Wellington Civic Trust on Today's Local Government Commission Announcement

The LGC preference is out; due process follows. May facts and opportunities drive the outcome. It’s all about realising the potential of Wellington; so leadership is the key - not dominance, but that best mix of the practical and the visionary.

This potential will be wasted if current activities slow or freeze while energies divert into management games of restructuring and of all staff having to reapply for their own jobs; followed by corny efficiencies like imposing standard flower beds across every park between Heretaunga and Houghton Bay.

Firstly, we want to emphasize that the decision should not be framed just around economic efficiency or competitive pressures. Wellington is a distinctive place because of its geography, its history, and its role as the national capital. Newtown is as different from Naenae as both are from Plimmerton or Pinehaven – but residents of each are all part of “Wellington” as seen from elsewhere. Local diversity of community within this Wellington deserves to be celebrated - this can be achieved by a better balance of local and regional powers and functions than the present arrangements. The present councils' structure has shown that they are incapable of being sustained as a way of letting Wellington prosper.

With just half a million people, Wellington is still a small place in Australasian terms. It needs a single political leader and champion to represent us in national affairs; and a blend of local democracy plus operational agility relevant to today’s wired-up world. The present councils have failed the first test of collaboration by not all coming together to review regional governance. Any agreements in principle reached in recent years by the Mayoral Forum falter from the lack of ‘binding powers’ in the law.

Whatever the solution, the Civic Trust wants to see Wellington’s status as the national capital protected and strengthened. Any new arrangements should strive to ensure that Wellington remains, as they say - the coolest little capital in the world, a distinctive attribute in which all citizens can take pride and with which they feel a sense of affiliation.

To the Commission, The Civic Trust supported change on these terms:
• no more than two tiers;
• one rating authority;
• administrative overheads rationalised enough to ease pressure on rates – allowing that there will inevitably be ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ in the process of ‘equalising’ the rating base;
• subsidiarity guiding the allocation of functions between tiers; what is best done locally should be done locally, and local democracy is to be enhanced through the new governance structures.
• resource sharing between tiers to be commensurate with the division of powers and responsibilities. Either there are local boards or there are not; there should be, and they should be able and equipped to act.
• the Mayor will be elected ‘at large’;
• Maori representation will be negotiated to the satisfaction of tangata whenua;
• if Wairarapa forms a unitary authority, help will be provided to refinance the debt;
• CCOs are not to be created where the service provided is a public good and a natural monopoly. i.e., the ‘three waters’ and public transport.

www.wellingtoncivictrust.org

ENDS

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