I run a wholesale business in Katikati, selling fashion and home decor products to retailers all over New Zealand. I came home from overseas for family reasons nine years ago, after working as a financial journalist/editor for Reuters, the international news agency.

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With a background of more than 30 years in journalism and management, I am a firm believer in transparency in local council matters. As a journalist, I have reported on councils in Auckland, Wellington, Hawkes Bay and Taranaki.
I also have a history of turning around problems in complex organisations.

 

These include working (as chief customer) to successfully deliver a global IT project after two multi-million dollar failures. I then headed up a team of 250+ journalists across three offices in Asia and Europe. 

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In both these cases, the message from above was “fix them or else” and I delivered – by empowering the teams to be their best.

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I am standing on a policy platform of requiring council to learn to live within its means and allocate its resources wisely, not just take a cost-plus approach and keep pushing rates higher and higher.

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If this sounds familiar, it is the same platform I stood on three years ago, when first elected to the Western Bay District Council. Some progress has been made by the current council team, but there is a lot more to be done to achieve these goals.

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The Western Bay is a beautiful area with strong communities and an enviable environment. I believes we must look after it, but we need to do so without imposing some of the highest rates in the land. 

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I am a father of three boys aged from 3 to 34 years. I live with Kay, toddler Ryan and Bosz the dog in Katikati.

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For more information about me, click here: www.linkedin.com/in/rodneyjoyce