How outgoing Whanganui council boss David Langford reflects on his tenure
Langford said the past five years for local government had been intense, mostly due to the amount of change imposed on the sector, such as Three Waters and Local Water Done Well reforms and the Government's plans to replace the Resource Management Act and Building Control Authority.
'Councils that come out the other side are going to look very different, and they are going to have to figure out their purpose and role in supporting the community,' he said.
'As New Zealand, we are one of the most centralised systems of government in the whole of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development).
'Our Government spends 93% of all taxes, and I think the average across most high income countries is more like a 70 (central) 30 (local) split.'
He said Government conversations around rates capping and focusing on the basics sounded good, but 'what does that mean?'.
'Almost all our rates' money is spent on core services already, and the bits that aren't are the bits people really care about and fought to keep.
'We fund the Christmas Parade, and give $100,000 a year to surf lifesaving to help them patrol the beaches and keep our kids safe. That's not core services.
'If we put caps on rates, these are the things that will get hit.'
The council achieved an average 2.2% rates rise for 2025/26, the lowest in the country.
David Langford (left) with Sarjeant Gallery director Andrew Clifford.
That was the culmination of the past 3.5 years of work, he said.
'The foundations we've laid here are going to serve the community well.
'Whoever comes in to replace me will like some things I've done and change some of them as well, but, hopefully, they'll keep the momentum going.'
Langford said he would be disappointed if the district did not have the lowest rates increase next year as well, while still increasing investment in core infrastructure.
There was an 11% increase in the council's infrastructure spend for 2025/26.
A major part of the council's role was 'building things', whether it be fixing potholes or putting pipes in the ground, he said.
'There are a lot of armchair engineers out there, but it comes with the territory.
'Anybody who's watched an episode of Bob The Builder thinks they know how to do my job better than I do.
'Like I said before, if you're not up for the criticism, and you're not prepared to rise above it, this job is not for you.'
Langford said challenges still lay ahead, such as the future of the NZ International Commercial Pilot Academy.
The facility is under investigation by the Civil Aviation Authority, although four planes have returned to service.
'It delivers around $10 million of GDP into our economy, but the goal was also to get a business paying landing fees at the airport, so the ratepayer doesn't have to subsidise it as much.
'The intention was always to get it set up as an investment, and once it's running, sell it.
'Now's the time to hand it over to the private sector, but make sure we keep those benefits.'
He said his proudest achievements was forming a citizens' assembly - 'a bold move' - to tackle the future of outdoor swimming in the district, including the Whanganui East pool.
The assembly presented two recommendations at a council meeting this month, although the issue was left on the table until August 12.
'There's a heap of lessons we've learned and when council does the next one, it'll be a bit slicker and even better,' Langford said.
'For me, it was seeing the community step up and make the most of the opportunity, and really get engaged with an issue they care about.'
Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scoop
5 hours ago
- Scoop
ACT Attempts To Fix Broken Remuneration Disclosure Bill
'Last night ACT proposed a series of common-sense amendments to Labour MP Camilla Belich's broken Employment Relations (Employee Remuneration Disclosure) Amendment Bill, to make it more workable for businesses and employees entering into voluntary agreements with one another,' says ACT's Small Business spokesperson Laura McClure. 'The Bill, without clear rationale, inserts the Government into every employment agreement in the country – telling workers and employers that they are unable to freely come to mutually beneficial agreements that work for them. 'This raises serious privacy concerns, diminishes workplace flexibility, and poses a real risk to harmony in the workplace by encouraging resentment and comparison between colleagues. It also threatens commercially sensitive information and creates legal uncertainty for employers trying to do the right thing. 'ACT did not support the Bill, which undermines the freedom of consenting adults to form contracts, but my colleague Dr Parmjeet Parmar and I proposed practical amendments to minimise the harm it would cause.' The changes ACT proposed included: Restricting disclosure rights to within the same workplace – so employees could only disclose their own remuneration to colleagues who work for the same organisation, not to competitors, journalists, or the wider public. Protecting employee privacy – by prohibiting an employee from disclosing another employee's pay without that person's express consent. Preventing bad-faith disclosures – by ensuring only disclosures made in good faith are protected, so that attempts to weaponise pay information to harm employers or other staff aren't shielded by law. Excluding performance-based pay – such as bonuses and commissions from the definition of 'remuneration', recognising that these are often highly individualised, sensitive, and commercially confidential. Delaying the Bill's commencement by 12 months – to give businesses and industry bodies time to understand the law, adapt policies, and educate their members. 'These amendments would have preserved a worker's ability to disclose their own pay while protecting the privacy of others and the ability of businesses to operate fairly and competitively. Labour, National and the Greens refused to support any of them," says McClure. 'ACT believes in freedom of contract, the right to privacy, and the value of trusting people to make their own arrangements. This Bill tramples on all three. New Zealanders deserve better than another law that treats adults like children and businesses like villains.'
