by Eva Churchman

Yesterday, Geoffrey and I went to see this for the first time since reopening after having been closed since 19 March 2019 because the council was worried about earthquake risk. After 7 years it has been significantly altered inside from what it used to be, so much that you almost think you’re in a different building.

The first reaction we had was ‘where the Stuff are the books’? The Paraparaumu library has more than the Wellington central library now, as least from our tour of inspection.

It seems that old fashioned paper is out of favour; instead the Wellington city council crows about things like:

• Te Whaitua Mārū: A dedicated low-sensory space designed for neurodivergent visitors or anyone needing a quiet break.

• Nōku te Ao Capital E: A dedicated children’s play, learning, and discovery hub featuring a taniwha slide and permanent creative installations.

• Permanent Youth Space: A large, uninterrupted zone designed specifically for rangatahi (youth) to hang out and collaborate.

• Central Ground Café: A cashless, fully electric café on the ground floor [first photo above: we tried a capuccino, which was nice but $6 for a small cup]

As you would expect nowadays, displays of Wokeism are all over the place, starting with the name — it’s now officially known as Te Matapihi ki te Ao Nui which seems to mean ‘the window to the big cloud.’ The second photo shows a big room dedicated to leaves (native only of course) with an assembled folder called Rau = leaf, frond and whārangi = page, sheet, leaf (of a book).

Well, if that’s what appeals to the population, although we wonder how much people were asked. It’s a real shame, however, that old fashioned books have been relegated to secondary consideration.

Waikanae Watch long term readers will remember that in 2019 KCDC decided to cut Kapiti libraries’ book budget in half. In response Roger Childs together with the late Christopher Ruthe and the late Alan Tristram teamed up to form a pressure group called Restore our Book Budget or ROBB which succeeded in doing just that.

We hope the new Waikanae library will have lots of books!

Pfizer gave over 13,000 women disabling brain tumors with their birth control injections used by 25% of women.

A MASSIVE study of 61 million women found Depo-Provera shots increases risk of meningioma by 143%.

Criminal enterprise Pfizer now faces a TSUNAMI of lawsuits. https://t.co/39uEjkAyEl pic.twitter.com/j3IRwyocDE

— Nicolas Hulscher, MPH (@NicHulscher) May 28, 2026

the one who has allowed literally hundreds of thousands of unvetted Third World military aged men in (watch crime rates soar) and now…

Elite hypocrisy in real time…

Bill Gates awarded Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez the 2025 Global Goalkeeper Award for ‘Saving the World’

Yesterday: Civil Guard raided PSOE HQ over corruption and illegal financing

Virtue signal globally…and then you get raided at home pic.twitter.com/UhUY2EO72L

— Liz Churchill (@liz_churchill10) May 28, 2026

from the Radio NZ site

The direct Paraparaumu to Auckland service is at “significant risk” if the loan goes into default. 

Airline chief executive Duane Emeny said the loan would be repaid and asked for a 10-business day extension to work out a payment plan, but warned there was “a significant risk” to the direct Paraparaumu to Auckland service if the council chose to declare the loan in default.

The council agreed to the interest‑free loan in November 2020, during the Covid‑19 pandemic, to help the airline restart flight operations. It came on top of a separate $20,000 Covid‑19 support grant.

A proactively released response to a Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA) request in late 2025 said the council agreed to extend the original repayment date of November 22, 2025 to May 2026. In response to a separate LGOIMA request earlier this month, the council said the repayment date was “end May 2026”.

“Air Chathams’ argument is that we’ve continued to provide an air service for five years through the most challenging times in regional aviation, and the money that we’ve lost in doing that is significantly more than the money that you’re owed,” Emeny told Local Democracy Reporting on Wednesday.

“That’s your decision as a council to make and, if that’s the case, then we’ll work through it. But what I would say is there’s a significant risk to the air service continuing if they choose that path.”

Continue reading

We have followed this sorry saga for the last 6 years and have to say it’s the issue — among several contenders — on which KCDC has been the most secretive. —Eds

We’ve been waiting far too long for this.

