June - July 2021
Review of local government presents major opportunity Councils provide critical infrastructure services across New Zealand, including the planning, funding, delivery and regulation of billions of dollars of assets, but this 30 year old system is simply not geared for today’s challenges
POLICY
T
he traditional roles and functions of local government are in the process of changing. A Review into the Future for Local Government was announced today to consider, report and make recommendations on this matter. The work programmes the Government is advancing to overhaul the three waters sector and the resource management system are foremost among a suite of reform programmes that will reshape our system of local government. The sector, led by Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) and Taituarā – Local Government Professionals Aotearoa, is calling for a programme of work to ‘reimagine the role and function of local government’, in order to build a sustainable system that delivers enhanced wellbeing outcomes for our communities. The overall purpose of the review is to identify how our system of local democracy and governance needs to evolve over the next 30 years, to improve the wellbeing of New Zealand communities and the environment, and actively embody the Treaty partnership. Infrastructure New Zealand Policy Director, Hamish Glenn, sees this as 28 infrastructurenews.co.nz
a genuine opportunity to address a wave of serious issues across housing, transport and water by strengthening the ability of councils to execute, address long standing infrastructure funding and financing challenges and ensure that New Zealand becomes a more competitive, equitable and sustainable society. “We are very pleased to see the review panel has been given a broad mandate,” Glenn says. “The panel will consider the future of local government, including roles, functions and partnerships; representation and governance; and funding and financing.
“Councils provide critical infrastructure services across New Zealand, including the planning, funding, delivery and regulation of billions of dollars of assets. “The current local government system was largely set in place in 1989 and is simply not geared for the kinds of challenges we see today. “Complex environmental issues like climate change and freshwater degradation have combined with major economic trends around remote working and digitisation to fundamentally change our expectations of local government standards and services. “In the context of inade-
quate funding and financing arrangements for infrastructure, councils have not been able to keep up. “The review announced today gives the country a two year programme to discuss exactly what type of system might work better. “There needs to be a genuine first principles discussion around what services are best delivered locally, which services regionally and what centrally. “Effective strategic planning and infrastructure delivery needs a degree of scale that 67 territorial authorities are not optimised to implement. “But equally, there are a range of public services which do not benefit from
