In August, the WWP submitted to the government on the Local Government (System Improvements) Amendment Bill.
The bill responds to concerns about deteriorating infrastructure, rising rates, and perceived lack of financial focus in local government. It is part of the Government's System Improvements programme, first announced by the Prime Minister in August 2024, and aims to refocus councils on delivering essential services efficiently. You can read out full submission here.
Key Amendment Objectives
1. Refocus Local Government Purpose: The bill proposes removing references to the four aspects of community well-being from the Local Government Act 2002. Instead, it emphasizes the cost-effective provision of good-quality local infrastructure and public services.
2. Enhance Performance Measurement and Transparency: It introduces mechanisms to track and publish council performance and expenditure, fostering greater efficiency and accountability. Councils will face increased scrutiny in these areas through proposed changes, including the requirement to report on contractor and consultant expenditure.
3. Prioritize Core Services: The bill aims to ensure that councils prioritize core services in their spending decisions, focusing on essential infrastructure and public services.
4. Strengthen Accountability: It proposes measures to strengthen council transparency and accountability, including provisions for better access to information and clearer reporting requirements.
5. Regulatory Relief for Councils: The bill includes provisions to provide regulatory relief to councils, aiming to reduce unnecessary administrative burdens and enhance operational efficiency.
While the Bill covers a wide range of important matters, the WWP submitted mainly in relation to item 1 and the proposal to reframe the purpose of local government in New Zealand. In particular, we submitted that the Bill only partially diagnoses the problem it is trying to solve and instead creates a straw man of local government, especially regarding the meaning and role of wellbeing.
We proposed that a simplified purpose statement to ensure that the wellbeing outcome of local government is maintained, for reasons set out in our submission.
Our proposed changes to the Bill are below in bold.
3. Purpose
The purpose of local government is—
a) to enable democratic local decision-making and action by, and on behalf of, communities; and
b) to meet the current and future needs of communities, at a minimum, for good-quality local infrastructure, local public services, a sustainable local and regional natural environment, and the performance of regulatory functions in the manner most cost-effective for households and businesses; and
to promote the well-being of their communities and support local economic growth and development by fulfilling the purpose set out in paragraph (b).
