Once again we find ourselves discussing the question of whether local government is fit for purpose. Once again the catalyst for this is another attempt to reform the Resource Management Act. Once again those in Parliament are dancing around the hard conversations that need to be had. Once again it is a case of hurry up and wait. Once again I’ll believe things will change once it actually happens.
Yes. All of this sounds very familiar.
The catalyst for this latest walk down the garden path was a speech by Regional Development Minister Shane Jones at the Future Proofing New Zealand Forum where the minister mused about a remit heading to New Zealand First’s upcoming annual conference questioning the existence of regional councils. Unsurprisingly, Jones often finds himself at loggerheads with regional councils over their environmental planning, monitoring, and enforcement roles when it comes to his enthusiasm for natural resource extraction so it’s little surprise that changing the roles of regional councils, or disestablishing them all together, might appeal to him.
Following Jones’ remarks, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon weighed in that taking the axe to regional councils was something he wanted Resource Management Act Reform Minister Chris Bishop to explore as part of his work.
For their part, Labour’s relevant spokespeople Tangi Utikere (local government) and Kieran McAnulty (Infrastructure) have been cautious, no doubt mindful of the local government reform minefield that repeatedly exploded in their faces during Labour’s last stint on the Treasury benches. Utikere said that Labour “won’t force an amalgamation on communities” while McAnulty repeated those sentiments and added that there “definitely should be discussion around whether the structure is adequate.”
Sector-body Local Government New Zealand has also endorsed the need for more conversations, with a remit going to their AGM in July that calls for a review of local government’s structure and functions, noting that the sector needs a “preferred future state for the whole system rather than just reacting to individual pieces of government reform.”
Of course, this is all history repeating. Back in November 2020, with local government going through reforms to water and the Resource Management Act, I called for a Royal Commission into local government. In April 2021 we got the review to nowhere that was Future for Local Government which after spending nearly $12m delivered its findings in the lead up to the 2023 election. Those recommendations were unceremoniously euthanised by the National-led Coalition Government one Friday evening in July 2024.
Despite scrapping the Future for Local Government Review’s recommendations the need for local government reform hasn’t mysteriously disappeared. Sandwiched between a worsening financial crisis (that will only likely get worse if rate capping comes into play), and a new round of water and RMA reforms, and the upcoming regional deals, it’s very much a case of history repeating.
I’ve written extensively about my ideas on how we can progress overhauling local government but the issue is it’s always going to be a highly political process and, if anything, I think politicians might need to actually lean into that rather than trying to not upset anyone and instead end up going nowhere.
So back to the original question - are regional councils facing the axe?
Yes? No? Maybe?
Honestly, who knows. Under Labour’s repealed RMA and water reforms the roles of local and regional councils were going to be massively changed without any clear plan on what was going to happen to the rump organisations left afterwards.
At a basic level, the broad functions undertaken by regional councils - planning and management of natural resources, public transport, natural hazard management, and biodiversity and biosecurity - still need to be done. Local Government Minister Simon Watts admitted as much when he said that “central government definitely don’t want to be be dealing with that” - that being public transport and waste.
Even if you disestablished regional councils, you still need someone to deliver those services and manage any associated infrastructure and planning. It’s possible that we might end up at a single tier local government system where the roles of regional councils are divided amongst the current or amalgamated local councils. Some of those roles might be shifted to new organisations that get managed either jointly by local councils or in partnership between councils and central government. Heck, we could even end up rolling local council functions up to the regional council level instead.
The only thing most people seem to be able to agree on is that the status quo isn’t tenable. The problem is nobody seems to have the political willpower to actually push through anything to meaningfully change things. Instead we’re left with piecemeal reform. Those reforms may or may not be good individually, but they leave in their wake an increasingly broken local government system that’s under increasing pressure to the point that I wouldn’t encourage anyone to stand for council. It’s a tough job at the best of times, but with the future of the sector such an uncertain mess at the moment, you’re almost better to wait it out until the inevitably crash happens and central government is forced to act.
That may sound cynical, but I’m not sure what else will motivate central government to make the hard choices that only it is in a position to make.
The whole “we won’t force amalgamations on communities” sentiment is noble but deeply misguided. The only major changes to the structure of local government in recent history have needed Parliament to make them happen - these being the 1989 local government reforms and the Auckland supercity amalgamation. Community and council-led attempts at amalgamation have generally failed either tripping over before reaching the starting line or getting defeated at the ballot box. The exception being Banks Peninsula joining Christchurch City, likely because Banks Peninsula was so small as to be unsustainable on its own but also not enough of a burden to scare off Christchurch City residents.
The Wellington region’s own ongoing amalgamation saga is a case in point of how hard it is for local communities to get anything done. A decade ago the Local Government Commission put an end to the last concrete attempt to pursue amalgamation in the region citing a lack of public support. Even the latest attempts to resurrect amalgamation proposals have been riddled with division, self-interest, secrecy, even more secrecy, and look set to run into a brick wall with the same lack of political and public support that torpedoed the previous effort.
At some point central government needs to wake up and grab the bull of local government reform by the horns. Whether that’s through an Auckland supercity-style Royal Commission to produce a comprehensive blueprint for the future which they then crack on and implement as I’ve advocated for, or through some other mechanism like the massive 1989 reforms were, I just really want something to get done before the growing crisis sees councils start to fail as they have done in the United Kingdom.
If that means regional councils face the axe or local councils get amalgamated up into regional entities then so be it.