impaired are lifting barely a year after installation. This isn’t just bad planning, it’s systemic failure and it lies at the feet of the elected Council table for not asking the questions. Why does it take me a resident obtaining Official Information Requests to find out costs the elected council should be asking for or seeing before the rubber stamp is pulled out. This is “their job” isn’t it?
And it’s not just about what’s visible on the street. Thanks to Official Information Requests, we now know that little thought has been given to the long-term financial impact of this infrastructure spending. The budget is strained, and the promise of “balancing the books” now rings hollow. You can’t spend recklessly for six years and then claim fiscal responsibility in the seventh to get re-elected. The minority of the elected Council have tried, but when you’re outnumbered you’re pushing water up hill with a pin.
Council’s own meeting agenda from 26 June 2025 runs at over 630-pages and many pages are in a format which is difficult to search for keywords. That’s not transparency, it’s a smokescreen. Buried in those pages are decisions that shape our city. Few residents have the time or capacity to dig through it all, let alone watch the video of the meeting. The continual change of the meeting from being open to the public to being behind closed doors is frightening.
Meanwhile, the Council’s Long-Term Plan pushes ahead with the “20-minute city” vision, less cars, more buses, bikes, scooters, and walking. But the bus infrastructure doesn’t support this shift. Cuts and route changes are coming. So how exactly are people meant to get around? And we don’t have the financial reserves to keep spending as we are using debt increases to pay for it, without repayments of the current debt. In a nutshell, the council is broke.
And let’s be clear: threats of cuts to libraries, pools, parks, and reserves if the Council majority changes are pure fabrication. These services make up a tiny fraction of the budget. What does need to change is how elected councillors are held accountable, how they vote, how they listen to the hundreds of presentations from the public, and how often they have ignored them.
Just look at the voting record on the 2024 Long-Term Plan. On 4 July 2024, the plan was approved with a 16.5% rates increase in the first year, and rates bills projected to double within six years.
Voting in favour were Mayor Paula Southgate, Deputy Mayor Angela O’Leary, and councillors Anna Casey-Cox, Kesh Naidoo-Rauf, Louise Hutt, Maxine Van Oosten, Moko Tauriki, and Sarah Thomson.
Voting against were Geoff Taylor, Andrew Bydder, Emma Pike, Mark Donovan, and Tim MacIndoe.
Consultation for the Hamilton City Council Long-term Plan 2024-2034 – CityWatchNZ
This vote tells you everything you need to know. If the current majority is re-elected, expect more of the same. But if there’s a change at the Council table, this can stop. Because right now, there’s no filter on spending. No accountability. No one saying “is this really the best use of our money?” We have great staff but we spend more time engaging consultants than trusting out staff to do their job.
So take the time to read the Council agenda and minutes. Look at the candidates carefully. Choose those who’ve run businesses, managed finances, worked in the community and actually know what it takes to listen and lead. Because Hamilton deserves better. We can deliver better and with your help by voting there will be a change and for the best.
Read the agenda and then look for the excel spread sheets of upcoming spending and if that doesn’t give you a full dose of reality I don’t know what will.
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Further reading on this issue
Consultation for the Hamilton City Council Long-term Plan 2024-2034
OPINION: Why is Hamilton City Council unable to prepare and promise a financial budget that works?
