Select Committee Told To Scrap Greater Powers For Local Government Commission

Adding yet another layer of legislation to the statute books will not improve local government performance, infrastructure provision, nor enhance local democracy, Democrats for Social Credit Deputy Leader and Local Government Spokesperson, Chris Leitch told the select committee hearing submissions on another Local Government Amendment bill.

Addressing the Local Government Select Committee, Mr Leitch said the bill, which purports to “implement a set of reforms to enable improved service delivery and infrastructure provision at the local government level”, would result in exactly the opposite.

“A major thrust of this bill empowers the Local Government Commission to force reorganisations and amalgamations, and to transfer water, transport and roading assets to non elected bodies with the potential for eventual sale“.

‘Carving out services such as water, transport and roading from councils and setting up private sector-like Council Controlled Organisations will simply usher in a new and expensive un-elected bureaucracy involving outrageous private-sector-style director payments, highly paid consultants, and costly empire building’.

“The bill gives the new CCOs the power to borrow money on the open market which will burden ratepayers with yet greater interest payments, siphoning off money that could and should by spent on infrastructure’.

“What this bill will do is reduce the ability of local communities to decide what is best for them, with the “appropriate checks and balances” (such as polls) contained in the bill being extremely costly and time consuming for ratepayers, acting in a voluntary capacity, to garner support for’.

‘The fact that the Minister is given powers to “direct the Commission to have regard to Government policy that relates to the Commission’s responsibilities, duties, and powers” confirms this is another attack on democracy and public decision making’.

‘If government policy becomes “the amalgamation of all existing councils into 10 super councils” the Commission will have its sights directed to that outcome’.

The committee was told it should scrap the proposal to confer greater powers on the Local Government Commission as current legislation is adequate to allow issues the bill to be determined by local decision making procedures, as they should be.

ends

© Scoop Media