Editorial: Local govt overhaul

Regional councils have been under attack for a long time and there’ll be few tears shed about them losing some of their political power.

But let’s put these reforms in perspective. They are small in comparison to the ones in 1989 which saw massive amalgamations of local authorities – 850 down to 86 – and the creation of regional councils who suddenly found themselves being gifted catchment boards, ports, public transport, an array of quangos and many other bits and pieces.

Resource Management Act (RMA) Reform Minister Chris Bishop is right when he says the wider public don’t fully understand the role of regional councils, and this is partly because they deal with a lot of matters that don’t affect the average person daily.

But when there’s a major flood or when trains or buses break down, regional councils get noticed.

The focus on these reforms, which are linked to the RMA, seem to be about cutting the cost of local government by eliminating unnecessary regulation and bureaucracy, with the objective of reducing rates and accelerating business growth.

But there are concerns that environmental standards could drop. There’s a risk this may have a negative impact on NZ’s provenance of having an impeccable clean green image and affect our primary exports. This must not happen.

To some degree the success of the changes relies on the ability and competence of local mayors to manage larger entities.

Sadly, there are recent examples of some mayors who would fail in this regard and government ministers have openly criticised the leadership of certain councils. Their backstop of an all-powerful commissioner on the proposed Combined Territories Boards (CTBs) is not unreasonable in these circumstances.

There’s sure to be a lot of submissions on the proposals and it’ll be interesting to see what regional councils themselves have to say.

Will they try to defend the status quo or work with government to get the best possible outcome for their respective communities?