RNZ News
6 hours ago
- RNZ News
Allegations Maori have been removed from Maori roll
Te Pati Maori said they have filed urgent proceedings in the High Court after allegations Maori have been removed or shifted off the Maori roll without their consent. A number of voters have posted online to say their electoral enrolment details have been altered or are not there at all. It comes on the eve of local election enrolment cutoff and ahead of sweeping electoral changes promised by the government. To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
1News
6 hours ago
- 1News
Who's really to blame for New Zealand's economic troubles?
New Zealand's economic downturn is proving hard to shake — but economists say when it comes to identifying the cause, it's not as simple as pointing the finger at government spending cutbacks or the Reserve Bank's interest rate hikes. Although conditions are expected to improve as the year progresses, the economy remains sluggish. The primary sector is providing one of the few bright spots. Last weekend, when issuing an annual update, Kiwibank chief economist Jarrod Kerr blamed the Reserve Bank's decision to thrust the economy into recession to tamp down problem inflation. Some readers contacted RNZ, saying that was too simplistic and letting the Government off the hook for the impact its spending cutbacks and public sector job cuts were having. "My wife's MPI office in Christchurch reduced headcount by about 10%," one wrote. "For each public service worker cut, two to three private sector jobs went with it. The cancellation or freezing of so many infrastructure projects saw my industry (engineering) lay off a quarter to a third of the workforce." ADVERTISEMENT So who's to blame? "The overstimulus of the economy from both the government and the Reserve Bank in 2020 and 2021 meant the economy was unsustainably overheated," said chief forecaster at Infometrics Gareth Kiernan. "The government and the Reserve Bank got us into the mess we were in, in the first place, and therefore had to get out again." Normally monetary and fiscal policy would work to smooth the economic cycle but that was not the case this time, which made the upswing hotter and the downturn bleaker. "Normally, if the economy is going hot, they tend to pull things back. And if the economy is slowing down and we're heading to recession, you typically get more government spending and lower interest rates and that sort of thing. That's not what we've had over the last five years because they pumped things up too much and had to cool the jets on the other side. "Both the Government and Reserve Bank needed to, they had no choice. "Government spending decisions have exacerbated the recession but they had no choice because they also exacerbated the boom before that." ADVERTISEMENT Too much spending Budget (generic illustration). (Source: 1News) He said, in December 2022, government consumption spending was 13.5% higher than had been forecast before the pandemic hit. "It's still 7.5% larger than we were forecasting now… so they've pulled it back in line but it's still larger than it would otherwise have been expected. "Government investments — infrastructure, schools, hospitals, whatever else — by mid-2024, that's 18% larger than we were forecasting." Spending was still 13% higher, he said. "That puts some context around the fact that yeah, government has been tight but we still haven't undone or unwound all of the massive government-related Covid boom. ADVERTISEMENT "That's also reflective of the fact that fiscal numbers over for the next five years are only just getting back into surplus if you're lucky." Kiernan looked at GDP broken down into household spending, government spending, business investment and exports and imports. He compared the current situation and the experience of the past two years to what normal growth might have been if it had kept going from the 2022 base at a 10-year average rate. "Government investment grew through 2023 and early 2024. It's done its fair share of contribution to how the economy has gone in a positive sense. "If I attribute all of the private sector investment and household spending and the slow growth there to interest rates and in Reserve Bank policy… then you put around about two-thirds of the underperformance of the economy over the last two