A Māhia resident says he has been left "numb" by the publishing of his personal information in the local newspaper via a district council response.
Māhia is a town of about 1100, located in northern Hawke's Bay. Photo: LDR / Gisborne Herald/ Ben Cowper
On 2 August, the Wairoa Star published a letter from Jeff Slack demanding answers from Wairoa District Council on a "100 percent" increase to his rates.
In the letter, Slack said he was one of many residents who had bought in Māhia at a time when it was affordable, but he was now almost 70 and still having to work.
The situation went from bad to worse for Slack when the response came from the council, however.
In a reply published alongside the letter, Wairoa District Council chief executive Kitea Tipuna pointed out his rates had risen from $1611.90 to $2272.90, which was not a 100 percent increase.
Tipuna also included Slack's street name and number as part of the response, while adding the council had tried to reach out to him.
"Council staff have tried to contact you to respond to your queries and the calls went to voicemail," Tipuna wrote.
Slack was not satisfied with the response and doubly upset that his address and rates information have been made public.
"I'm not real happy about it - there are privacy laws. All I did was write a simple letter to the editor, inquiring why my rates had doubled," Slack told Local Democracy Reporting.
"I have no recourse with council or the Star … and I am numb."
On Thursday, the Wairoa Star ran a clarification saying the council had provided its response based on the information sent to it by the newspaper, which included Slack's address.
It apologised to Slack for not removing his address before sending the letter to council for response, as was its standard practice.
The council declined to comment further when contacted by Local Democracy Reporting.
In the letter, Slack also expressed frustration the council wouldn't tell him how much [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/470371/nz-company-taking-world-back-to-the-moon-and-beyond
space company Rocket Lab] was contributing in rates. He claimed the company's trucks were putting excessive pressure on the peninsula's already-strained roading network.
"No one will be going to the Moon or catching boosters, if they cannot get down to the launch site," he wrote.
A Rocket Lab launch set to go on the Māhia Peninsula. (File pic) Photo: Supplied / Rocket Lab
Tipuna's reply said Rocket Lab was a "significant ratepayer" within the Wairoa district, but did not disclose how much they pay, which Slack believed was a double standard.
"My rates details were published in detail, along with personal information, in a country where a Privacy Act supposedly protects me.
"And yet while the council shows everyone my rates, where were Rocket Lab's?"
Wairoa District Council conducted a district-wide rates review in 2020-2021 which resulted in a new rating system.
The new system introduces a general rate based on capital value.
Ten percent of the water, wastewater, stormwater and waste management rates were moved to the general rate alongside 50 percent of the uniform annual general charge.
Local Democracy Reporting is a public interest news service supported by RNZ, the News Publishers' Association and NZ On Air.
