Politicians duck for cover on Head Start
If New Zealand is going to undertake the most significant reform of local government in a generation, it needs a far more careful, considered and...
Tag : New Zealand local government reform
Tsunami of change for local government
The risk is not necessarily the reforms themselves – it is the cumulative weight of implementing them all at once, writes Mike Doesburg, Wynn Williams...
Māori and local government: navigating shifting legislation
The Government’s programme reflects a coherent, if contested, policy position that Māori interests in local governance should be accommodated through targeted statutory provisions and direct...
Turning vision into reality
The next phase of local government reform is about taking the foundations established through priorities, community voice, evidence and process, and applying them to three...
Costly, frustrating Head Start process
Image: Wellington Mayor Andrew Little. (Source: US Embassy) By Natasha Jojoa Burling A costly process Wellington City Council says the Head Start failure was a...
Important we get changes right
We’re at a critical point for the country’s infrastructure and change is on the horizon as a result of the challenges we’re facing, says Philip...
Local democracy swept aside
If amalgamation weakened accountability and drove costs up in 1989, is there any reason to believe that even more heavy-handed mergers can deliver the opposite...
And the early winners are…
Each potential coalition of councils has essentially had to outsource the work around amalgamation to a consultancy because of a lack of internal capacity and capability, write...
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...
Reflecting on a long career in local government
Image: Paula Southgate and her husband Greg Forsyth at the Peacocke Bridge blessing ceremony in September 2024. Twenty-four years ago, when I stood for election, I...