Sophie McInnes, Selwyn District Councillor

17/09/2026

🗣 Maxine from The Press has been publishing a short video each day this week, demonstrating a few phrases in te reo Māori.

🫖 After yesterday's virtual pile-on, I reckon we might all need a kapu tī & kōrero right now.

⚖️ Councillors are elected to interrogate the information before them and make decisions on behalf of their communities. That's literally our job.

👥 We are all continuously gauging local feeling by engaging with residents and businesses, because there will never be sufficient time and resources to consult on everything.

🎓 We also undertake professional development, both internal training and with external providers, as appropriate.

🫱🏽‍🫲🏻 Pull it all together and that's why I'm confident that, in spite of yesterday's virtual pile-on, we made the right decision.

Noho ora mai, koutou; stay well everyone 💕

Learn how to ask if someone wants a coffee, and respond in turn.

16/09/2026

🎉 Something to celebrate, and how perfect to welcome our new representative for Te Taumutu Runanga during Te Wiki o te Reo Māori.

🤩 Puamiria Parata-Goodall brings a significant amount of mana and experience with her to our council table, and we're all looking forward to working with her more closely.

💕 It was also wonderful to see so many people attending in support not just from Ngāi Te Ruahikihiki, but also Environment Canterbury, Lincoln University, Te Puni Kōkiri, and Rolleston Residents Association .

14/09/2026

💚 Just look at this wee cutie!
🗳️ Vote kākāriki karaka for Bird of the Year!
https://www.birdoftheyear.org.nz/?bird=orange-fronted-parakeet

14/09/2026

🗣️ Te Wiki o te Reo Māori (Māori Language Week) is here!
💧 Check out this beautiful, illustrated glossary of blue-green infrastructure from Water NZ.

Celebrating Māori Language Week 14- 20 September 2025 ⭐️

Water New Zealand have produced a poster that explores the language of rivers, floodplains, flooding, and flood resilience through a te ao Māori lens - ‘Making Room for Water' 💧

👉🏼Download and print a poster: https://www.waternz.org.nz/Article?Action=View&Article_id=3612

13/09/2026

🎊 Did you come to CultureFest at Lincoln Event Centre today? What was your favourite part?

💃🏾 Dance
🎶 Music
🍜 Food
🤸🏼‍♂️ Play.something else?

Thanks to all who stopped by the Selwyn District Council stall for a chat too, great conversations and always good to meet more people 💕

11/09/2026

⁉️ Have you voted yet? 🦜

We've just seen the latest Bird of the Year numbers from Forest & Bird - this won't do! Let's start a surge for kākāriki karaka - if you've been meaning to vote, there's no better time than right now! 👑💚🧡💛

✅ birdoftheyear.org.nz

09/09/2026

📍 Do you know the reo Māori name of the places where you live, work and play? The name of your kids' school?

Here's a starter for 10: Tauwharekākaho (Rolleston)
🗣️ Toe-far-eh-car-ca-ho

Ko Rākaihautū te takata nāna i tīmata te ahi ki ruka i tēnei motu.
Rākaihautū was the man who lit the fires of occupation on this island.

08/09/2026

🏘 Great turnout to last night's Prebbleton Community Association meeting about developments in and around the village.

📑 Lydia Gliddon - Mayor of Selwyn did an excellent job explaining the processes by which different resource management decisions are made, and it is frustrating when some boil down to what is permitted under our District Plan, others are enabled by the government's medium density rules, and more recently the growing influence of fast-track consenting (which effectively by-passes council as well as community).

👍🏼 Thumbs up to Mark Peters - Councillor for Hornby Ward for providing an neighbour's view, and to the Wigram electorate candidates who came along to listen. Hopefully this discussion will be food for thought ahead of the PCA candidate night next month.