Ngā kaikōmihana Commissioners

Brendan J Duffy ONZM, JP (Chair)

Brendan was appointed as a temporary member of the Commission in March 2017 and as a full member in June 2018.

He was Vice President of Local Government New Zealand for 3 years and chair of its Rural Provincial Sector for 6 years.

Brendan was first elected as a member of Horowhenua District Council in 1995 and served as Mayor of Horowhenua from 2004 to 2016.

Bonita Bigham - Ngaruahine, Te Atiawa

Bonita was appointed as a temporary member of the Commission in June 2021 and as a full member in July 2022.

Bonita was elected to the Taranaki Regional Council in 2022. She has previously been a member of the Taranaki Coastal Community Board (2019-2022) and a councillor at South Taranaki District Council (2010-2019).

She is also Co-chair of Te Maruata, Local Government New Zealand's national collective of Māori in governance rules in local government and Te Maruata's representative to LGNZ's National Council.

Bonita is also a member of the Lottery Oranga Marae Committee, the board of Creative New Zealand, and the Māori advisory committee to Taumata Arowai.

Sue Bidrose

Sue was appointed as a member of the Commission in July 2022.

Sue is also Chief Executive Officer of Crown Research Institute, AgResearch. Prior to taking on that role, she had been Chief Executive of the Dunedin City Council for seven years and had held other senior management roles at the Dunedin and Waitakere City Councils.

She has also worked in central government in a number of research, policy and operational roles.