Defending local democracy
The Buller District Council’s submission on the Simplifying Local Government reform proposal exemplifies why a central government ‘one-solution-to-fit-them-all’ won’t work. Buller District Council Mayor Chris...
Category : Local Democracy
A logical district merger
Image: Diagram of possible Unitary Authority boundary. Bill Foster, Chair of the Northern Action Group, explains the reasoning behind merging the Kaipara District with North...
Regional Governance – asking the right questions
By Dr Deon Swiggs Chair, Environment Canterbury & LGNZ Regional Sector. Regional governance is the capability to plan, fund, and deliver decisions and services that...
Realities of water reform
Will the water reforms fix council metrics, or simply shift the pressure, asks David Hammond, the Head of Consulting and Public Sectors at Tribe Executive....
Government knows best
Regional councils have worked for almost four decades, but now the Government, in its second year of office, has decided, “local government has lost the...
Sharing the pain
Reports from Australia indicate the local government sector has reached a crossroads, where federal and state funding no longer covers the extra services and responsibilities...
They just don’t care
Local Government in our new Aotearoa is only ‘local democracy’ in theory and not in reality, reflected in the small percentage of eligible voters who...
Trapped within their bubbles
Peter Dunne writes: “The great Scottish poet Robbie Burns’ famous quote, ‘O wad some Power the giftie gie us to see oursels as ithers see...
We offer practical knowledge to policymakers
Voting in the local body elections is in progress and we are already turning our attention to the national elections next year, with the three-year...
More transparency please
Image: The Tauranga City Council administration building. The Office of the Auditor-General says requests to inquire into spending decisions made by Tauranga City Council in...