Peter Williams: Can Councils be Capped?

The status quo is unsustainable

Cameron Bagrie is a proud son of Central Otago who’s become one of the most influential economic voices in New Zealand. Back near his old home town of Clyde this week, he told a business audience in Cromwell that local councils “just have to learn to live within their means.” He wasn’t making small talk. He was signalling a shift in the way local government is about to be run — and funded.

Bagrie is part of a small group of advisers helping draft new legislation to cap local authority rates rises. The goal is simple: rein in what has become one of the biggest and most consistent drivers of household cost increases. In the past year, local body rates have been a major contributor to inflation, pushing the Consumer Price Index above the 3 percent target band that the Reserve Bank is supposed to maintain.

Matua Kahurangi: $49 Million for kapa haka

What exactly Is this money for?

New Zealanders should be asking some very hard questions about where their money is going. The government has committed over $49 million in funding for Te Matatini, the national kapa haka festival, through to the 2027/28 financial year. That includes a $48.7 million three-year allocation announced in Budget 2024. To put this into perspective, recent annual funding has been around $17 million. This is a huge jump for what is essentially a performance festival, and it really does raise some serious questions about priorities.

Bob Edlin: Mayor Whanau and Ayesha Verrall have won Jonesie Awards....

Maybe the media missed it – but Mayor Whanau and Ayesha Verrall have won Jonesie Awards (which were named after Guess Who?)

A Google search failed to steer me to a report about the 2025 Jonesie Awards in our major newspapers or from our major broadcasters.

That doesn’t necessarily mean this annual event was not covered by the “legacy media”. Maybe their reportage would have been winkled out if I had used other search words.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: I'm not getting excited about the money spent on that dance competition

Look, I hate wasteful spending as much as you do, but yeah, I'm just not getting that excited about the money that's been spent on that dance competition.

I just don't think that the comparisons between the money that was put into that and the nonsense that councils get up to are fair. I mean, that is certainly what the Taxpayers Union is trying to say.

Patrick Carroll: 7 Ridiculous Examples of Government Waste in 2023

To stop out-of-control spending, it will take more than replacing politicians and bureaucrats.

Almost nobody doubts that the federal government wastes a lot of money. Every day we hear stories of fraud, mismanagement, and misplaced priorities that cost taxpayers millions, and sometimes billions, of dollars.

Kate Hawkesby: Taxpayers deserve better than this wasteful spending

You’ve got to think there’s something very rotten in the state of the public service in this country that they’re carrying on —in some quarters where they know full well they’re getting cancelled— that they’re carrying on hiring people, working on projects, spending money, commissioning work.  

Why? They’re not going anywhere. Three Waters, light rail, Let’s get Wellington Moving... why are people on these projects persevering when they must know it’s over? They’re gone, surely the spending stops. It’s reckless and wasteful, and smacks of a deluded sense of entitlement that they can carry on in the false belief —or maybe just arrogance— that wasting taxpayers' money on contracts and outlay trumps the reality, which is they’re toast.

Victoria O'Brien: Brand Spend Blowout By New Firearms Regulator

The new Firearms Safety Authority (“FSA”), a unit recently set up within the NZ Police to administer civilian firearms ownership in NZ, has revealed it will be spending $500k just on marketing and advertising in the year to June 2024, while new branded uniforms are also expected. The total for salary & wages alone is expected to be almost $50m, up 70% from total that the NZ Police spent in the year to June 2021 while the number of licenced firearms owners have fallen.