News in brief
Tangi for candidate
Maxine Moana-Tuwhangai
Waikato Regional Council Ngā Hau E Whā constituency candidate Maxine Moana-Tuwhangai has died and her tangi was held at Kāwhia’s Mōkai Kāinga Marae last week. She was taken to Kaipāpaka urupā to lay with her whānau.
Moana-Tuwhangai was a certified environmental commissioner, fellow of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, a chartered member of the Institute of Directors and a volunteer on the Justices of the Peace community health desk in Ngāruawāhia. She was a Priory board member for Hato Hone St John, Raukura Hauora O Tainui and the Ruapuha Uekaha Hapu Trust – the original owners of the Waitomo Glow Worm Caves.
She was honoured by Queen Elizabeth II in 2018 with a New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to governance and Māori.
Moana-Tuwhangai was one of two candidates in the seat. Sitting member Tipa Mahuta now retains her seat.
Candidates meet
Peter Carr was the MC at one of the mayoral candidate meetings in 2022. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
The Cambridge Chamber of Commerce will host a meet the candidates forum in the Cambridge Town Hall next Thursday. The “conversation with the candidates” for chamber members will be moderated by The News columnist Peter Carr.
School wins
Cambridge High School won the Waikato Bay of Plenty School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa Readers’ Cup competition for the first time last week. The team of Blake Williams, Sylvie Keightley, Hannah Goodwin and Hunter Davis pipped St Peters School to the title in a field of 16.
Cambridge on form
Cambridge football club’s men’s team remains an outside chance to win promotion to the Northern League at its first attempt. If it beat Hamilton Wanderers on Saturday and Northern Rovers and Melville fail to win, the men will finish second on the table – and that is a promotion spot.
In the picture
Waipa photographers Angela Murray and Charly Baty were both finalists in the 2025 NZIPP Iris Awards – described as the country’s top photography awards. Murray was named a finalist in the professional family photographer category and Baty a finalist in the professional wedding creative photographer category. Being named a finalist means placing in the top three nationally in each category.
Group needed
Expressions of interest are now open for people wanting to join the new Community Reference Group as part of the reset Cambridge Connections – Moving Forward Together project. It will be complemented by an open community ideas forum for anyone to share ideas, question assumptions, and provide feedback on the project.
Rates late
Waikato District Council Ngaruawahia
Rates invoices will arrive a little later than usual in Waikato district ratepayers’ letterboxes and email inboxes this financial year. Invoices will arrive by September 8, with the first instalment due on 22 September.
RMA fines rise
Businesses that “interact” with the environment should be more vigilant in the wake of a ballooning of fines for offences, Waikato Regional Council compliance manager Patrick Lynch says.
He said the “very significant law change” puts a major focus on those who breach environmental regulation.
The changes to Resource Management Act include increasing the maximum penalties for offending.
A breach of the Act which could have resulted in a maximum fine of $600,000 against a company is now exposed to a fine of $10 million. Individuals who were liable to fines of up to $300,00 could now be fined as much as $1 million.
Despite those increases, courts rarely issue fines which are within viewing distance of the ceiling.
Among the other changes to the Act, the maximum jail term for breaching the Act is cut from two years to 18 months.
