Unprecedented Civil Disobedience

26,519 ratepayers in Rodney and North Shore have not paid their ARC rates

The ARC is finally releasing some information on the number of ratepayers who have failed to pay their rates - 26,519 ratepayers in Rodney and North Shore City, which were due on 6th August. This is 23% of all ratepayers in that area.

As at today's date a further 51,888 ratepayers in Waitakere City and Manukau City had not paid their rates. This represents 35% of ratepayers in those cities.

This is civil disobedience on an unprecedented scale.

So far the ARC has not released information on the number of default notices it will issue - and when.

The ARC claims that these figures are the same level as the local councils have experienced over the years.

However my information from North Shore City council is that generally the level of non-payment on a first instalment is normally well below 10%. And the figure for ratepayers in default at the end of the year is about 1%.

The ARC also claims to have collected more rates than it budgeted for - but why should any council forecast such a high level of payment default?

In this instance the ARC may well be in breach of the financial management provisions of the Local Government Act, which require all councils to ensure security of all its income - including rates.

On these figures the ARC has certainly failed to secure its rating income - with more than 78,000 ratepayers not having paid by the due date, this is a whopping 30% of ratepayers.

Why should any council forecast that 30% of its ratepayers were not going to pay?

This must be convincing evidence for Minister Chris Carter to step in with a Ministerial review.

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