Source: Taxpayers Union
22 JANUARY 2020FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Taxpayers’ Union is calling out what could charitably be described as an exaggeration by Rotorua Mayor Steve Chadwick in her comments on radio over summer that she had been “flooded with people saying it’s beautiful, and it’s lovely.”The monument is plagued by delays, poor engineering, and is currently fenced off to protect the public from the risk of collapse after a damning report by engineers who found the monument had not been build to spec, revealed by installers cutting off pieces to fit together the parts for installation.“Based on the feedback we’ve been receiving, we found the Mayor’s claim difficult to believe, so we asked under the official information laws to see the correspondence,” said Jordan Williams, the Union’s Rotorua Spokesman.“The only written communications that exist is a single email – just one – sent from Roger Steele, a former District Councillor and friend of the Mayor. The email was letting the Mayor know of a supportive letter he’d sent to the local newspaper.”“Steve Chadwick has been caught out. The only message of support was some trumped up letter written by a friend for the appearance that someone, somewhere, actually wants the monument. The best she could do was find a washed up former councillor who lives 400km away in Wellington. Interestingly, the email was sent a few minutes after she’d made the on-air claim.”“Honesty in politics matters. It’s time for the Council and Mayor to come clean and explain how they are going to fix the monument, make it safe, and how much more it’s going to cost.”The LGOIMA response is available here.
