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As speculation mounts over who might be appointed to be Local Government Minister Simeon Brown’s Crown Observer on Wellington City Council, it’s worth considering why exactly the intervention has been made and what areas of expertise you’d need in order to be able to best investigate and assist the council with the areas of concern that triggered the intervention in the first place.
While most eyes were on the drama unfolding with Wellington City Council, another significant intervention was unfolding with the Coalition introducing a last minute amendment to spike moves by Otago Regional Council to notify their land and water plan. The flexing of Parliament’s legislative muscle in this way is a stark reminder of how governments of both stripes have finite tolerance for councils not aligning with their national policy programmes.
In a widely expected move, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Observer to Wellington City Council. With elected members seeming poised to accept the appointment in the next 10 working days, what unfolds over the coming weeks and months from both them as well as what the observer might uncover on the operational side of the council will be critical in determining whether further intervention is required or if things can return to normal at the end of their appointment.
Someone at Newstalk ZB has gotten a bit excited by claiming that Queenstown was just “days away” from being called a city. The problem is that it isn’t. The definition of what constitutes a city in New Zealand has been continually evolving throughout our history and Queenstown isn’t quite there yet.
Throughout the unfolding drama around Wellington City Council, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown keeps saying that the council is accountable to “Wellington ratepayers”. So what gives, and what does the law say about who local authorities are actually accountable to?
With Environment Canterbury, Kaipara District Council, and Tauranga City Council all having been replaced by commissioners in recent years, they all offer clues on what could be in store for Wellington City Council in the coming weeks and months if the installation of commissioners to replace elected representatives is genuinely on the cards.
Wellington’s beltway has been buzzing for months that Local Government Minister Simeon Brown will, at any moment, finally drop a sword of Damocles that’s apparently been hovering over Wellington City Council and install commissioners. More fuel was poured on the fire following remarks from Finance Minister Nicola Willis, Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop, and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, but how did we get to this point, how real is the threat of intervention now, and what steps are available to Local Government Minister Simeon Brown?
After an acrimonious meeting that saw councillors trading barbs like irate Air Traffic Controllers, and a member of the public ejected from the gallery, Wellington City Council has voted nine to seven to amend its long-term plan on the basis of not selling its 34 percent share in Wellington Airport. But if you think the airport sale has been permanently grounded, think again.
The saga over whether or not Wellington City Council should sell its 34 percent stake in Wellington Airport has highlighted potential gaps in the guidelines around how conflicts of interest are defined and managed in local government. To better protect councils, elected members, and iwi representatives, there's a need for the Auditor-General to update the advice they provide to the sector.
Political party affiliated or independent? Does it make a difference? How much do voters care? What are the advantages and disadvantages? With council elections little more than a year away an age old debate is rearing its head over the role of political parties in local government and the merits and pitfalls of candidates standing as party aligned or independents.
While discussions about possible council amalgamations in the Wellington region continue to bubble away, Local Aotearoa can reveal that the Wellington Mayoral Forum was briefed in May 2024 by Local Government New Zealand and Simpson Grierson about the reorganisation pathways available to them, including how to bypass a referendum on an amalgamation proposal.
The Auckland mayoralty is often touted as the second most important job in New Zealand politics behind being the Prime Minister. But how true is that sentiment and what makes the position so influential compared to other central and local government roles?
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.
Local Aotearoa can exclusively reveal that over the past two financial years councils across the country have spent nearly $439,000 handling code of conduct complaints about their elected representatives, with Invercargill City Council incurring the biggest costs of all.
During his speech to LGNZ's SuperLocal conference, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon claimed that local government representatives asked him for more financial support, "usually in the form of cold, hard cash." The problem? The Prime Minister can't name a single mayor, councillor, or community board member who's told him that, leading to questions about the veracity of the Prime Minister's claim.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by everything that’s going on. It feels like there's an ever growing and seemingly endless list of things that you want to, or feel expected to, care about. It can be disheartening to see those in power often plow ahead with changes without any interest in listening, let alone compromising. Instead of disengaging, it's important to keep on trying to make a difference, as nothing will ever get fixed if we walk away from challenging issues and difficult times.
Despite a growing trend of councils opening up their workshops to the public, Greater Wellington Regional Council is doubling down on refusing to open up its council workshops to the public, a move which is in clear defiance of the Ombudsman’s recommendations that councils should take an “open by default” approach to such workshops and briefings in order to better promote transparency and trust in local government processes.
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.
In a surprise move, New Zealand First have announced they are introducing a member’s bill in Parliament to disestablish Auckland Transport, seemingly stealing a march on its governing partners seeing as Local Government Minister Simeon Brown had, only a few weeks earlier, indicating that Cabinet would be deciding the future of Auckland Transport later this year.
Despite having campaigned as vocal champions of localism in opposition to the previous Labour Government’s Three Waters reforms, the National-led Coalition Government has been ruthless in issuing diktats and threats at councils to reduce their independence since coming into office in moves that suggest their commitment to localism was only ever performative at best.
