By Don Hewison (ScEdD, ChEdD) and sent to government ministers in October 2024
I recently read Hon Simeon Brown’s speech at the LGNZ conference (dated 22 August 2024). In that document I read “If you or your fellow elected members have ideas that can help reduce rates and improve local governance, please reach out to me or my DIA officials—we’re keen to hear from you.” Given that this document is in the public arena, I accept the offer to reach out to government and all people with ideas that I have re Local Government.
First a bit about myself –I am an 80yo retiree having spent approx. 33 years in adult education. Since retiring I completed two doctorates with a focus on education, The last six to eight years has been primarily spent studying the Local Government Act (LGA) and other related Acts. Two years ago, I wrote a document that could be used to help laypeople understand what councils should be doing, rather that listening to councils telling us what they think they should do. Even with an offer to do some training courses for free, our mayor was not interested.
Like many people in New Zealand, I see my pension being eaten away with rates, rates that will double in approx. 6 years, and double again in another six years. At that rate, if I live for another 18 years my rates will be 8 times what they are now. At the same time council debt is forecasted to grow from approx. $1b to $2b in approx. 6 years. I am aware of what would happen if council went ‘belly up’ after a disaster – our retirement assets would dramatically decrease. Why? Because if a council goes broke, they have the right to take money off the ratepayers – even if that means placing a mortgage/increasing the mortgage on your home. If that doesn’t work, they can sell your home to get the money they need to repay the debt.
I hear from government statements such as ‘getting back to basics’, ‘get local government back on track’ and other public statements such as ‘council is off the rails’, council is broken, etc. and I am dismayed. I have yet to see or hear someone in a position to do something, build a remedy based on what is already in legislation.
There is good background to local government in Te Ara’s website, and a heap of good information in the relevant Acts. But what is being done to help ordinary people understand what it is all about? Only when the people understand, will councils be held accountable.
From Te Ara’s website re the introduction of the LGA in 2002;
“This forced councils to pay greater attention to the needs and preferences of their citizens, while giving community members the information they needed to participate actively in local democracy.” [i]
Some eight years later (circa 2010), during a review of the LGA 2002, the Hon Rodney Hide wrote:
“The Local Government Act 2002 is being amended to enable ratepayers to exert greater influence on the work of their councils.” [ii]
An easy way to reflect on whether councils bothered to respond to this amendment is to think carefully about this requirement: under Subpart 1—Local authorities, Governance and management section. Section 39 Governance principles states:
“A local authority must act in accordance with the following principles in relation to its governance:
-a local authority should ensure that the role of democratic governance of the community, and the expected conduct of elected members, is clear and understood by elected members and the community; and”
Note: that the action ‘act in accordance with’ is a ‘must do’ action, and the following principles are a ‘should’ result. By the way ‘should has a definition of “You use should when you are saying what would be the right thing to do or the right state for something to be in.” (Collins Dictionary [online], not “it doesn’t have to be done” as some people think.
How much of the local government role of democratic governance and the expected conduct of elected members is clear and understood by you? I would be interested in your answer, because by now, after living in NZ for several years, it should clear and understood by most of us who make up the public communities.
A few years ago, the following quote appeared on the website of Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ):
“Local government is our ‘basic’ level of democracy. It provides a mechanism for people to participate in local public affairs and have a say in the way in which their communities are run and the local services provided. It also enables people to learn about democracy and become ‘active citizens’. Local democracy is more than simply voting. As these ‘quick facts’ highlight, a healthy democracy is also characterised by active competition for seats and elected governance bodies that not only represent their communities but are also representative of their communities, that is community diversity, should also be reflected around the council table.” [iii]
A summary of that article could be:
A healthy democracy would;
- provide a mechanism for people to participate; and
- provide a mechanism for people to have a say (and that should include knowing that the people are being listened to [writer’s comment]); and
- enable people to learn about democracy; and
- help people become ‘active citizens’.
Surveys have been regularly undertaken to measure and report on the quality of life in cities throughout New Zealand.
The report of the survey in 2020 is known as the Quality of Life Survey 2020, Topline Report [iv]. On various pages of this report are some insights into the lack of democracy in local government. On page three Under Key Highlights – “Council processes”, are the results of two questions: “30% are confident in their local council’s decision-making” and “31% believe the public has an influence on council decision-making”. These figures seem to remain reasonably constant in other reports.
If two characteristics of a healthy democracy are ‘provides a mechanism for people to participate’ and ‘provides a mechanism for people to have a say’, then do these survey results indicate that approximately 70% of the respondents cannot consider that they have a healthy democratic local authority?
The other two characteristics of a healthy democracy are “enable people to learn about democracy”; and “help people become ‘active citizens’” could be resolved with a good civics education programme aimed at adult learners.
A few days ago it was revealed that our council had spent $2.5m on a life-style block next to the Zoo. They apparently want to develop lodge-type facilities – for who??? Probably tourists. I understand that all of this was done behind closed doors with no provision for the democratic decision-making process that legislation changes in 2002 and 2010 was all about.
When these facts are combined, i.e. the LGA 2002 was written to restore loss of democracy, the LGA 2002 was amended approximately 10 years later to strengthen democracy, another 10 years later, the Topline Report indicates an unhealthy local government, and council(s) denying people of their rights to be involved in decision-making, etc., then the question ‘Why the disparity between ‘what should be’ and ‘what is?’ must be asked.