years down to interest rates, 20 to 25% on to the government side of things when you take consumption and investment together and the other 10% or so is exports underperforming." Senior economist at ANZ Miles Workman said it was a question of how the Reserve Bank responded to the Government's fiscal policies. "The faster the Government gets the books back into the black, by restraining spending or increasing taxes, the more likely the RBNZ will need to lower the OCR, which would offset lower demand from fiscal policy settings by shoring up demand from households and businesses. ADVERTISEMENT "In other words, it's not as simple as saying government policy has caused X% of the slowdown and the RBNZ has caused Y%. The RBNZ's policy stance is a function of fiscal policy settings." 'A con job' Economics professor at the University of Auckland Robert MacCulloch said there had been mishandling of the economy by governments on both sides in recent years. "The narrative the parties are using, that the other party is to blame for our problems… I'm past it now, that all the problems we've got are because of [Jacinda] Ardern and [Grant] Robertson and Labour messed it up, then Labour say the same about National. I think it's a con job on the people of the country. The country hasn't been doing great now for quite a long time under both major political parties." He said the wage subsidy had been a significant source of debt and, while it was introduced by the Labour government, National had put pressure on to extend it for bigger firms, which increased the cost. "Luxon's getting angry, saying we inherited a shambles. I mean, what's he talking about? His party voted in favour of the all the fiscal and monetary policy. They were wildly enthusiastic about the wage subsidy scheme." He said the cuts the Government were enacting were immaterial in the scheme of the fiscal pressures looming from the ageing population. ADVERTISEMENT "The cuts in bureaucracy they've done are just a couple of percent of those increased pressures on health and pensions. They're going to have to grapple with how you deal with those huge outflows with the ageing population… the Nats don't have a plan to rein in the cost of those major programmes." Tough job for Reserve Bank The chief economist at the NZ Initiative, Eric Crampton, said the labour market was "certainly in worse shape" than it had been from mid-2021 to mid-2023. "But employment rates during that period were the result of substantial overheating from debt-fuelled spending and substantial monetary stimulus. They could not be sustained without severe inflationary consequence. It is wrong to blame anyone for labour markets not looking now like they did in 2022." He said monetary policy would always be expected to move last. "That doesn't mean monetary policy is slow. It means that whatever the bank does in monetary policy takes into account what everyone else has done and is expected to do. So if the fiscal authority announces a track — a Budget, Budget policy statement — monetary policy adjusts to take that into account. The Reserve Bank moves last — it makes its move after seeing what everyone else is doing. "Governments can be more and less helpful with all of that. But a bank following an inflation target ought to be taking account of what Parliament is doing. " ADVERTISEMENT He said the Reserve Bank had a tough job at present. "While the employment statistics are comparable to where they were around 2016-2017, government estimates still suggest that there is a remaining output gap — that the economy is running a bit below potential. However, there are inflationary pressures both in the non-traded sector and in tradeables. The bank's failure to keep inflation within bounds over the Covid period should have it sensitive to the risks of going above-target again. So, I wouldn't want to blame them too much for current unemployment except to the extent that the bank's errors during the Covid period makes things a bit harder now. " He said keeping inflation within its target was the best thing the Reserve Bank could do to ensure long-term stable employment. "Given inflation risks, the bank would likely need to act to offset fiscal stimulus, if Parliament decided to provide further fiscal stimulus — we are still running a substantial deficit as well."
