\u201cI don\u2019t want to sit here and listen to that,\u201d she said, telling her fellow councillors she was \u201ch\u014dh\u0101\u201d [annoyed] with Lee. <\/p>\n
She said the councillors were trying to \u201cbe positive\u201d and Lee did not have a \u201cmonopoly\u201d on community concerns. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s low-level questioning, and my expectation as a councillor of many years is that you would get a grip and actually do what is required.\u201d <\/p>\n
Mayor Tapsell then interjected, reminding councillors to remain on task. <\/p>\n
Lee attempted to ask the question again, at which point Tapsell ruled the question irrelevant and moved on to another councillor. <\/p>\n
Lee stood up, packed up his briefcase and walked out of the chambers. <\/p>\n
\u201cDisgraceful,\u201d he said, as he made his early exit.<\/p>\n
Speaking later, Lee told Local Democracy Reporting the meeting had become \u201cdysfunctional\u201d, and said he left because he felt he was being prevented from asking a question relevant to the presentation and important to the public\u2019s understanding.<\/p>\n
Rotorua Lakes Councillor Robert Lee at a June 2025 meeting. Photo \/ Laura Smith<\/p>\n
He described the episode as \u201cnasty politics\u201d and believed it was a \u201cpre-planned and orchestrated attack\u201d from the pair, accusing the mayor of using Raukawa-Tait as her \u201cattack dog\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs an elected member, I have a right to speak,\u201d Lee said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a privilege given to me by virtue of being elected. Chairs ought to respect that right, even if they don\u2019t personally agree with what I say.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lee said Raukawa-Tait had no right to interrupt him, as she had not called a point of order and accused her of a \u201cpersonal attack\u201d in her \u201cbreathless and rambling catharsis\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the councillor said, she is \u2018h\u014dh\u0101\u2019 with me,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what that means, but I\u2019m guessing she has a serious attitude problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also claimed the mayor had regularly \u201crun interference\u201d on his questioning over the past three years.<\/p>\n
Raukawa-Tait told Local Democracy Reporting that the idea that this was a pre-planned attack was \u201cabsolute rubbish\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow could you possibly pre-plan or orchestrate something because I don\u2019t know what his behaviour is going to be like at any given point,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s a silly comment to make and quite untrue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rotorua Lakes Council councillor Merepeka Raukawa-Tait. Photo \/ Andrew Warner<\/p>\n
She said an experienced councillor should never leave a meeting early out of frustration, noting Lee also left last week\u2019s Te Arawa 2050 Vision Committee meeting early, following another tit-for-tat between the pair. <\/p>\n
The two councillors have clashed since Raukawa-Tait returned to the council at last year\u2019s local elections, winning a M\u0101ori ward seat after a term away from the chambers. <\/p>\n
In November, she labelled Lee\u2019s views on the Te Arawa Vision committee as \u201cquite ignorant\u201d.<\/p>\n
Regarding this week\u2019s incident, she said she was ready to work \u201cconstructively\u201d with Lee but wanted the councillors to focus on their responsibility to the community. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere is so much work to be done, and I just can\u2019t afford to get down and dirty with Councillor Lee,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe work comes first, and that\u2019s my priority.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayor Tapsell called it \u201ccrazy\u201d that Lee had left a \u201cpositive and important\u201d meeting about the city\u2019s parks and recreation spaces. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no excuse for getting angry and walking out because you\u2019re being called out for your behaviour,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
She said Lee was not prevented from asking questions but asked to stay \u201crespectful and on topic\u201d.<\/p>\n
Tapsell strongly denied any suggestion of premeditation in her or Raukawa-Tait\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere has never been, and never will be, a \u2018co-ordinated attack\u2019 on any councillor under my watch,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Robert Lee (left) and Tania Tapsell (right) did not see eye to eye during their respective mayoral campaigns last year. Photo \/ Mathew Nash<\/p>\n
Tapsell said there was shared concern among some elected members about potentially \u201coffensive, irrelevant, or disruptive\u201d comments or questions from Lee in council meetings. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat is something we\u2019ve all tried to support him with improving, and he should seriously reflect on it,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhile he\u2019s wasting time making things up and throwing personal attacks, the rest of us are staying focused on what matters most, making Rotorua better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The council will meet again for an audit and risk committee meeting this afternoon. <\/p>\n
Mathew Nash is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based at the Rotorua Daily Post. He has previously written for SunLive, been a regular contributor to RNZ and was a football reporter in the UK for eight years.<\/p>\n
– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI don\u2019t want to sit here and listen to that,\u201d she said, telling her fellow councillors she was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[87543,534,89,1863,3019,51166,5205,38290,28428,15559,48338,29052,71,305,6657,10934,1329,63679,111,139,69,1118,3111,63680,3046,1327,213,6563,44160,56661,83884,33561],"class_list":{"0":"post-382999","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-accusations","9":"tag-amid","10":"tag-attack","11":"tag-back","12":"tag-clash","13":"tag-coordinated","14":"tag-council","15":"tag-councillor","16":"tag-denies","17":"tag-elected","18":"tag-fallout","19":"tag-fellow","20":"tag-from","21":"tag-have","22":"tag-lee","23":"tag-mayor","24":"tag-member","25":"tag-merepeka","26":"tag-new-zealand","27":"tag-newzealand","28":"tag-nz","29":"tag-of","30":"tag-out","31":"tag-raukawatait","32":"tag-robert","33":"tag-rotorua","34":"tag-sports","35":"tag-storms","36":"tag-tania","37":"tag-tapsell","38":"tag-walkout","39":"tag-workshop"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}