Paul C
We are again at the time of the year when councillors (and staff) are asking to attend the Local Government New Zealand Inc. conference which is to be held this year at Blenheim. The group’s proposed 2020 conference was cancelled because of the countrywide lockdown.
In 2002 the government saw fit to enact the Local Government Act 2002. All things change and it was probably time to replace the two separate pieces of legislation which governed how municipalities and counties were run.
Sec.10 of the Act now reads
Purpose of local government
(1)
The purpose of local government is—
(a)
to enable democratic local decision-making and action by, and on behalf of, communities; and
(b)
to promote the social, economic, environmental, and cultural well-being of communities in the present and for the future.
(2)
[Repealed]
Section 10(1)(b): replaced, on 14 May 2019, by section 6(1) of the Local Government (Community Well-being) Amendment Act 2019 (2019 No 17).
Section 10(2): repealed, on 14 May 2019, by section 6(2) of the Local Government (Community Well-being) Amendment Act 2019 (2019 No 17).
What the Act also did was to give local authorities some broad-reaching powers by saying they could pretty much do anything they wanted provided they thought that what they wanted to do was necessary for the purposes of s1(b).
So with this year’s conference imminent, councils will be deciding how many ‘delegates’ will be funded to attend. That will not only include elected members but also people from those employed by the councils.
My question is therefore, why should ratepayers’ funds be used for this junket?
I would like to go a bit further and ask: who funds Local Government New Zealand? They obviously find lots to involve themselves in – just look at their website. That gives me the impression that they don’t think the act which governs local authorities is sufficient.
And who is it that is running our local authorities? It used to be highly qualified Town and County Clerks, usually members of the Chartered Institute of Secretaries and often also Chartered Accountants. On top of that, there was usually a City or County Engineer fully qualified in their own discipline. And also there would be a qualified Town Planner, usually a member of the Planning Institute although sometimes a planning qualified Registered Surveyor. Sometimes the Town Planner would be shared between local authorities.
That sensible arrangement had now gone and local authorities are full of nameless people most with no experience of actually running anything. Large numbers of them have degrees in environmental science or in resource management. Neither is practical, the latter being only an explanation of the RMA. They are certainly not planners as planners used to be. Planning is a discipline on its own. I have to wonder just what many of these people do as, as soon as any input is required, they call in outside assistance.
So all these people get together for an annual conference where they plot and plan on how they can all work together to deceive and hoodwink the general public – the very people they are supposed to work for, not against.
Of course, there is always a place for cooperation and sharing of ideas. After all the accountants, engineers, surveyors and lawyers have done that very thing for many years. But surely this situation with the Local Government New Zealand group has gone too far. If they want to have a conference, that’s fair enough because they are after all an incorporated society and likely are compelled to have an AGM. What I would like to know is the origin of the society. I can’t find anything in the Act which requires it, so can only assume it is established of their own volition. So why is it funded by local authorities? I can only assume it is because they consider it to be in the best interests of the community and is set up by the wide-ranging authorities given to them under the act.
But is it? Do we benefit in anyway?
We now appear to be controlled by a whole lot of faceless/nameless bureaucrats who control our every movement with absolutely no comeback. On top of that, our elected councils are powerless, consisting mainly of do-gooders elected because they are the best of a bad bunch. No one leading a busy productive life will bother to stand for a council today.
While not wanting to denigrate the few good councillors (hard to find but they are there!), what most councils end up with is the dross. The average ratepayer would love to see their elected representatives actually making a difference or at the very least earning their salary. Alas, most are invisible.
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