“Things that are normal in America but legal in Russia”

“#1: Synthetic Vaccines”

“#2: In Russia it’s illegal to sell genetically modified food” pic.twitter.com/4QLV3dE9UH

— healthbot (@thehealthb0t) May 28, 2026

Thursday’s budget delivers for our region:

• Funding for new health initiatives
  • local Kapiti cancer clinic
  • expanding bowel cancer screening even further than last year, now additionally to 56 and 57 year olds
  • increased elective surgery appointments
  • speeding up waitlists for ED, first cancer and specialist appointments
  • funding new medications through increases to Pharmac
  • funding 3-day post-natal stays for new mums, and
  • new specialist paediatric palliative care.
• Investing in local Kapiti and Mana schools
  • PLD for every high school teacher over five days
  • more investment in structured literacy and numeracy including another round of new Learning Support Coordinators in January,
  • 50% increase to all future property budgets
  • increasing the ops grant (operating budget) that every school gets.
  • This is all so our children can achieve their very best at school.

Treasury projections show our budget will create 220,000 new jobs, the amount you earn will go up faster than prices will, with better growth for the next three years than Australia, UK, Canada, the EU and Japan.

Importantly, from 2028/29 we will be back in surplus (first time in a decade), which means that we’ll be spending less than we earn so we can start to pay down Labour’s debt!

My focus, and that of National, is delivering for every family in our region, so life becomes more affordable, you can get faster healthcare closer to home, your children and grandchildren get the best education, and you live in a safe and vibrant community. I’ll expand on the budget more over the coming weeks – follow on my Facebook page.

Better Regional Boundaries

My bill to make it easier for people to access help from Government agencies like hospitals, ambulances, Police, MSD, Kainga Ora, and many more has passed first reading. The current messy web of overlapping boundaries means people in Ōtaki have to go between various offices in Levin, Ōtaki, Paraparaumu and Porirua. My bill will mean they can go to one place for all their help.

Submissions are currently open, and I’m encouraging everyone to make a submission, sharing your story, your frustrations, or even just simply saying “sounds like a sensible idea.”

You can make submissions here.

FENZ Inquiry and Skytower Climb

My Parliamentary Inquiry into Fire and Emergency continues, and I’ve had fantastic feedback from firefighters and communities right across New Zealand. The feedback I hear is that I’ve found a serious issue, I’m representing our community well, and they want me to continue to go further after the election once this work focussed on fleet (vehicles) is finished in another couple of months. I will continue to represent all our first responders and service personnel.

Watch this clip where I challenge the Board chair on what they have been doing.

I also spent the weekend with our volunteer and career firefighters in Auckland climbing the Skytower. We raised $2.5m for Blood Cancer NZ which is a charity close to my heart. You can see the highlights here.

Medallic Recognition for our first-responders

My next Member’s Bill was also drawn out. It institutes a medal to recognise the service of Kiwis in times of crisis. This includes humanitarian aid, disaster relief, and states of emergency at home, in the Pacific, and around the world. I want to recognise the service of our first responders, military, search and rescue volunteers, and other personnel who deploy in times of need.

[Watch this AI-generated concept of the medal being presented]

Over-60s morning tea with Catherine Wedd

Join us on June 5th, 10am. NEW VENUE: PLIMMERTON CHURCH HALL, still with morning tea and a chance to speak with, and hear from, special guest Catherine Wedd, MP for Tukituki. These are always popular events, and we’d love you to join us (even if you’re under-60!). RSVP helps with catering numbers: email Lorraine pollockl@outlook.com.

You can also save these dates:

• July 3rd, 10am Paulo Garcia, MP for Grey Lynn Coast Community Church, Paraparaumu
• August 7th, 10am  Sam Uffindell, MP for TaurangaWhitby Bowling Club
• September 4th, 10amStuart Smith, MP for KaikōuraVenue tbc

That’s it for this month.

That was what Tim Costley told us in 2020 about Jacinda’s PM and Cabinet Department, and we’ve learned that with KCDC too — however, with the highly secretive KCDC it will instead get you responses like, “it’s commercially sensitive”, “the records don’t exist”, “it will take us too long”, “we must preserve privacy” and other excuses, so it’s a letter of complaint to the Ombudsman.

In America (where it’s called Freedom of Information Act) they have the same problem.

from muckrock.com

FOIA request denied? Here’s how to fix it.

Did your latest public records request hit a brick wall? You aren’t alone. Even the most seasoned journalists and public records requestors run into bureaucratic roadblocks. But a denial doesn’t have to be the end of the road. Our latest guide breaks down the most common reasons FOIA requests fail and share some tweaks you can use that might salvage them.

Read the rest