Ombudsman chases up closed door councils in win for Local Aotearoa
Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier has finally chased up councils who are still holding their workshops and briefings behind closed doors in defiance of his “Open for Business” report, putting those like Greater Wellington Regional Council on notice that they need to lift their game on transparency and accountability.
The Ombudsman’s move follows on from Local Aotearoa’s exclusive report last November that a fifth of councils were ignoring the Ombudsman’s recommendations, and Local Aotearoa’s subsequent call for the Ombudsman to take action over the laggard councils.
We’ll now watch with interest to see whether those councils finally step up willingly or if the Ombudsman will need to take further and more targeted action to motivate them to do what they should already be doing.
It’s worth noting that most councils now operate their workshops and briefings as open to the public by default. Not only this, but a majority of councils - from the largest to the smallest - made changes to their policy as a result of the October 2023 “Open for Business” report, making it very difficult for the likes of Greater Wellington to argue that the recommendations don’t apply to them.