Administration of a popular Lake Tarawera reserve will be transferred to iwi as Rotorua Lakes Council approves a long-running proposal after a spiky debate.
But a decision on whether to do the same for Centennial Parkland occupied by the Rotorua Thermal Holiday Park was delayed until next month.
Waitōharuru, better known as Tarawera Landing, provides public access to Lake Tarawera and includes lakeside facilities and The Landing cafe.
The issue has been bouncing around council, iwi and government agencies for years.
In 2017, the council backed the return of reserve land occupied by holiday park to the Pukeroa Oruawhata Trust, which represents the interests of Ngāti Whakaue.
In 2020, it also agreed to pass administration of Tarawera Landing to Tūhourangi Tribal Authority, as mana whenua for the Tarawera area.
The Crown-owned land is administered by the council under the Reserves Act. Efforts to progress the earlier decisions hit a roadblock when the Department of Conservation (DoC), representing the Crown, declined to support revoking the reserve status.
DoC has since proposed an approach that would allow the council to step aside as administering body while the reserves remain protected and open to the public.
On Wednesday, councillors voted near-unanimously to relinquish the council’s role as administering body for Tarawera Landing Reserve, with Robert Lee the sole vote against.
Lee said the council should make its own judgment on the proposals rather than simply endorsing decisions its predecessors made.
“We are not bound by Chadwick-era decisions,” Lee said, referring to former Rotorua Mayor Steve Chadwick.
Lee argued voters elected a largely new council in 2022 and that councillors had no obligation to implement decisions made by previous administrations.
“I think we need to take a deep breath here. There’s no hurry.”
He said ratepayers had elected councillors to carefully reconsider decisions made under previous councils rather than “rubber stamp” them.
He questioned the merit of losing council control over revenue-generating reserve assets and said he was unconvinced doing so would benefit ratepayers.
“I have no idea how these decisions would be in the best interests of the district,” Lee said.
“Of the iwi, yes, I can see that. But we cannot take money from the ratepayers’ pockets.”
Lee also questioned the rationale for transferring administration of the holiday park reserve, arguing the site was still being used for camping, which it was originally set aside for.
Lee faced multiple points of order from colleagues in the meeting, including Merepeka Raukawa-Tait’s accusation he was “waffling” through his questions.
On another occasion, after his line of questioning was challenged, Lee responded: “This is my time. This is a debating chamber, not a playground.”
Mayor Tania Tapsell said the reserves were Crown-owned and that the council’s role was limited to administering them.
She said assurances had been given that public access would continue under any future arrangements.
“I would like our council to honour the request of a landowner and also ensure the future benefits of mana whenua.”
Tapsell said the proposal would help support Tūhourangi aspirations to strengthen connections to Tarawera while maintaining public access to the reserve.
Staff advised any future move to remove recreation reserve status would require a formal revocation process, including public consultation.
“This decision is not taking money out of ratepayer pockets,” Tapsell said.
Councillor Trevor Maxwell said he has been in similar meetings “many moons ago” and that the council had previously committed to “find a pathway” to return the sites.
“We have got the information here, and I want us to do the same today,” he said.
Raukawa-Tait expressed frustration with attempts to revisit issues she said had already been debated extensively.
She noted the matter had effectively been under discussion for about 15 years and questioned what opponents feared would happen if administration changed hands.
“What is the downside?” she asked.
She said there was “nothing new” in the arguments being raised.
“Time to grow up, folks,” she said.
Councillor Te Rika Temara-Benfell said iwi had waited patiently for years for the issue to be resolved and urged colleagues to consider whether they wanted to support or hinder those aspirations.
He asked whether the council wanted to be “a positive enabler” of iwi aspirations or “an active barrier”.
“People have been waiting a long time and quite patiently for this land to be returned to its people in some capacity,” he said.
“These opportunities are critical to fostering a long, authentic, enduring relationship with our people.”
The decision cleared the way for administration of Tarawera Landing Reserve to pass to Tūhourangi Tribal Authority while maintaining the reserve’s protected status and public access.
Councillors took a different approach to the holiday park reserve after concerns were raised about whether the leaseholder, Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology, fully understood the latest proposal.
Tapsell moved to defer the matter until next month’s council meeting so councillors could hear from Toi Ohomai’s new board before making a decision.
She used her casting vote to break a 5-5 deadlock and push this through.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
