Christchurch City Council has announced it is resigning from Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ).
Councillors at a meeting today decided to no longer be part of LGNZ, after its annual membership costs rose by more than $20,000.
The decision came after a report was presented at the meeting about renewing the annual membership subscription for the association, which represents the interests of councils around the country. The annual cost for Christchurch is $163,254.75 plus GST for the 2024/2025 year.
This means LGNZ has lost its two largest members (Auckland and Christchurch) and no longer represents around 40% of New Zealand’s population.
It is a pity in some ways. Ideally every Council in NZ would belong to a united industry group to represent them. But the damage done by their stance on supporting Three Waters against the wishes of so many Councils has left scars that will take a long time to heal. They ended up lobbying the Councils on behalf of the Government, instead of vice-versa.
I suspect in time, Auckland and Christchurch will rejoin. But only after a fairly long period of time.
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.
3 comments:
No, no. Why should we need this further level of bureaucracy? Good on you Chch.
Did LGNZ also promote maori and maori wards? One way for the Council to oppose without incurring cancellation. By simply following Wayne Brown councillors and Councils can save a lot of drifty pondering time.
About time that we the people called time on LGNZ as it does not represent we the people - come to think of it, what does it represent? Probably a threat to democracy and we have enough of them already.
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