If you can see a river from your place, you know the deal. The next storm isn't a matter of if. It's when. I spent six years on the Regional Council and chaired the Eastern Bay river scheme committees for three of them. Now the council's being wound up and the deck rearranged. Someone has to make sure the Eastern Bay comes out of it with its defences funded and our share of what we built.
An open letter · Whakatāne Beacon
Sitting councillors from the Whakatāne and Ōpōtiki district councils, people who have sat across the table from me for six years, have publicly endorsed me in this by-election.
As it ran in the Whakatāne Beacon. Tap to read it full size.
"We put our name to this as individuals. Our councils have not adopted a position on this election."
I would rather talk with you face to face than at you online. Here is where to find me. More dates coming as they are confirmed.
Kia ora, my name is Toi. I live in Ruatoki, and I spent six years on the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, two terms, through to the end of last year.
For three of those years I chaired the Eastern Bay river scheme committees. That's the nuts and bolts of protecting our towns. The stopbanks, the pumps, the floodgates, the dredging, the maintenance schedules, and balancing the books. It isn't glamorous work. It's the work that keeps water out of your house.
Outside the chamber I build things that bring people together. Markets, festivals and events in Whakatāne that pull in thousands every month.
I'm not standing because I love meetings. Nobody loves meetings. I've survived six years of them and I can confirm. I'm standing because the Eastern Bay needs someone at the table who knows the machinery, who can work with anyone, and who isn't afraid of a scrap when our towns and our money are on the line.
"It might be called the Port of Tauranga, but make no mistake, it's our port too."
Toi ItiFour of the region's five flood schemes are in the Eastern Bay, along with most of its 400 kilometres of stopbanks. Here's the part most people don't know: scheme communities like ours paid for 80 percent of those defences ourselves, through targeted rates on our own properties. Nobody gifted us that protection. We built it and we're still paying it off. Cyclone Debbie was supposed to be a hundred-year storm. That was 2017. When the next one comes, the knowledge of how these schemes actually work had better not be locked in the shed.
The region has a cash cow called Quayside. Three billion dollars, built up from the port since 1989. It pays out $48 million a year, which takes about $400 off every household's rates. Yours included. There are people sniffing around right now who see a restructure as their chance to get hold of it. When the rustlers come, they won't be wearing camo polar fleece. They'll be wearing lanyards. If nobody stands up for the Eastern Bay in this shake-up, we won't just lose a council. We could lose the savings too, and your rates bill will show it. I'm not letting that happen without a scrap.
Let's be clear: regional councils are dead meat. Amalgamation is coming whether we like it or not. Eastern Bay unitary or Bay of Plenty unitary, who knows. My stance? We can do it ourselves. But there's no telling with this lot in Wellington. Blue, red or purple. What matters is what the Eastern Bay walks out with: our defences funded, our work plan prioritised, and our share of what we built. The work of protecting our homes doesn't stop while the politicians redraw the maps. Someone has to be in the room making sure we don't get done over. That's the job.
Two terms on Toi Moana Bay of Plenty Regional Council, 2019 to 2025. Some of what that looked like.
Rangitāiki-Tarawera, Whakatāne-Tauranga and Waioweka-Ōtara. Plenty of farmers sat around those tables. We didn't agree on everything, but I had their respect for the way I ran the room, and the work kept moving.
I chaired the Ōhiwa Harbour group while a restoration effort took the mussel beds from around 80,000 to a reported 45 million. Iwi and scientists working side by side, and it delivered. Not a report about mussels. Actual mussels.
Our communities spent two years telling the council what they wanted for their rivers. Then Wellington changed the law and put the whole plan on ice. I fought to get people who live on these rivers into that conversation, because they know them best. That work must not be wasted.
You need to be enrolled at an Eastern Bay address. Check or update at vote.nz. If you miss the roll, you can still cast a special vote.
Voting packs are posted from Monday 24 August 2026. Your ballot paper comes to you. This is a postal vote, there are no polling booths on the day.
Voting closes 12 noon, Friday 25 September 2026. Post at least a week before, or drop your vote at a council ballot box. Details at boprc.govt.nz.
This campaign runs on whānau, friends and neighbours. If you can give an hour, it counts.
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Please include your name and a contact with your transfer. Electoral law requires me to declare any donation over $1,500 in my return of electoral expenses, and I cannot keep anonymous donations over that amount. Every bit of support counts, thank you.
