So essentially they’ve made central government smaller, dumped a shipload of work onto ratepayer funded councils, and now they’re going to make sure councils spend ratepayers money doing the government work so said government can look good?<\/p>\n
Source<\/a> 23 Jun, 2025\u00a0 PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says he wants to explore the possibility of scrapping New Zealand\u2019s regional councils as the Government reforms the Resource Management Act.<\/p>\n NZ First minister Shane Jones told a local government forum last week his party does not see a compelling case for maintaining regional government.<\/p>\n Speaking to Newstalk ZB today from Belgium before the Nato leaders\u2019 summit in The Hague, Luxon was asked whether he supported disestablishing regional councils.<\/p>\n \u201cI have a personal view that I think that\u2019s something that we can explore as part of that Resource Management Act legislation that Chris Bishop is driving through,\u201d he responded.<\/p>\n Luxon said Bishop, as Minister for RMA Reform, would bring a bill before the House before the end of the year but also said he believed there were too many layers of government.<\/p>\n Jones, speaking at last week\u2019s forum as reported by the Post, said there was \u201cless and less of a justifiable purpose for maintaining regional government\u201d after the expected RMA reform.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter the upcoming changes to the RMA, I doubt, well, certainly in the party I belong to, that there\u2019s going to be a compelling case for regional government to continue to exist.\u201c<\/p>\n New Zealand has 11 regional councils. According to Local Government NZ\u2019s definition, regional councils played a \u201ccore role\u201d in managing natural resources such as land and water, supporting biodiversity, providing regional transport and building resilience to natural hazards and the effects of climate change.<\/p>\n Luxon today was also asked about the potential of capping council rates increases, to which he said Local Government Minister Simon Watts was assessing options.<\/p>\n He added councils should organise their finances better, saying they needed to be \u201csmart with the balance sheet\u201d and use debt in different ways.<\/p>\n Bishop, who is also the Housing Minister, last week announced a new power in the RMA that gave central government the ability to overrule local councils if their decisions were going to negatively impact economic growth, development or employment.<\/p>\n Before using the power, a minister would need to check whether the council\u2019s decision was consistent with the national direction under the RMA, and engage with the council.<\/p>\n It would only be an interim measure while the Government worked on new RMA laws, which were due to take effect in 2027 to align with the councils\u2019 next Long-Term Plans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So essentially they’ve made central government smaller, dumped a shipload of work onto ratepayer funded councils, and now they’re going to make sure councils spend ratepayers money doing the government work so said government can look good? . . . → Read More: PM Christopher Luxon open to scrapping regional councils amid RMA reform<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7410,"featured_media":417,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"audio","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"PM Christopher Luxon open to scrapping regional councils amid RMA reform","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[120,121],"tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-1165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-election-25","category-from-the-press","odd"],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/exposures.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/nats_04020807.jpg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/exposures.co.nz\/wp-content\/plugins\/seriously-simple-podcasting\/assets\/images\/no-album-art.png","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/exposures.co.nz\/?feed=podcast&podcast_series=exposures-the-blog","embedCode":"PM Christopher Luxon open to scrapping regional councils amid RMA reform<\/a><\/blockquote>