Our northern most city, Whangārei, is a strange one when it comes to democracy - well a strange one to me as an outsider, but something is smelling a bit weird to me about it.
I know they have some really dedicated, lovely people working in their council and elected to their Council, like Nicholas Connop whose Tik Toks of his mission to clean green spaces and waterways and celebrate the natural beauty of the region are so awesome to see.
I also know it’s the only part of the country I came across where old white dudes were so angry at the sheer idea of Māori wards without a referendum that one quit their job as a regional councillor, joined forces with a racist ACT candidate and one of the people behind the Astroturf group “Policy Think Tank” - the New Zealand Centre For Political Research to start their own Website to promote candidates at the last local body election who also supported their stances on things like Māori wards - who also happened to endorse a bunch of candidates linked to VFF and Groundswell (including one Groundswell wanted nothing to do with)
To prove a point, they even ran founding member Robin Grieve in one of the Māori wards - and how could that possibly be seen as racist?
We also know that now Mayor of Whangārei, Vince Cocurullo bought the Democracy Northland Domain but claims he didn’t set up the site - simply purchased it on behalf of a client. A client who endorsed him for Mayor.
We also know that Democracy Northland has links to Voices for Freedom. Several of their posts around the time Stuff was doing work on outing their hidden candidates show they were also firmly in the camp that VFF were right to try and make Aotearoa Ungovernable because at least they’re encouraging democracy…
Now remember I mentioned this outfit had links to NZCPR, set up by a former ACT MP Muriel Newman? Well it turns out that NZCPR, has had a long time fan in a former Northland MP who spread their climate change denial commentary on his own social media channels - a backbencher named Matt King. The now head of Democracy NZ - a “Freedom” fuelled political party that is teaming up with the Freedom and Rights Coalition under their Freedoms NZ Banner.
I realise this is a complicated mess so far - I feel like Charlie Day… but there is more.
You see, Whangārei District Councillors were recently sent an anonymous letter from Voices For Freedom claiming VFF and Democracy NZ were responsible for their election and they were owed - at least owed honest and transparent governance but with more specific demands being sent to Mayor Vince Cocurullo. From an Anonymous letter, that’s pretty rich.
Now at the bottom of this letter is mention of the Whangārei Council Watch Group - another mystery organisation who do flyer drops spreading anti-3 Waters rhetoric.
These flyers recommend visiting their Better Whangārei Website - but I did so you don’t have to - this way you wont have an urge to burn our eyes out with acid. All of their anti-3 Waters content is sourced from “fair, balanced media” - like the NZCPR.
The other strange thing here is CW Group do own a domain registered to a Whangārei address. And it’s a business address.
In fact it’s the address of Donovan Construction - and here - after this long and winding road, is where I hit a bit of a wall.
You see, Donovan Group don’t appear in any of the financial returns of any candidates in the 2022 local body elections - publicly anyway. Donations may have been given privately but not declared under the business name. And I have not been able to find concrete links from Donovans to CW Group, Democracy Northland, Democracy NZ or VFF - just rumours of links.
So there’s a bunch of unanswerable questions for me here - like what were their demands of Vince Cocurullo - who understandably has been a bit busy with local issues relating to the severe weather event hitting the northern parts of the island.
Why would Donovan Group be behind the CW Group? The letter sent out was signed by both CW Group and VFF so there’s an obvious link there.
Why do CW Group and VFF feel they are owed any favours to begin with? That’s not open and honest governance after all, which they claim to want.
And why do I get the impression I’m dealing with the Spider-Man Meme in reality here?
Democracy is a fragile thing, and we know one group involved in this mess above has claimed they want to make our country ungovernable. This mess, its links to so many groups spreading problematic reckons and the weird dead end at Donovan Construction Group - there’s a missing link here somewhere that, I’m sure, leads back to the start somehow. Either way, no one group should feel they have the right to make demands of elected representatives in the shadow of anonymity - especially one that seems to have tendrils spreading like the Cordyceps from The Last of Us.
Great read Paul. Am about to head to Whangarei for a few days, I’ll see what the rellies say 👀
The VFF obviously haven’t employed a comms do realise that al council meetings have published agendas and are open to the public eh? And that the ‘bought media’ PIJF is what’s finding local democracy reporting in many publications. Why is it that the media is ‘bought’ but not the other businesses getting $$ from the public purse?