Cook Islands crisis complicates Christopher Luxon's big meeting with China's Xi Jinping
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Welcome to Inside Politics. Christopher Luxon's meeting tomorrow with Xi Jinping, the President of China, was going to be important enough, given
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Otago Daily Times
3 days ago
- Otago Daily Times
Talk of axing regional councils 'unhelpful'
Environment Canterbury's chairperson says he's open to talking about the future of regional councils, but the current chatter is unhelpful. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Resources Minister Shane Jones have suggested regional councils could be abolished as part of the Resource Management Act (RMA) reforms. Speaking at Wednesday's (June 25) council meeting, Canterbury's regional council (ECan) chairperson Craig Pauling said the recent commentary was unhelpful. ''There has been some discussion over the last week on scrapping regional councils, and I don't think the conversation in the way it is happening is very helpful,'' Mr Pauling said. ''But it is a conversation which needs to happen and we have been doing it. ''We agree the current structure and funding is unsustainable, but it is not simple and it is just about scrapping regional councils and creating unitary authorities. ''As a regional council, our job is to strike a balance between environmental and economic considerations, along side our treaty partners.'' Mr Jones, a New Zealand First MP and Minister for Regional Development, repeated his warnings to Local Democracy Reporting this week that regional councils are on borrowed time. "Regional councils in my view have reached a very low ebb." With the abolition of the Resource Management Act, he said he believed regional councils did not have a future. 'Which is why after the next election there will be local government rationalisation and the very strong stance we're taking is that there is no longer a purpose for regional councils." With the RMA split into two new Acts, people working for Regional Councils would no doubt end up playing some kind of role in a reformed level of regional governance, the Minister said. The Prime Minister has said there were too many layers of government and the question would be considered as part of the RMA reform. There are 11 regional councils throughout New Zealand, which are tasked with 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. In some parts of the country these roles are taken on by unitary authorities, which combine the functions of a local and a regional council. Mr Pauling said debate around the role of regional councils is not new. The Canterbury Mayoral Forum, which represents local mayors, has been exploring what the future of local government could look like and ECan has a workshop planned for next month. Speaking to Local Democracy Reporting last month, Mr Pauling said he saw a future for separate district and regional councils. ''There needs to be a partnership between local, regional and central government and we (ECan) are good at bringing people together. ''If you are in Kaikōura, your main focus is Kaikōura, but at a regional level my focus is Canterbury.'' A single regional plan has been signalled as part of the RMA reform. ECan is already working on an integrated regional plan which would bring together seven regional plans, four river plans, the 10 District Plans and the various spatial plans developed by local councils. Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger has expressed support for establishing a unitary authority. However, North Canterbury mayors Dan Gordon (Waimakariri), Marie Black (Hurunui) and Craig Mackle (Kaikōura) have previously expressed support for Environment Canterbury continuing to have its regionwide functions. It is unclear how public transport and other Greater Christchurch issues would work, if the Christchurch City Council became a unitary authority. The future of local government was the subject of a review led by former Waimakariri District Council chief executive Jim Palmer and presented to Government in 2023. The panel proposed a greater role for regional councils. Local Government New Zealand has also been pushing for changes. By David Hill, Local Democracy Reporter ■ LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
NZ Herald
3 days ago
- NZ Herald
Local government reform could mean reshaping, not ditching, regional councils
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon floated the idea of scrapping our regional councils this week. He did so while speaking on Newstalk ZB, when asked about his Government's reforms of the Resource Management Act (RMA). Luxon said it was his personal view that we should explore dumping the regional layer of
1News
3 days ago
- 1News
Mayors, residents react to talk of scrapping regional councils
The Government has sent a warning signal to regional councils, suggesting they may be abolished following the replacement of the Resource Management Act later this year. Last week, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones told the Local Government Forum there was "less and less of justifiable purpose maintaining regional government". "After the upcoming changes to the RMA, I doubt – well, certainly in the party I belong to – that there's going to be a compelling case for regional government to continue to exist.' There are currently 11 regional councils across the country responsible for the management of natural resources, flood control, and biosecurity. Working at a more local level are more than 60 city and district councils which look after a wide range of matters from local roads, sewage and refuse collection to libraries and parks. ADVERTISEMENT In some areas, all those responsibilities come under one organisation such as Tairāwhiti, which has a sole Gisborne District Council which manages everything. Meanwhile, some regions, such as Hawke's Bay, have four local councils and a regional council. 'Still incredibly unsatisfied' Some Hawke's Bay residents who struggled with regional council decisions following Cyclone Gabrielle agreed with the Government's position, saying the idea of amalgamation could make life easier. Among them is local man Daniel Gale, whose campground was labelled by the Hawke's Bay Regional Council as category 3 with an intolerable risk to life. Gale has fought that for more than two years and said he could mitigate that risk with sufficient flood warnings. "Still incredibly unsatisfied with the actions and/or lack of actions from Hawke's Bay Regional Council in regards to our land categorisation and its process," he told 1News. "We have put it in formal complaints about the lack of process and our resolving category which doesn't align with other areas." ADVERTISEMENT While the regional council sets the land categories, the district council enforces them. Gale said going back and forth between the two has made the tough cyclone recovery process more difficult. "I'd describe it as poor lack of engagement, no individual site assessments, and lack of willingness to properly engage and have a grown-up conversation," he said. 'I'd like to see it all rolled together into one so you're only dealing with one organisation." 'Focused on vanity projects' - Luxon Prime Minister Christopher Luxon speaking in Brussels. (Source: 1News) Speaking to media in Brussels, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said there were too many layers of government in New Zealand that drove too much bureaucracy. "Some councils are doing an exceptional job, some are doing a very poor job. We want to focus on the must-do stuff, not very nice to do stuff. We don't want them focused on vanity projects – we want to make sure they're getting good value for their ratepayers." ADVERTISEMENT Speaking on behalf of regional councils nationwide, Greater Wellington Regional Council chairman Daran Ponter believed they were the solution, not the problem. 'When people talk about getting rid of regional councils, they're really talking about reallocating the functions that regional councils do, and we're up for that conversation." Ponter said regional councils could be seen as the "building blocks for local government reform". "The idea that we have more than 70 local authorities in New Zealand when we could have somewhere to 16 to 20 means that regional councils really provide the nucleus for what local government reform could look like in the future." He added that while local government has been calling for reform "for some time" and is "certainly up for the conversation", the dialogue has been "sort of knee-jerk". "'Shoot the regional council' or 'shoot the district councils' or whatever. It is not particularly helpful." Ponter said it would be more constructive to have an "understanding from the Government about what they actually want to achieve in this space, rather than saying what they don't want". ADVERTISEMENT "That would be really good to have a Government that says what they do want and how they think local government might be structured in the future to better meet the needs of the community and the environment." Ponter planned to meet with Jones to discuss further concerns. How do other councils feel? Gisborne Mayor Rahette Stoltz told 1News that for them, having one council has 'worked well', but it 'might not work and it might not be fit for purpose for everyone across the country'. Meanwhile, Wairoa Mayor Craig Little said recent weather events have highlighted the downfalls of the current structure. 'When it's costing regions like Wairoa a hell of a lot of money to do things that it shouldn't be, that's when I question the regional council big time.' Local Government New Zealand told 1News councils are having conversations about how to improve the structure of local government and said a strategic approach is needed, rather than reacting to individual pieces of government reform. ADVERTISEMENT However, Local Government NZ acknowledged the current process can make it difficult for councils to work together locally, even if it would make sense to do so.
