In February 2019, the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) initiated an investigation relating to a series of referrals from the United States-based National Centre of Missing and Exploited Children. More than 40 referrals were linked to Abraham and the investigation identified he had used 28 email accounts to create 43 online accounts on platforms including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Google.
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Abraham was sentenced in New Plymouth District Court on Tuesday. On August 8, 2019, a search warrant was executed by DIA inspectors at two residential locations utilised by Abraham and the laptop and phone was seized. Abraham either possessed or shared 270 images of objectionable content.
Councillors at a formal WDC meeting on Tuesday morning unanimously voted against Government plans to amalgamate its three waters provision into a single entity across at least Northland – likely carving off the council provision of drinking, waste and stormwater into a new non-council entity in doing so.
Tania Whyte/Northern Advocate
Whangārei District Council s newest piece of three waters (drinking water, storm water and wastewater) infrastructure is its new $29 million Whau Valley water treatment plant. Generations of Whangārei residents have paid towards the district’s $634 million three waters infrastructure, which now has a $1.3 billion replacement value. “In the absence of information that shows our ratepayers will be better off by opting in, I do believe opting out is a better course of action,” Mai said.
Whangārei council opting out of Three Waters reform rnz.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from rnz.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
In 2018, amid controversy over the failed merger of Pocket 8 Ball Club with the The Olde Establishment and the Putaruru District Services Memorial Club, then environmental health manager John Anderson advised the council not to conduct such an assessment. Councillors were told it could cost as much as $40,000 and that the special consultative procedure (SCP) carried out, sufficed. Based on the advice, most councillors voted in favour of conducting an in-house desktop study of data provided by the DIA instead. That was despite councillor Arama Ngāpō, who is now serving her second term on the council, raising concerns over whether an in-house study would be “unbiased”. By 2020 an internal review of the DIA’s handling of the failed merger came to reveal years of systematic failures and legal information being withheld from ministerial briefings.
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Independence governance expert Bruce Robertson, left, and independent evaluator Richard Thomson before presenting to an Invercargill City Council meeting in 2020. [File photo]. The council now intends for Thomson to put together a six-month review looking at what progress has been made. Thomson said he had opted not to comment externally on the review and that extended to not responding to Shadbolt’s latest comments. The initial report by Thomson pointed to a leadership void at the council because he said Shadbolt struggled to fulfill significant parts of his role. Despite the council unanimously adopting the findings Shadbolt later rubbished Thomson s report.