Local Aotearoa calls for LGOIMA update to open up council workshops and briefings
I’ve written to Local Government Minister Simon Watts to call on him to amend the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA) in order to force the minority of councils that are still refusing to open up their closed-door workshops and briefings to meet the basic standards of transparency and accountability expected of them.
This call to action follows on from my success in getting the Ombudsman to chase up the 17 councils I reported on in November 2024 who were refusing to implement the transparency measures from the Ombudsman’s Open for business report.
With the Coalition Government already working on a suite of updates to legislation to make changes to local government’s transparency and accountability framework, this presents an ideal opportunity to ensure that the LGOIMA is amended at the same time.
By removing any ambiguity in the LGOIMA that laggard councils might be trying to hide behind, and through specifying how councils must give effect to ensuring their meetings, workshops, and briefings are open to the public, Watts has an opportunity to make changes that will genuinely lift the transparency, accountability, and visibility of local government’s deliberative and decision-making processes.
While it’s great that a majority of councils had either opened up their workshops and briefings in response to the Ombudsman’s report, or had done so prior to its publication, that a fifth of the sector remains out of touch with their colleagues calls into question the commitment to transparency and accountability of the elected representatives and chief executives of those councils.
The situation which we’re in - where 17 councils are effectively thumbing their noses at both the Ombudsman and their communities - is an intolerable one that can only serve to undermine public trust and confidence in our governing institutions.
Speaking from my own experience during my triennium on Kāpiti Coast District Council, elected representatives and their chief executives should be encouraging and welcoming moves that create a culture of openness and assist in facilitating greater public engagement with and scrutiny of their work.
Opening up currently secret workshops and briefings is an easy way to do this instead of, as the Ombudsman puts it: “undermining the principles of the LGOIMA and the LGA” as is currently happening in some councils.
You can read my letter to Local Government Minister Simon Watts below:
