{"id":985,"date":"2025-07-19T06:07:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T18:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/daveforcouncil.nz\/?p=985"},"modified":"2025-07-19T06:07:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T18:07:00","slug":"article-govt-winds-up-council-reform-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exposures.co.nz\/?p=985","title":{"rendered":"Article: Govt winds up council reform storm"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Just a bit patronising, mate!\u2019 shouts a conference-goer, as the Local Government Minister compares councils to children<\/em><\/p>\n

Source<\/a> David Williams <\/span><\/span>PDF<\/a><\/time><\/span><\/p>\n

\"The

The first reading of Simon Watts\u2019 Local Government (System Improvements) Amendment Bill is expected to take place on Thursday. Photo: David Williams<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Analysis<\/strong>: It\u2019s a sentiment likely to set pulses racing among the current crop of Government ministers.<\/p>\n

In 2010, four-term councillor Bryan Cadogan aimed to unseat sitting Clutha mayor Juno Hayes by running on a platform of tying rates to inflation and focusing on core services. Cadogan won by 354 votes, turning around the previous election result in the district hemmed in by Dunedin, Central Otago, and Southland.<\/p>\n

Now, the Clutha mayor, who isn\u2019t running for re-election in October\u2019s elections, finds himself, and his sector, in the firing line of an interventionist Government considering rates caps, and introducing legislation to ensure councils focus on \u2013 that\u2019s right \u2013 core services.<\/p>\n

The Local Government NZ conference in \u014ctautahi\/Christchurch was formally launched on Wednesday with a video address, of less than two minutes, by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.<\/p>\n

Councils need to get back to basics, he said, spending wisely and delivering value. What does that mean? \u201cPrioritising pipes over vanity projects,\u201d explained the prime minister, flanked by national flags. \u201cIt means roads over reports, and it means real outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the address finished, conference MC Miriama Kamo started clapping loudly, joined somewhat unenthusiastically by a smattering of conference attendees. \u201cI\u2019m the only one clapping, I see,\u201d Kamo quipped.<\/p>\n

Cadogan says the Government\u2019s message landed \u201cpretty flatly\u201d with him. \u201cIt\u2019s getting a wee bit tedious getting asked time and time again to do the impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chris Bishop, the minister overseeing resource management reforms, took a more fire and brimstone approach than his leader, saying there was shrinking evidence councils were cutting their cloth and enabling growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cry out for more financing and funding tools. We\u2019re giving them to you. You ask for a better, simpler planning system. We\u2019re giving this to you, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are getting our house in order. It\u2019s time you sorted yours out.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Some would have thought that line a bit rich, given analysis of May\u2019s Budget suggests Luxon\u2019s coalition will increase gross debt by more in five years than the Covid-affected previous government did in six.)<\/p>\n

Bishop announced a \u201cplan stop\u201d, warning councils not to waste money and time reviewing city and district plans, and regional policy statements \u2013 with narrow exceptions \u2013 ahead of an overhaul of resource management laws due to land in 2027.<\/p>\n

\"\u2018The

\u2018The time for excuses is over,\u2019 Chris Bishop told the Local Government NZ conference in Christchurch. Photo: David Williams<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Sam Broughton, mayor of Selwyn, just south of Christchurch, and president of Local Government NZ, says: \u201cIt was really good to have that certainty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is that just common sense? Broughton says the progress on reforms is pleasing, but adds: \u201cIt feels like councils have been in this reform storm for six or seven years, and has just been ongoing change without actually landing something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Local Government Minister Simon Watts introduced the bill to focus councils on core services, which is expected to have its first reading on Thursday. (\u201cIt feels like the Government has a caricature of local government that isn\u2019t true,\u201d Broughton says. He notes 80 percent of Selwyn council\u2019s capital spending is on pipes and roads.)<\/p>\n

Watts\u2019 explanation of why it was necessary to force councils to concentrate on core services, like roads, water and rubbish, sent offended ripples through the conference crowd.<\/p>\n

The minister used the analogy of setting boundaries for his children. Letting them do whatever they liked might lead to bad choices, he suggested. Instead, he might tell them, \u201cHey, you\u2019ve got these five things to do\u201d.<\/p>\n

Among the crowd\u2019s murmurs, one conference-goer shouted: \u201cJust a bit patronising, mate!\u201d<\/p>\n

From the conference stage, Watts appeared to pour cold water on the idea regional councils were about to be scrapped. \u201cWe\u2019re thinking about it,\u201d Watts said, adding ministers were cognisant \u201cthere\u2019s already a huge amount of reform underway in your sector\u201d.<\/p>\n

Bishop tried to mollify concerns about potential environmental consequences from the audience, saying a new Natural Environment Act would focus on biodiversity, ecology and human health. Later, the minister tells Newsroom: \u201cThere will be environmental limits that will be set through the new regime.\u201d<\/p>\n

(After a remit passed at Local Government NZ\u2019s annual general meeting on Wednesday, councils called for a review of local government\u2019s structure.)<\/p>\n

\"Christopher

Christopher Luxon beamed in to the Local Government NZ conference in Christchurch. Photo: David Williams<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Government reforms for local government include the network-merging replacement for three waters, Local Water Done Well, waving city and regional deals under the noses of councils, and offering different funding and financing options for infrastructure to speed up house-building.<\/p>\n

Back to Cadogan, the Clutha mayor, who talks to Newsroom while walking to a negotiation with other councils on water services.<\/p>\n

He says despite Government rhetoric, councils can\u2019t be expected to achieve the triumvirate of lower rates, infrastructure upgrades and under-control debt. \u201cThe Government know it, we know it, but we just keep on getting this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clutha council\u2019s experience puts those financial management challenges in stark relief.<\/p>\n

