It has been clear to councils for about four months now that the Government wanted them to drop the distractions and just do their work.
Yet, councils just can’t help themselves.
Even last week Tauranga City Council voted to install unelected Māori representatives on the council, who will not improve ratepayers lives at all but will cost them money.Hastings Council did the same thing three months ago with the youth councillors. No extra benefit for ratepayers, but extra cost.
Wellington City Council is today going to debate whether they should submit their feels to the Government on the Treaty Principles Bill.
That's not their job.
A bunch of other councils have done that too.
These guys up and down the country show no sign that they understand they are supposed to be cutting out unnecessary spending and focusing their minds on doing their actual jobs.
So it’s come to this – the Government announcing yesterday it will pass legalisation to force them to do their jobs.
The four wellbeing pillars that task councils with looking after economic wellbeing, social wellbeing, cultural wellbeing, and environmental wellbeing will be scrapped.
That was a bad idea from the last Labour Government anyway, which was so broad and meaningless it gave councils an excuse to expand their meddling into pretty much anything, because everything is a wellbeing.
Councils will be forced to report clearly and simply, and publicly, on what they’re spending money on and what they’re charging ratepayers.
Hopefully getting out the big stick will mean the excuses are cut, distractions are dropped, and these guys focus their minds on doing more work for less cost to ratepayers.
Because hoping they get the message and do it voluntarily hasn’t worked.
Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and commentator who hosts Newstalk ZB's Drive show HERE - where this article was sourced.
7 comments:
RE. ACT's Treaty Principles Bill:
unless a submission collects ratepayer and resident signatures as support evidence , the submission cannot claim to represent their views. Then a submission can only represent the view of the number of councillors who actually sign it.
Maybe Local Govt NZ has devised this strategy to confuse the Select Committee process by implying - to the gullible - that whole cities and regions are against the Bill. Fake information and false numbers - and outside the remit of local councils.
People must protest loudly - they are used as pawns and their rights are disregarded.
Typical of NZ's dirty politics.
Heather, good piece thanks. It's actually so simple that the vast majority on these councils can't grasp it. Get out of our lives and just do your core job - competently. Asking for competence now days in anything tarred with woke far left lunatics is a step too far, which is why this law is needed, what a shame and just shows how far we have fallen and the state we are in.
Various councils have been establishing appointed part-Maori reps with voting rights to nullify any referendum result opposing Maori wards. It achieves ''wards'' by other means. Opposition to the treaty bill by councillors includes Nats (or fake Nats). In New Plymouth's case it was a 12-0 vote with one abstention (fear of reprisals I believe). They talk as if the ''principles'' as they stand were written in 1840 and are concrete. They are not. They are interpretations and reinterpretations and now suit the LGTPM agenda (Labour-Green-Te Pati Maori) . MSM in general barely allow any other view (token in Stuff and Herald) and support the view that the bill is racist and divisive. Opposing dictatorship is also divisive. Having a differing view on anything can be branded ''divisive''.
The amendment to the Local Govt legislation should define the composition of all council committees must be elected councillors and no more than two appointed
Who must have expertise relevant to that committee. They do not have voting rights.
Councils have been saying for years that they have been told by central government to implement all these social policies, so have had to increase rates to pay for these projects. Now they do not need to push these policies, so all ratepayers will get a rebate on rates paid, or will be paying less rates in the future. I guess I am dreaming!!
Councils have been saying for years that they have been forced to bring in all the Social policies as they have been told to by central government. And have increased rates to pay for said policies. Now they don't have to, so the ratepayers will receive a rebate on rates paid and will pay less rates going Forward. Waiting, I have just woken up from a dream!!
A large number of councils around NZ have shown themselves to be manifestly incompetent to run their districts or regions. This can’t be fixed by legislation or exhortation. Our govt must identify the incompetents and replace them with capable commissioners (not cronies). Let’s see if they can do that.
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