Steve Gibling

Steve Gibling is the Group Manager Leisure and Recreation at Te kaunihera o Waihopai Invercargill City Council. In this role Steve leads the Parks, Aquatic, Arts Culture and Heritage, Libraries and Venues and Events Services and also leads Council’s Health and Safety Committee.

Steve has over 20 years’ experience across local government, tertiary and not-for-profit management sectors which includes a wide range of operational and strategic experience. In his current role he also chairs the internal Te Reo ō Te Puni staff roopu which developed Te Kaunihera ō Waihōpai Invercargill City Council’s first E Tipu Te Waerenga Māori Language Plan.

The roopu were tasked with identifying, assessing and then implementing a broad range of Te Reo and Tikanga practices with in the services, to celebrate, acknowledge and work together with our Treaty partners. This work included the development of an in-house survey designed to gauge readiness and willingness to engage which helped shape the approach and inform the decision making for the ELT.

He also led Councils role in the establishment of the operating partnership between Te Tapu o Tāne and the Invercargill City Council – a collaborative partnership between the four runaka of Murihiku Southland and Council to create an Iwi led nursery that has to date grown nearly 1 million native trees within its first year of operation.