Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta has launched a review of local government, which will probe what local government does, how it does it, and how it pays for it.
Here's Mahuta's announcement.
Independent review to explore future for local government
Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta says an independent review of local government will explore how councils can maintain and improve the wellbeing of New Zealanders in the communities they serve long into the future.
Announcing the review today Nanaia Mahuta says it will focus on how our system of local democracy needs to evolve over the next 30 years.
“Local government plays an important role in our democratic system, giving people a voice in the leadership of their communities and in the governance of services and publicly owned assets.
“Local councils are essential to maintaining and improving our wellbeing and we need to get the right settings for them to continue delivering their important mahi.
“They are now facing a wave of reforms that will significantly affect their traditional roles and functions. They have told us the timing is right to determine what our system of local democracy should look like to make sure it is fit for the future, and I agree.
“This also offers an important opportunity to explore how we can embody the Treaty partnership through the role and representation of iwi/Māori in local government.
“I have asked the review panel to consider what local government does, how it does it, and how it pays for it. From there, they will explore what local government’s future looks like, including:
- roles, functions and partnerships
- representation and governance
- funding and financing.
“I am expecting them to report back to me on their findings in April 2023,” Nanaia Mahuta says.
Cabinet has confirmed Jim Palmer as Chair of the review panel, who will be joined by four members: John Ombler QSO, Antoine Coffin, Gael Surgenor and Penny Hulse.
“I am confident the Review’s panel members have the right mix of professional and cultural backgrounds. They bring a wealth of complementary specialist skills and experience to deliver this important work,” Nanaia Mahuta says.
The panel members will be engaging with a broad range of stakeholders including iwi/Māori, other stakeholders impacted by changes in local government, the public including diverse communities, and local and central government representatives.
The Review will start engaging with the sector from May 2021. It will issue an interim report on the probable direction of the Review in September 2021. This will be followed by a draft report for public consultation in September 2022, and a final report in April 2023.
The Terms of Reference can be found on the DIA website here.
Bios of the chair and panel members for the Review
Chair
• Jim Palmer, recently retired as the Chief Executive of the Waimakariri District Council. Mr Palmer has leadership roles in the Greater Christchurch Partnership and the Canterbury Interim Regional Skills Leadership Group. Mr Palmer has had a wide range of prior governance experience on various groups including Co-chair of Canterbury Covid Recovery Oversight Group and Chair of the Canterbury Chief Executives Forum.
Panel members
• John Ombler, QSO, has been a senior public servant who has held a wide range of leadership roles, most recently as Deputy State Services Commissioner, Controller of the All-of-Government COVID-19 response and Deputy Chief Executive of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. He was also the Acting CEO of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (2014 to 2016), and held General Manager and Conservator roles at the Department of Conservation (1989-2007).
• Antoine Coffin, a director/consultant at Te Onewa Consultants, which works with private and public sector clients in strategic planning, RMA decision-making, infrastructure and building relationships with tangata whenua. Mr Coffin has 25 years’ experience in Māori resource management, cultural heritage planning, community engagement and facilitation, and has worked across multiple sectors in regional and local government, corporate organisations and museums.
• Gael Surgenor, General Manager of Community and Social Innovation at Auckland Council (including leading the Southern Initiative, a place-based approach to wellbeing) and a member of the South Auckland Social Wellbeing Board and Chair of the Auckland Co-Design Lab Governance Group Collaboration of Auckland Council and ten government agencies.
• Penny Hulse, currently a board member of Kainga Ora, Auckland Museum and Aktive (regional sport body), as well as a trustee of the Community Waitakere Trust. Ms Hulse was the Deputy Mayor of Auckland Council (2010 to 2016) and retired as a Councillor in 2019 after a 27-year period in roles for Waitakere City Council and Auckland Council.
24 Comments
Isn't Jacinda a socialist/communist? Therefore centralization makes sense. I think Labour is trying to pass legislation to make it a crime to call a Pinko a Pinko - got to get your digs in while you still can my bros.
Also councils do suck, HOWEVER.. Labour (under Clark) did expand their purview beyond providing basic services. Rates need to increase dramatically to cover decades of wastefully spending. No new abstract art till the pipes stop leaking..
Do I hear an AMEN ??
There is absolutely no contradiction between those 2 descriptions.
Yes there is. For ex, Jose Mujia, ex-president of Uruguay, is a good example of an 'authentic' modern-day socialist leader. He was not a populist or careerist IMO. He was described as "the world's humblest head of state" due to his austere lifestyle and his donation of around 90 percent of his $12,000 monthly salary to charities that benefit poor people and small entrepreneurs.
