The only rule is, well you can't go with the status quo. There's got to be change, there's got to be a rationalisation, it's got to be amalgamation, it's got to be smaller.
Now for Coromandel residents, they believe this means choosing between two options. One, create a small eastern Waikato focused council that looks after the Hauraki Plains and the Coromandel Peninsula that reflects the rural and coastal communities of interest, a Hauraki Plains Coromandel unitary authority. Or the other choice is be absorbed into a Hamilton based Waikato super city scenario.
Despite not having asked its ratepayers what they want because there's just not enough time and the government has demanded the action, they're all debating it. And the Waikato Regional Council has already said what it wants: one giant unitary authority based out of Hamilton for the entire region.
I mean it's the 07 isn't it? It's all got the same phone number, let's all have the same council.
Now under that model, the Coromandel with just 32,000 people would hold one seat on a 16 member governing board based out of Hamilton. Hamilton alone would hold seven seats. They have the advantage, they have the influence.
Decisions on rates and infrastructure and environmental management and long term planning would be made far from the Coromandel, while a Coromandel local board with only one seat to represent it would be left with minor matters they'd worry about parking and Christmas decorations, but they think they've got bigger fish to fry.
And, of course, a Hamilton based super block of seat holders would mean that Hamilton would be able to dominate decisions and funding. Yeah we could do a new bridge in the Coromandel, or we could make sure that new suburb of Peacocke has more stuff. I think we'll go for the Peacocke, won't we? What do you think? Yeah, there's only one guy to vote against it, that's what we'll do.
The Coromandel and Thames are very wary of that.
This may be efficient, but they believe it would also be unfair.
This eastern Waikato unitary council by the way, this idea has deep roots. Back in 2012 Coromandel and Hauraki residents gathered more than 1,500 signatures calling for just that, a council that represented Hauraki and Coromandel, keeping the decision making local. And such a model would return regional rates and jobs and environmental management to the communities they actually affect rather than happening in Hamilton, and ensure representatives live with the consequences of their decision.
Thames Coromandel councillors will be discussing this on May 26th. Here's the thing though, have they asked their ratepayers? No they have not, because the government said you've got three months to do this, it's 10 weeks away, you've got to do it, just do it.
They don't have the time to consult. Nobody does up and down the country. And this is happening up and down the country.
In the Wairarapa, Masterton, Carterton and South Wairarapa are considering a combined rural unitary council because they don't want to be ruled by Wellington.
In Taranaki, iwi and local mayors support splitting the region into two unitary councils that represent the natural north south and urban rural division. Hāwera does not want to be ruled by New Plymouth.
Waitomo and Otorohanga are developing a King Country unitary proposal because they don't want to be run by Hamilton.
And in the South Island, Selwyn's mayor also wants to protect Selwyn's identity because there they're talking about the Canterbury councils merging into a Greater Christchurch super city and they are not sure they want that.
The mayor, Lydia, says it's an incredibly short timeframe, we can't consult with our ratepayers but we need to make sure we make the right decision. And they're not happy about it. Waimakariri and Selwyn ratepayers have expressed reservations of being ruled by Christchurch.
And this is a real fear up and down the country. The move to rationalise local government could see the big cities and towns grabbing all the power and money.
Andrew Dickens is a broadcaster with Newstalk ZB. - where this article was sourced.
Despite not having asked its ratepayers what they want because there's just not enough time and the government has demanded the action, they're all debating it. And the Waikato Regional Council has already said what it wants: one giant unitary authority based out of Hamilton for the entire region.
I mean it's the 07 isn't it? It's all got the same phone number, let's all have the same council.
Now under that model, the Coromandel with just 32,000 people would hold one seat on a 16 member governing board based out of Hamilton. Hamilton alone would hold seven seats. They have the advantage, they have the influence.
Decisions on rates and infrastructure and environmental management and long term planning would be made far from the Coromandel, while a Coromandel local board with only one seat to represent it would be left with minor matters they'd worry about parking and Christmas decorations, but they think they've got bigger fish to fry.
And, of course, a Hamilton based super block of seat holders would mean that Hamilton would be able to dominate decisions and funding. Yeah we could do a new bridge in the Coromandel, or we could make sure that new suburb of Peacocke has more stuff. I think we'll go for the Peacocke, won't we? What do you think? Yeah, there's only one guy to vote against it, that's what we'll do.
The Coromandel and Thames are very wary of that.
This may be efficient, but they believe it would also be unfair.
This eastern Waikato unitary council by the way, this idea has deep roots. Back in 2012 Coromandel and Hauraki residents gathered more than 1,500 signatures calling for just that, a council that represented Hauraki and Coromandel, keeping the decision making local. And such a model would return regional rates and jobs and environmental management to the communities they actually affect rather than happening in Hamilton, and ensure representatives live with the consequences of their decision.
Thames Coromandel councillors will be discussing this on May 26th. Here's the thing though, have they asked their ratepayers? No they have not, because the government said you've got three months to do this, it's 10 weeks away, you've got to do it, just do it.
They don't have the time to consult. Nobody does up and down the country. And this is happening up and down the country.
In the Wairarapa, Masterton, Carterton and South Wairarapa are considering a combined rural unitary council because they don't want to be ruled by Wellington.
In Taranaki, iwi and local mayors support splitting the region into two unitary councils that represent the natural north south and urban rural division. Hāwera does not want to be ruled by New Plymouth.
Waitomo and Otorohanga are developing a King Country unitary proposal because they don't want to be run by Hamilton.
And in the South Island, Selwyn's mayor also wants to protect Selwyn's identity because there they're talking about the Canterbury councils merging into a Greater Christchurch super city and they are not sure they want that.
The mayor, Lydia, says it's an incredibly short timeframe, we can't consult with our ratepayers but we need to make sure we make the right decision. And they're not happy about it. Waimakariri and Selwyn ratepayers have expressed reservations of being ruled by Christchurch.
And this is a real fear up and down the country. The move to rationalise local government could see the big cities and towns grabbing all the power and money.
Andrew Dickens is a broadcaster with Newstalk ZB. - where this article was sourced.
6 comments:
National showed their intention running roughshod over locally set speed limits where I live. The changes cost thousands and the streets are less safe. Big government ignoring people close to the ground is their way, these stupid politicians. I’d heard rumours about how unintelligent Luxon was from his corporate life but I didn’t expect to see it so obviously in the public sector.
Thames and The Coromandel has already seen this in action when the regional council directed rates to pay for a fancy velodrome on the grounds of a private school in Cambridge that few Coromandelites would ever see or use. Also covering the cost of public transport around Hamilton.
There’s one thing you can be certain of; the bigger councils become the less effective and efficient they will be. Of course the politicians all know that.
Take your partners for the centralization waltz, which cyclically and inevitably follows the decentralisation waltz.
It's an old trick for new managers to make out they are doing something 'real' for 'their' organisation
Same old, same old.
Our country, population wise, is smaller than hundreds of cities world wide.
How about centralised allocation of annual resources, then local management of their efficient use and allocation.
And the people in charge locally are accountable to local people.
Like the after work beer at te (spelling mistake, but it looks better) pub after work, where real accountability used to happen.
If the money runs out, stiff shit, and make it very hard to get a top up, without obvious natural disaster justifications.
Ameni
Surely any local population should be able to set up a council for themselves and retain the rates they provide for that purpose? Isn't that how towns started?
All the government needs to do is make a law to cap rates to the rate of inflation unless a local referendum has agreed to more for some purpose. I wonder if the Tauranga ratepayers would then have voted for large rates increases to pay for a new $100million+ council building.
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