The Waimakariri District Council came under fire from a boisterous public gallery on Tuesday, as it adopted its 2023/24 annual plan.
An average rates rise of 6.24 percent was confirmed, but members of the public vented their frustrations at the inclusion of statements relating to the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (known as Agenda 2030) in the annual plan.
Mayor Dan Gordon repeatedly reminded the crowd to refrain from interjecting, even threatening to empty the public gallery.
The warning was enough for several of them to leave the chambers.
Chief executive Jeff Millward reminded councillors the sustainable development goals were ‘‘a set of aspirational statements’’ which were first included in the 2021/31 Long Term Plan with no objections.
The statements were simply linked to the council’s goals and could easily be removed without impacting the annual plan, he said.
Some submitters had claimed the council never consulted on the Agenda 2030 statements and questioned why the council was ‘‘adopting, implementing and promoting foreign policy of unelected and unaccountable bodies’’ like the United Nations.
They claimed Agenda 2030 was being used to take over assets like Three Waters and ‘‘to control our lives’’.
International media organisation Reuters has several Fact Checks on its website related to Agenda 2030 conspiracies on social media.
A Reuters report found Agenda 2030 did not have a stated goal to have people ‘‘own nothing and be happy’’ by 2030, as claimed by social media users.
‘‘The [Agenda 2030] framework outlines an aim to ensure all people have access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property,’’ it said.
Responding to social media claims earlier this year, Reuters said Agenda 2030 ‘‘lays out goals and targets for helping countries to achieve sustainable development, but contains no ‘laws’ of any kind’’.
The council will revisit the inclusion of the goals as part of next year’s 2024/34 Long Term Plan.
The majority of councillors supported the inclusion of the goals, including Cr Tim Fulton who said ‘‘value statements’’ were important.
But Cr Paul Williams said he did not recall them being discussed in 2021.
Cr Philip Redmond moved a motion to remove references to the goals, but he received no support.
Mr Gordon said he recalled the goals being discussed two years ago and noted there was no issue at the time.
‘‘I do appreciate there are views being expressed and people are welcome to that.’’
He said he was satisfied with the annual plan, given the pressures of a high inflation environment.
‘‘We are a growth district and we have got to invest in our infrastructure and we are doing that.’’
Cr Williams voted against adopting the annual plan as he believed there were some ‘‘efficiencies’’ which had not been considered.
But Cr Robbie Brine said savings in the greenspace budget were partly due to staff changes, which was ‘‘incredibly hard to predict’’.
He said the council had recently reviewed its procurement policy and he was satisfied with it.
The council had signalled a 5.97% average rates rise in its draft annual plan earlier this year.
But it was raised to 6.24% to find an extra $220,000 to keep up with the council’s roading maintenance budget.
- By David Hill
Local Democracy Reporter
Public interest journalism funded through New Zealand on Air
