Luxon on local government

The Herald reports:

Welcome to Wellington, where council leaders from around the country have met in a convention centre that the Prime Minister thinks is an example of wasteful spending and is just down the road from a burst water main that has turned a street into a paddling pool.

The Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) conference started today in the capital. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon could not have asked for a better backdrop to deliver a sharply worded speech about council spending that did not go down well with some of Wellington’s leaders.

Luxon hit back at councils demanding more funding and support from central government while avoiding tightening their own belts.

The convention centre is a prime example of a non core activity, which is part of the reason rates are increasing 20%.

He also took advantage of the LGNZ conference location – Wellington’s $180 million Tākina convention centre. The audience of mayors from around the country was audibly disgruntled.

“It looks very nice, and it’s very nice that politicians like us have a wonderful space to make some great speeches in,” Luxon said.

“But can anyone seriously say it was the right financial decision or the highest priority for Wellington, given all of its challenges?”

Tākina has been criticised as a white elephant.

Councils can do some things very well. Wellington City has some brilliant playgrounds. The new library and cafe in Johnsonville has been a massive boon to the area. Playgrounds, libraries, parks, roads, water infrastructure etc is what we value and should be top priority.

Green Party regional councillor Thomas Nash said Luxon’s speech was “one of the most mana diminishing, paternalistic and visionless speeches to a group of people I have ever heard”.

Must have been a great speech then.

The Herald also summarises some changes announced by the Government:

• Refocusing the purpose provisions in the Local Government Act by removing four wellbeings from the Local Government Act.
• Investigating performance benchmarks for local councils.
• Investigating options to limit council expenditure on nice-to-haves through a regulator that would cap rate increases for non-core spending.
• Reviewing transparency and accountability rules to make it easier for councillors to request information from council staff, possibly by a written question system.
• Reforming the code of conduct process to balance councillors’ freedom of speech rights with spurious and politicised code of conduct investigations.

I’m not sure about having a regulator for local government spending. What I’d rather have is more decision making by ratepayers. Why not have any major project that would lead to a significant rates increase beyond inflation go to ratepayer/resident referendum?

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