Kawerau school principal Ripeka Lessels says the town is suffering the highest levels of poverty she has seen in her lifetime. Lessels, who is founding principal of Te Whata Tau o Putauaki, spoke at a hearing of submissions for Kawerau District Council’s Annual Plan 2024-2025 on Wednesday. She praised the council for maintaining the town’s beauty, trees, waterways and free town pool.
In regard to the proposed 15.1 percent average rates rise, she asked the council to reconsider whether the rise was necessary. She pointed out that the two leading drivers for the increase were increased staffing costs and additional staff needed for governance support, engineering, policy planning, solid waste and finance administration.
“Are they absolutely necessary?” she asked. “I ask this question as a school principal who makes these decisions all the time. Are they necessary? Can I do it differently? Can I do it better? Do I have the money to do that? What gives way?” She said increasing rates on top of increases in costs of living would be “a double whammy for people already struggling”.
She had lived in the area since before the town was built in the 1950s. “We are suffering poverty at the highest rates I have ever seen in over 60 years. “I was a poor girl growing up.
We were poor. We didn’t have anything, but we were never poverty-stricken. We never had homelessness.
” She said she was aware, as vice-president of trade union New Zealand Educational Institute and d.