Nanaia Mahuta talks about democracy, whilst pushing thru Maori wards with little to no consultation. This government is not interested in democracy, there focus is divisive and race based creating the complete opposite of what existed.
This government is hell bent on the removal of colonists and its varied history with the implementation of the new version of history to be taught to our children, which should be named Learning Lies!!!
Democracy is when someone or something gets more votes than another. Simple really
There is a massive 'creep' of separatism in this country.
Success in gaining jobs/contracts/influence all now based on being a 'victim'
Keep blaming the system, your history, your eye color ..whatever and use it to self justify you inability to make an effort.
A growing underclass - actively encouraged by our welfare system.
This Country needs a leader who is not scared to lead.
A growing underclass actively encouraged by the welfare system. Wow, really? The classic "lazy, no good for nothing, on the dole bludgers" makes a comeback.
The growing underclass, as you rightly point out, has come from 40 years of neoliberal policy, rampant greed in the housing market, which can't really be called a true market, funnelling of wealth upwards, pressure on rents, failure to address poverty, the breakdown of healthcare in this country and any number of social factors that have been extremely exacerbated in the last 15 years, particularly by the last National Act coalition.
It sounds like you would like a leader who is not afraid to lock that wealth in for the already rich and pursue the status quo.
Is it still democracy when voter turnout keeps falling?
This recent whoops moment was just a mistake though.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/300276822/water-meters…
"In this instance the advertising of a role before council has made a decision was an error of judgment, is a bad look and has served to undermine the excellent work of the wider team in taking our plan to the community."
Nice work for those who got it! Report back 2023. I recall the last time this was done;
https://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/ArcAggregator/arcView/frameView/IE12…
Majority of recommendations ignored.
The pot will be reviewing the kettle. The mission includes community service. Where on the committee or whatever, is there any representation from the community, rate payers both residential and commercial and the developers and other businesses that have to navigate their projects through the labyrinth and minefield of local councils. Those are the identities bearing the cost and confusion, not the hierarchy in the councils who are overseeing it and which is what this committee consists of.
It does get messy though when local government end up paying for either directives from central government (without sufficient funding if any to enact?) or paying for the fallout of poor government policy.
A cynical thought would be that central government has it's eye on perpetual funds that are owned by councils.
Ahhh yes, another working group who will give some people 2 years of work, just for their recommendations to be completely ignored. Who could have seen that coming??
Next up a working group to figure out how to reduce GHG emissions, take 4 years to get back to us, because we don't have any idea (and we will ignore all your findings anyway and emit more and more).
So far, no big-picture comment.
What is happening, is that we have hit the Limits to Growth, and the last ten years have proven that eye-watering injections of debt don't alter the physics. We have yet to address economics as the shyte it is; little better than pre-Darwinian religion.
So all we see, is everything getting ' more costly'. Actually, we are becoming energy/resource-constrained, and increasingly triaging allocation of same.
That is overtaking the temporary, cheap-energy-based systems we set up, the funding of infrastructure, health, learning. The set-up systems were central with devolution, this last 100 years. The neoliberal free-market competition mantra knocked all that off balance in the last 30 years, the stupidity of competition vs co-operation obvious to any who could think.
Now - as I've pointed out here for a decade - triage is being forced on us by planetary limitations. Thus the fat will be purged from the system. The Romans tried all this as they declined; the trouble is that the underwrite continues to decline; the floor is always receding.
Local Govt will actually get stronger, but not in the form we recognise. Post growth, we will revert to being local. Very, very local. Just how much of our physical infrastructure we will be able to maintain, is a (the) moot point. This Government is reacting to forces I doubt it understands, while it's critics are a step (make that several, in the case of current-form National) behind that again.
Auckland Council. I live near Warkworth. I travelled to Muriwai to play golf, never been there before and it was lovely. Took me 1hr 20mins. Susrprise, surprise. We have the same local board, you know, the toothless, throw ‘em a bone sop Rodney Hide used to stifle local democracy when ACT set up the Supercity, a misnomer if ever there was one. As well as a local board covering a vast area of hugely diverse interests and issues, we have one councillor for Rodney. No wonder we are being screwed over with crap, poorly maintained roads, a proposed landfill tip off one of the country’s deadliest roads and in an unspoiled area of outstanding natural beauty, bizarre planning decisions, zoning for exponential growth with no increase in infrastructure. Need I go on. Bring on the reforms, but keep Rodney Hide and ACT well clear.
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