Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says he wants to explore the possibility of scrapping New Zealand’s regional councils as the Government reforms the Resource Management Act.
NZ First minister Shane Jones told a local government forum last week his party does not see a compelling case for maintaining regional government. . .
Luxon said Bishop, as Minister for RMA Reform, would bring a bill before the House before the end of the year but also said he believed there were too many layers of government.
Jones, speaking at last week’s forum as reported by the Post, said there was “less and less of a justifiable purpose for maintaining regional government” after the expected RMA reform.
“After the upcoming changes to the RMA, I doubt, well, certainly in the party I belong to, that there’s going to be a compelling case for regional government to continue to exist.“ . . .
We are over-governed and too many layers of government are part of the problem.
If changes to the RMA make regional councils redundant, we’ll benefit from one less layer and lower costs which should come with that and it ought to be achieved without compromising the environment.
Ele Ludemann is a North Otago farmer and journalist, who blogs HERE - where this article was sourced.
4 comments:
Probably better to scrap some 80+ local govts and let 14 or so regional govts do the full job. Now there would be your real savings.
I am opposed to the concept of no local Government.
There are enough lunatics wandering our streets aimlessly now, muttering to no one and/or raving at unseen creatures: imagine the increase if local pollies and their like were unleashed.
Regional Councils are the last that should be done away with. As a farmer? take note of the critical role of RC's and if they were done away with rates will go up and crucial functions such as catchment management , will be ignored.
Look at the roles in the Act.
Territorial authorities need their wings clipped not RC's
Worth keeping as maintain Michael Laws whereas The Platform alone may not. Probably the most succinct commentator of our time.
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