Right to know – withholding information
Image: Birmingham City Council House. In our local government system, local authorities are served by two separate yet equally important groups: the elected councillors who...
Category : Local government reform
The central-local government conflict a colonial legacy
Image: Julius Vogel After decades of the central government dictating to local councils under the 1989 and 2002 Local Government Acts, local authorities have danced...
Let us in on the discussion
Most countries have a form of regional administration for public and environmental services. Some things, such as river catchments, flood control, public transport services and...
Councils relieved of ‘well-being’ obligations
The Government is taking back central services from local councils, leaving them to “deliver essential services and core infrastructure”. “Earlier this year, the Prime Minister...
Removing well-being responsibility from local government
By Peter Dunne. The water pipe, which burst beneath Wellington’s Cambridge Terrace on Wednesday morning [21 August], could not have chosen a better moment to...
Responding to serious challenges TOGETHER
By Alan Pollard, Civil Contractors New Zealand, Chief Executive As I reflect on the increasingly challenging situation we find ourselves in – politically, economically, socially,...
RMA reform needs to be done right
By Simon Court, ACT party infrastructure and local government spokesperson, and civil and environmental engineer with 23-years’ experience in roles for the private sector and...
Elections are over – let the triennium begin
By Mike Doesburg, a partner at Wynn Williams who acts for councils on a wide range of local government and environmental issues. The reality of...
More Government information on its RMA reform
Infrastructure minister David Parker gave his fourth speech in recent months about resource management reform through a framework the MfE has worked out closely with...
Facing the RMA reform
As we inch closer to the repeal of the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA), some are questioning whether the reform package will be the panacea to...