Tania vs Rawiri

The Rotorua Daily Post reports:

Waititi said the removal of the homeless people was “callous attacks” on “vulnerable whānau”.

He said they were woken by police, trespassed like criminals and had their belongings “tipped out, broken, or hauled away like trash”, with some also arrested “for being distressed at the violent way they were being treated under cold, heartless council bylaws”.

He described it as “state-sanctioned cruelty”.

“These whānau are being pushed from footpath to footpath, not into homes. In the harsh winter weather, this kind of treatment is not just unacceptable, it is dangerous.”

He said homelessness was not a lifestyle choice but a failure of successive governments.

That’s wrong for a start. In most cities there are organisations that will take in rough sleepers no questions asked.

Tapsell responded to Waititi’s statement on his Facebook page, saying in her view his comments were “overdramatic”, “radical” and “lies”.

“If you bothered to be present in Rotorua, which you barely are, you’d know these people have been intimidating and threatening others, s***ting, taking and selling drugs, and having sexual intercourse all in the public’s view and causing significant distress to the innocent families (including very young tamariki), workers and tourists walking by.”

She told the Rotorua Daily Post the council had taken action to solve an issue “causing massive concern for our community”.

The behaviour of some in the homeless group was “crossing a line”.

I love Tania. Such a great Mayor who takes no crap.