Future wellington

The proposal for a Wellington Council by a panel lead by Sir Geoffrey Palmer, captures major concerns with regional functionality, while keeping full local representation at the local level", commented Regional councillor Paul Bruce. He also welcomed the Panel's view that Councils play an important role in facilitating programmes and assisting organisations that contribute directly to the wellbeing of their communities.

However, Cr Bruce said removing direct elections for the local mayor would be a backward step. Cr Bruce also suggested that a larger Council of 20 membership plus a Lord Mayor, would provide better representation of the diverse communities in the Wellington regions, than 11, as proposed by the Panel .

ENDS

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Arguably Reassuring: Inspector-General Finds GCSB "Arguably" Legal

Of the 88 individuals:

• 15 cases involving 22 individuals did not have any information intercepted by GCSB.

• another four cases involving five individuals were the subjects of a New Zealand Security Intelligence Service warrant and the GCSB assisted in the execution of the warrants. The Inspector-General is of the view that there were arguably no breaches and the law is unclear.

• the Bureau only provided technical assistance which did not involve interception of communications, involving three of the individuals, so no breach occurred.

• the remaining cases involved the collection of metadata, and the Inspector-General formed the view that there had arguably been no breach, noting once again that the law is unclear.
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