In 2019, its external borrowings were $5 million. Five years later, it had ballooned to $123m. To add salt to the financial wound, this year\u2019s average rates rise was an \u201cungodly\u201d 16.59 percent.<\/p>\n

How did this happen? \u201cThree waters, wholly and solely,\u201d Cadogan says.<\/p>\n

(Last year, the mayor predicts the financial consequences of the \u201cthree waters debacle\u201d will hit. In the latest annual plan, he says 89.4 percent of this year\u2019s rates rise is attributable to roads, rubbish and three waters.)<\/p>\n

Clutha\u2019s unfortunate figures are: the third-longest water reticulation network in the country, with 27 sewage or water plants on 30-year consents, and, crucially, only 18,500 people to pay for it.<\/p>\n

Of the country\u2019s 565 drinking water quality breaches last year, 338 or 60 percent were in Clutha.<\/p>\n

\"\u2018We

\u2018We all want lower rates increases,\u2019 says Sam Broughton, the Selwyn district mayor and Local Government NZ president. Photo: David Williams<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Cadogan gives the example of a water upgrade for the tiny town of Waihola: running an 18.5km pipeline from Milton\u2019s water treatment plant oto the reservoir cost $6.3m. After years of problems with water quality and quantity, boil water notices were removed for all but 20 of the town\u2019s 247 houses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen we go to Heriot, and then we go to Tapanui, then Owaka, then Clinton,\u201d Cadogan says. \u201cIt\u2019s a financial delusion that you can have rates cap, you can have debt ceilings, and you have to do this infrastructure update.\u201d<\/p>\n

It would have been better for the National-led coalition to lift the hood on Labour\u2019s three waters policy and chuck out what they didn\u2019t like, Broughton says, instead of scrapping it and starting again. He thinks resolving water across the country might take seven or eight more steps.<\/p>\n

Policy lurches and delays cost millions of dollars and can, of course, increase council rates.<\/p>\n

Many councils might feel aggrieved by the ministerial attack given the National Party\u2019s pre-election commitment to devolution and localism. Luxon promised to reshape the relationship between central and local government.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does feel like every party in opposition is a localist,\u201d Broughton says, \u201cand then as soon as they\u2019re in power, they become a creature that draws all the more power to themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Broughton was applauded by conference attendees for his opening comments \u2013 made before Bishop\u2019s address.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all want lower rates increases. I want lower rates increases, I know you want lower rates increases, I hear from my community they want lower rates increases. But it can\u2019t be at the expense of our children picking up the tab because of our negligence today.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Selwyn mayor tells Newsroom a key problem is councils have few alternatives to raise money.<\/p>\n

The best tool the Government could give councils, in his opinion, is to return GST spending on new houses locally. \u201cThat would be a game-changer for us,\u201d he says, noting between 1000 and 3000 houses have been built each year in Selwyn over the past five or six years.<\/p>\n

Broughton\u2019s also a fan of bed taxes, something Queenstown\u2019s council has, for years, been pushing for. Luxon said this week the Government\u2019s not actively considering a bed tax.<\/p>\n

\u2018It has just been an avalanche of unstoppable figures. Unstoppable.\u2019 <\/em>
\nBryan Cadogan, Clutha mayor<\/em><\/h3>\n

This is the second year ministers have used the Local Government NZ conference to berate councils for spending on \u201cnice-to-haves\u201d.<\/p>\n

Last year, the venue, Wellington\u2019s $180m T\u0101kina centre, was in the crosshairs. But Christchurch\u2019s half-billion-dollar monolithic convention centre, Te Pae, is of a different ilk \u2013 paid for by taxpayers as a post-quake anchor project.<\/p>\n

Luxon, Watts and Bishop did miss a trick in Christchurch, though.<\/p>\n

A 15-minute walk away from Te Pae is the new stadium, Te Kaha \u2013 a loss-making facility that will cost ratepayers $453m to build. The city\u2019s ratepayers face a three-year, cumulative rates rise of 24.66 percent that without the stadium would have been 19.43 percent.<\/p>\n

Using Luxon\u2019s words, the stadium isn\u2019t roads, rubbish or water, and tends, perhaps, more towards a vanity project.<\/p>\n

The last word goes to Cadogan, the outgoing Clutha mayor. He hopes a water services \u201cumbrella\u201d with other councils will help his district save on infrastructure spending.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been basically a stand-alone council for the last five years. Have a look what that did to our debt,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m gutted as a mayor. I pride myself on really understanding figures. I understand them all right. It has just been an avalanche of unstoppable figures. Unstoppable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe all want lower rates increases. I want lower rates increases, I know you want lower rates increases, I hear from my community they want lower rates increases. But it can\u2019t be at the expense of our children picking up the tab because of our negligence today.\u201d The Selwyn mayor tells Newsroom a key problem is councils have few alternatives to raise money. The best tool the Government could give councils, in his opinion, is to return GST spending on new houses locally. \u201cThat would be a game-changer for us,\u201d he says, noting between 1000 and 3000 houses have been built each year in Selwyn over the past five or six years. . . . → Read More: Article: Govt winds up council reform storm<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7410,"featured_media":393,"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":"Article: It would have been better for the National-led coalition to lift the hood on Labour\u2019s three waters policy and chuck out what they didn\u2019t like, instead of scrapping it and starting again.","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":[120,121,122,144],"tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-election-25","category-from-the-press","category-news-clippings","category-three-waters","odd"],"episode_featured_image":false,"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":"

Article: Govt winds up council reform storm<\/a><\/blockquote>