In the three months from March to May, the council received 61 requests for information under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act, compared to 32 for the same period last year.
This included 32 requests for information last month.
Waimakariri District Council chief executive Jeff Millward said the requests were adding to staff workload.
‘‘We are making sure we respond to them promptly, but it is causing quite a bit of work.’’
The requests covered a range of topics.
Councillors and council staff have also been kept busy with submissions and emails objecting to the inclusion of statements relating to the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the council’s 2023/24 annual plan.
Known as Agenda 2030, it was adopted by the UN’s 193 member nations, including New Zealand, in 2015.
It comprised 17 goals including eliminating poverty, and a focus on health and wellbeing, education, gender equality, clean water, an end to war and action on climate change.
Mr Millward said the sustainable development goals were ‘‘a set of aspirational statements’’.
‘‘It doesn’t drive our business. The inclusion in the annual plan shows how our business relates to it, such as our community wellbeings.’’
The council first included the statements in its 2021/31 Long Term Plan, receiving no objections at the time, he said, and it would be consulting on it again in next year’s 2024/34 Long Term Plan.
‘‘To the average Joe Bloggs those statements look good, but to some sections of the community they may feel it looks like we have outside influence.’’
Some submitters claimed the council had 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 UN.
International media organisation Reuters has several fact checks on its website related to Agenda 2030 conspiracies on social media.
A report two years ago revealed social media users were falsely suggesting the existence of Agenda 2030 was proof the Covid-19 pandemic was part of a conspiracy.
Another 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,’’ the report 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 was due to sign off its 2023/24 annual plan on Tuesday, June 20.
- By David Hill
Local Democracy Reporter
Public interest journalism funded through New Zealand on Air.
