Surprised farm-lobby councillors failed to prevent the cutting of the representative at this week’s first meeting of the new Taranaki Regional Council (TRC), but the role may yet be reassessed.

The removal of the Federated Farmers representative from the Operations and Regulatory Committee was included in papers at the elected members’ induction a fortnight ago – but councillors objecting at Tuesday’s ‘triennial’ meeting hadn’t noticed.

The meeting also confirmed three mana whenua representatives for the committee and another three for the powerful Policy and Planning Committee, as required by Treaty Settlement laws.

The Operations and Regulatory Committee oversees resource consents, compliance monitoring, pollution incidents, biosecurity monitoring and enforcement.

The committee decides how TRC will manage rivers, land and biodiversity.

Degraded waterways are the main battleground at the region’s official environmental watchdog, with many communities expressing impatience for improvement, while farmers are concerned with the costs.

The Federated Farmers representative has been on the Operations and Regulatory Committee for three decades and Councillor Neil Walker wanted them reinstated to maintain rural confidence.

The tenth-term councillor said TRC was unique in not fighting farmers.

“A lot of the conflict that might exist – because someone is prosecuted or something – they do know that a farming representative is there.”

“I think that other councils seem to have a situation where they are apparently in conflict with farmers and so forth," Walker said.

"We've never had that kind of thing.”

Councillor Donna Cram – formerly on Taranaki Federated Farmers’ executive and Fonterra’s 2023 Dairy Woman of the Year – pleaded three times she hadn’t noticed the removal.

She too wanted Federated Farmers back at the table.

“We're probably ahead of the other ten councils because we have got [that representation].”

“So, we're the only ones with it, but we are successful and other councils look to us because of that.”

Council chair Craig Williamson confirmed only Taranaki had Federated Farmers sitting on a committee overseeing waterways and pollution punishments.

Williamson was surprised no objections were raised at the induction.

"That was a good time to talk about it and get a better understanding of the whys," he said.

“Suddenly we're bringing it up in this meeting."

Councillor Bonita Bigham took the deputy chair from Walker, who held it last term.

She questioned why an agriculture representative must come from Federated Farmers.

“PkW is the biggest farming operator in the rohe. Could they be considered to come and sit in that space instead?’

Parininihi ki Waitotara oversees reserve lands owned by mana whenua but farmed under 326 perpetually-renewable leases, mostly by non-Māori.

PkW itself also runs extensive dairying operations.

Councillor Tom Cloke suggested the Feds could be on call as advisors when needed.

“They remain on Policy [and Planning] and that's where I think they really should fit.”

TRC chief executive Steve Ruru promised a paper on committee options, satisfying the farm-lobby so the new committee structure passed unanimously.

At the start of the meeting, fellow councillors unanimously elected Williamson to his first full term in the chair.

Bigham was also unanimously elected his deputy despite her TRC Māori constituency being doomed after this term, voted down in the referendum at October’s election.

The council was bound to accept iwi appointments for the two top committees as put forward through the mana whenua regional body Te Tōpuni Ngārahu.

Legally the iwi reps are at the table under the Treaty Settlements of Te Ātiawa, Taranaki and Ngāruahine – but in effect they’ve also become waka representatives for Aotea tribes in the south, Kurahaupo around the western cape and Tokomaru in the north.

“When the Mountain puts out the call, all the iwi respond,” said Bigham.

The Policy and Planning Committee iwi representatives are Tuhi-Ao Bailey, Dion Luke and Mitchell Ritai.

For Operations and Regulatory they are Richard Buttimore, Alison Cole and Shi-Han Ngarewa.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.