Govt 'too centralised

Press, 7 April 1979, Page 5

Govt ' too centralised

PA Dunedin New Zealand’s political system is no better than that of an under-developed country where the central government insists on making all the important decisions and controlling all important administration itself, says the president of the Municipal Association, and Mayor of Palmerston North (Mr B. G. C. Elwood). In an address to delegates at the association’s national conference at Dunedin, Mr Elwood said that there was not enough power sharing and revenue sharing between local and central Government for either institution to do its job properly.

“Central Government in our system of democracy is too busy and too involved in our lives,” he said. “In our unique form of democracy, only Israel has a similar form. Local government represents the single restraint or balance to the unlimited political power of the governing party holding, as is possible, a minority of popular votes.

"In few countries in the Western world has the balance drifted so heavily in favour of centralised control of political power and financial resources as in New Zealand,” Mr Elwood said. "Centralisation or concentrated power is the feature to be found in under-developed emerging nations.

“In the last 100 years New Zealand has turned

from an undeveloped to a developed nation. In terms of the sharing of political power New Zealand is out of step with the developed nations of the Western world,” he said. The last year had been difficult for local government in its relationship with central Government, according to Mr Elwood. “The difficulties have come to a head over the question of the future financing of local government and the issue remains unresolved.”

He said the local government share had fallen during the last few years, and it was urgent for the Government to introduce realistic revenue sharing. Local government was anxious to take on new governing responsibilities but not until there was a fairer basis of financing local government. To begin with if local government had to rely on land tax for its revenue then any tax collected by the Government on land transactions should reasonably be considered a source of finance for local government, according to Mr Elwood. “From this source it could be possible to obtain SISM a year or local government purposes,” he said.

There was also an urgent need for local bodies to be involved in formal pre-Budgetary consultations.

Important legislation was slipping through Parliament unchallenged because

local authorities were not being given time to fully consider it, the Mayor of Wellington (Mr E. M. C. Fowler) said.

“I believe that the Government is treating local government with far too much disdain in the time local government has had to consider new legislation,” he said.

He urged that there be a greater consultation with local bodies before the preparation of draft legislation.