Reform one year away

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 239, 12 April 1988, Page 1

Reform one year away

Waimarino District Council has 12 months to prove itself or it will be swallowed up by a larger, regional council. That is the view of District Manager John Murrihy, which he gave to district councillors elect at the steering committee meeting of Wednesday March 30 The council elect was dhcussing the Local and Regional Government Reform discussion document which was released by the government earlier this y^ar. The councillors met to decide on a submission on the reforms to go to the Officials Coordinating Committee on Local Governmment. Mr Murrihy summarized the document for councillors. He said the reforms talked about would hopefully leave intact smaller authorities such as the Waimarino District Council. The government is determined to have regional government, said Mr Murrihy. It would cover such activities as education, catchment work, energy, and health boards. The reform could see either 15 regions in New Zealand about the size of the present Wanganui United Council, or around eight super regions, similar to the provinces that the country was once divided into. The aim of the reforms would be efficiency. "We've got to have efficiency most definitely, but we need to think about people because that's what local government is all

about," said Mr Murrihy. He said the council should not submit that it did not want regionalization because the commission would ignore the rest of the submission. Cr Griffiths asked what resistance was likely by other district councils, and whether the Waimarino District Council should 'stand up and be counted'. "The government is talking about devolution, they couldn't care less," said Mr Murrihy. "It's not democratic, they'll make a decision and it doesn't even have to go to parliament. And we accept it," said Councillor Bill Hard- " ing. Response Summary Mr Murrihy gave councillors a summary of the Local Government Association's preliminary response to the reform document. This response covered six topics including the role of local authorities. It suggested it should be kept close to the people to enable responsiveness and participation. The need for an independent watchdog over the local government system was acknowledged. Under the heading 'Structure' the response said regional unities should only be created for services where it is not effective, efficient or appropriate for thc services to be run by district units. Creation of regions should be geographically and economically integrated and socially focussed and boundaries Turnp. 3

Reform one year away

From p. 1 should be those of central government agencies and departments, said the response paper. Under 'Functions' the response called for the transfer of government responsibilities to local authorities to occur only after consultation with local government, provided that satisfactory funding arrangements are made. Central government should be encouraged to contract to local government any services that could be done better by local government. Under the heading 'Local Government Revenue' the association called for local government funding to be locally determined and derived.

Under this heading funding methods were outlined including the normal property tax as well as an alternative local tax for non property services not able to be charged for individually. User pays policies were recommended by the association. The council agreed with the Local Government Association's response to the document and asked Mr Murrihy to use his summary as a basis for their submission to the commission. Closing date for submissions was Friday April 8.