Online: Community Wellbeing Forum: A Partnership Approach 

As a mother, and a constituent MP with 20 plus years’ experience who has come from ‘flax-root’ politics, Hon Nanaia Mahuta remains connected to the aspirations of people from all walks of life. Those who work hard for a living so that their children can do better, kaumatua, trades-people, those who aspire to own their home, those who own small businesses and those who lead a range of services and organisations and huge iwi entities

During her time in Parliament, Hon Nanaia Mahuta supported policies and initiatives that built the capacity of communities, especially social service organisations, greater investment in education, employment and training opportunities particularly for young people, supported the continuation of the Treaty Settlement process and supported specific initiatives that lift the wellbeing and opportunities for young mums and those who are vulnerable and victims of abuse.

Hon Nanaia Mahuta is a tribal member of Waikato-Tainui, Ngāti Maniapoto and Ngāti Manu and her parliamentary experience has enabled her to contribute to the collective aspirations of Māori and all New Zealanders. She has an MA (Hons) in social anthropology.

Hon Nanaia Mahuta today holds the portfolios of Foreign Affairs, Local Government and Associate Māori Development. .

She was previously a cabinet minister in the Fifth Labour Government, serving then as Minister of Customs, Minister of Local Government, Minister of Youth Development, Associate Minister for the Environment, and Associate Minister of Tourism.

Karen has been our Chief Executive since September 2011 and has responsibility for fulfilling Taituarā vision to promote and support professional excellence in local government. Over this time she has introduced leadership development for the sector, grown the membership and ensured that guidance and practice advice is updated regularly. Karen has established extensive local government networks overseas and regularly utilises these contacts to the benefit of the New Zealand local government sector.

Karen’s previous roles have included Chief Executive at the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners and Regional Assistant Commissioner at the State Services Commission where she led the development of the proposal to establish the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG), a world-leading educational institution.

Karen is a Chartered Member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors. She has been on several boards including Refugee Trauma Recovery, AFS Intercultural Programmes where she was the Deputy Chair and she chaired Capital Swim Club Board for four years. She is a Swimming NZ qualified referee, and her other interests include reading and genealogy research.

Jim Palmer chaired the panel that undertook a two-year review into the Future for Local Government, which delivered its report in June 2023. In 2021, he retired as chief executive of Waimakariri District Council after 17 years. Currently, Mr Palmer is the independent chair of the Greater Christchurch Partnership. He is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, with experience as an audit director for Audit New Zealand and the Audit Office. Mr Palmer’s governance experience includes Chair of Riskpool, Chair of the Kaikōura Earthquake Recovery Steering Group and Chair of the Canterbury Chief Executives Forum.

An expert in economic development, strategy and stakeholder relationships Harvey Brookes is helping the Waikato work towards targets for a greener, healthier region with higher living standards for all.

Harvey Brookes is the executive director of the Waikato Wellbeing Project, a regional initiative to achieve a more environmentally sustainable, prosperous and inclusive Waikato by 2030.

The project has 10 specific targets, based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and developed for the Waikato region through workshops with hundreds of local leaders and experts last year.

Mr Brookes said the Waikato Wellbeing Project was a fantastic opportunity to unleash the awesome potential and power of the Waikato and its people, and “accelerate the journey towards our ambitious wellbeing goals”.

Ana Mules has a background in arts & science. Past roles include Senior Researcher/ Director/Scriptwriter for Television New Zealand, Communications for Greenpeace/Department of Conservation, Concept Developer for the Otago Museum, NZ King Salmon Hatchery Technician and Project Manager for the Canadian High Commission. Born and breed in the Hokianga, Ana has recently returned to her Northern roots bringing a kete full of curiosity, creativity, energy & enthusiasm to her Community Development role at the Far North District Council.

Ko Ngāi te Rangi, Ko Ngā Pōtiki, Ko Ngāti Ranginui, Ko Ngāti Maniapoto ngā iwi

Jodie has worked across a District Health Board, Crown Entity, Kaupapa Māori Research Unit, Charitable Trusts, both Local and Central Government and has operated her own research consultancy while raising her children. Her background lies in community psychology, research and evaluation, project management, and partnership brokerage. Jodie is passionate about equity and ensuring programmes and outcomes are evidence based and designed to reach the right people. You will usually find her scoping new ideas, facilitating discussions, holding the whiteboard pen, planning, and turning most things into diagrams to simplify the complexity.

Gareth is the Chief Executive at Taupō District Council, a position that he has held since 2017. An environmental planner by background, Gareth is passionate about building relationships, peacemaking and localism, and has been fortunate to have been supported by an amazing team to be able to bring some of these concepts to life. Gareth grew up in Turangi, and so being part of negotiating a new future for the town based on genuine partnerships has been a personal journey as much as a professional one.

Nikki has a diverse background spanning across banking & finance, the ambulance sector as a Paramedic, the DHB and PHO sectors and most recently the Ministry of Health leading the Primary Care team. She has now stepped into the world of health system reforms as Co-Director for the National Localities Team working across interim Māori Health Authority and Health NZ entities.

Nikki is passionate about the new kaupapa of establishing localities across the health system to help plan and organise primary and community care services. She believes this will be a great opportunity for iwi to exert mana motuhake and amplify whānau voice. It will also provide a platform for the health system to strengthen relationships with the likes of local government to drive community needs and aspirations.

Dr Penny Hagen assists organisations and teams to apply participatory and developmental approaches to the design, implementation, and iteration of strategy, programs, policies and services, for the purposes of advancing equity and intergenerational wellbeing. Penny has supported cross sector teams and communities in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand responding to complex social issues including youth employment, youth mental health and wellbeing, chronic health conditions and family violence. Penny’s work sits at the intersection of design, wellbeing and systems change and she is a keen advocate for growing participatory social innovation practices that are of Aotearoa. Penny is currently the Director of The Auckland Co-design Lab (The Lab), which prototypes, shares and experiments with what more participatory and collaborative ways of working in the public sector looks like. Current areas of focus for The Lab include systems approaches to wellbeing, the role of central and local government as a platform, learning partner and enabler for place and community-led responses, and commissioning and investment for wellbeing capacity and conditions.

Rachel has worked across the NGO and charity sector for the last twelve years.

Her background has involved working in national and international charities, specialising in strategic development, training, facilitation, governance, people management and collaboration. Having witnessed the good, bad and ugly of all of the above gives her a unique perspective in her role at WDC.

Rachel began her role at WDC directly post 2020 lockdown. Social recovery being her key focus, she is supporting the community in a number of key district wide projects that are significant in the journey toward an empowered future for the Waimakariri District.

Ko Hikurangi te Maunga
Ko Waiapu te Awa
Ko Ngāti Porou te Iwi

Angie Tangaere was born in Papakura and raised in South Auckland with a whakapapa to Ngāti Porou on her father’s side and Pākeha from Taranaki on her mother’s side. Graduating with a law degree Angie was keen to work at a community level and took up a role at Te Puni Kōkiri working with iwi and Māori trusts in South Auckland. Angie then worked with the Ministry of Social Development in South Auckland communities looking for ways to develop better services and engagement with communities and whānau, as well as with Māori health NGO, the National Hauora coalition. She has a Masters in Māori and Indigenous Leadership at University of Canterbury Aotearoa New Zealand and is currently Kaitohu Tangata Whenua, Auckland Co-design Lab where she combines her experience with government agencies, community and whānau to develop and co-design whānau-led innovation initiatives, disrupting ineffective ‘business as usual’ systems.