Welcome to Local Aotearoa. We’re currently in the process of experimenting with the site, so please excuse any hiccups along the way.
All in Infrastructure
Despite overwhelming evidence that water meters are objectively one of the most cost effective ways for communities to promote more efficient water use, quickly identify and prevent water wastage, lower costs of delivering water, and buy precious time to bring new water supplies and infrastructure online, few issues make politicians duck for cover like water metering.
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has finally gotten his overhaul of Auckland Transport over-the-line with Local Government and Transport Minister Simeon Brown, marking a significant win for the mayor who promised as a candidate to get rid of council-controlled organisations “as quickly as possible.”
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has reversed course on plans for proposals for Regional Deals to be by “invitation only” and has now invited all councils to work together with their regional colleagues to submit proposals with the region’s top five priorities and projects. The first deal is expected to be finalised by December 2025, with three deals anticipated to be in place just in time for the 2026 General Election.
Just released documents from Transport Minister Simeon Brown reveal that new commuter rail services for the Manawatū line are already under threat. The new trains have been given just three years to show their worth or else face being redeployed elsewhere. The ultimatum comes despite ongoing uncertainties around central government funding for track maintenance and renewals on the Manawatū line which are already creating risks about the potential performance of the new trains.
In telling councils on Q&A that supporting economic growth shouldn't be a priority for them, Local Government minister Simeon Brown has ended up awkwardly contradicting his own Regional Deals framework which talks up the importance of local government supporting economic growth and lists it as the first "priority objective" for the forthcoming deals.
Former Hastings District Council Mayor, National Party MP, and president of Local Government New Zealand Lawrence Yule has been appointed as a Crown Manager to both Wairoa District and Hawke’s Bay Regional Councils in order to oversee flood protection works for the town of Wairoa, with central government having invested $70 million in the vital infrastructure work.
Hot on the heels of having largely reannounced Labour’s Budget 2023 announcement for new trains for the lower North Island, it now appears the National-led Coalition Government’s Local Water Done Well reform package is slowly morphing into something that looks very similar to the previous Labour Government’s Affordable Water reforms.
Carterton Mayor Ron Mark is apparently trying to get a road tunnel through the Remutaka Hill back on the regional infrastructure agenda an email supplied to Local Aotearoa reveals, reigniting a proposal that’s been kicked around in various forms since at least the 1960s, if not even earlier.
In a strongly worded rebuke of Wellington City Council’s decision-making processes, the Court of Appeal has sided with opponents of road and parking changes along Thorndon Quay, even though it has found the decision has improved safety along the route and won’t be ordering the work undertaken so far to be undone.
In the National-led Coalition’s third quarter action plan one item hasn’t received the attention it deserves - Cabinet deciding of the framework for National’s city and regional deals. So what might be on the cards for local government when negotiating these deals finally gets underway?