Councils must be democratically orientated, e.g.:
Some of the uses of ‘democratic’ in the LGA 2002 are:
- ‘democratic and effective local government’ (section 3; – purpose of the Act)
- ‘democratic local decision-making and action’ (section 10,1,a; – purpose of local government)
- ‘democratically accountable manner’ (section 14,1,a,I; – principles relating to local authorities)
- ‘democratic governance’ (section 39,a; – governance principles)
- ‘democratically accountable’ (section 41,3; – governing bodies)
All the ‘democratic’ allied words will have the same meaning.
A quote from Legislation Design and Advisory Committee, – Chapter 13. Interpretation and application of legislation, Part 2”[v] , is:
“parts of speech and grammatical forms of words defined in any legislation have a corresponding meaning (for example, if an act defines “supply”, then “supplied” and “supplier” will have a corresponding meaning)”
Another word that is mis-used is the word lead/leadership, as found in the LGA section 41:
“41A Role and powers of mayors
(1) The role of a mayor is to provide leadership to—
(a) the other members of the territorial authority; and
(b) the people in the district of the territorial authority.
(2) Without limiting subsection (1), it is the role of a mayor to lead the development of the territorial authority’s plans (including the long-term plan and the annual plan), policies, and budgets for consideration by the members of the territorial authority.”
This is effectively a statement of two duties imposed on the mayor through their declaration of office. Both ‘lead’ and ‘leadership’ will have a corresponding meaning. Dictionaries have two possible meanings – simplified to a) ‘to control a group of people’ and b)‘to guide someone to a place especially by going in front’. Which meaning is in context with the purpose and content of the LGA? If it is a) then a mayor would take control of the 10-year plan (which they do) and at the same time control the members and people in the district, and destroy democracy. If it is b) and the mayor guides elected members and the people to fulfil the requirements of legislation, then democracy is promoted/enhanced, and the mayor would guide and not control the development of the 10-year plan or any other decision making.
Some other significant pointers:
- Why is central government getting involved with tinkering with local government? The Public Service Commission website ‘How the public sector is organised’, clearly shows that Local Government is listed under The Public Service and at the same time states that it is a public service entity separate from central government.
- The LGA clearly states “A local authority is a body corporate with perpetual succession”. (LGA s12,(1)).
- The Unit Titles Act clearly outlines information, duties, who gets to vote, etc. of a body corporate
- The Legislation Act (and associated documents) clearly outline how to interpret legislation.
- From the LGA – 42 Chief executive (selected text) clearly states that the CE duties include “ensuring that all responsibilities, duties, and powers delegated to him or her or to any person employed by the local authority, or imposed or conferred by an Act, regulation, or bylaw, are properly performed or exercised; Elected members are employees – they receive a renumeration. As an appointed employee, the CE should have the knowledge and expertise to perform this duty.
- The declaration that an elected member makes has the characteristics of a statutory declaration, and if a person makes a statutory declaration to do something and they don’t, then they are committing a crime. How are elected members/councillors be expected to undertake duties if they don’t know what they are? They probably just do what they think they should – but where does those beliefs come from??
- From the Unit Titles Act:
Meetings and voting,
88 Meetings
(1) All meetings of a body corporate are general meetings.(2) A general meeting is either an annual general meeting or extraordinary general meeting.
(consider here only general meetings)
90 Who may call general meetings
(1) An annual general meeting must be called by the chairperson in accordance with the regulations. (etc.)
96 Voting: eligibility
(1) A person eligible to vote at a general meeting of the body corporate (eligible voter) is a person who is of or over the age of 16 years and—
(a) whose name is entered on the register of owners of principal units as—
(i) the owner of a principal unit; or
(ii) the representative of that owner; or
(b) who is the nominee of a company the name of which is entered on the register of owners of principal units as the representative of the owner; or
(c) who is a subsidiary body corporate representative.
Isn’t this interesting? Under statute, a local authority is a body corporate, and under statute, only the unit title owner or their representative (etc.) and of or over 16, may vote. Isn’t this the way councils should operate?
My suggestions:
- Organise properly developed zero cost, training programmes re the above-mentioned Acts and some others (e.g. LGOIMA) for all people (especially the unit title holders) so that they can learn and understand how local government should be, and at the same time teach people to be independent learners so they can become more involved in local government.
- Make it compulsory for unit title holders who wish to be elected to the governing body to pass an assessment-based course on how to interpret Acts and understand the various duties they would be required to perform.
- Stress the importance of the mandate that only unit-title holders can be involved in decision-making as per the Unit Titles Act .
- Then encourage people to sort themselves out.
As for the references to well-being, change them back to infrastructure-based statements. Well-being will be promoted if people are treated correctly.
I have much more I could write about, but this is enough for now. Local government is off the tracks/out of control and needs to get back to basics – but what basics? I believe that legislation did have/has the answer.
Please read and think carefully about how we all can lead (guide) the country to a better future before it is ripped apart.
[i] Te Ara, The Encyclopaedia of New Zealand. Local and Regional Government. [Online] https://teara.govt.nz/en/local-and-regional-government/page-6, [accessed 25 July 2022].
[ii] Hide R (2010). Decisions for better transparency, accountability and financial management of local government. ([Online] https://baybuzz.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/HideLGA.pdf, [accessed 25 July 2022]).
[iii] LGNZ. Local democracy: quick facts. [Online] Available from https://www.lgnz.co.nz/assets/Elections-Fact-sheet-16.pdf, [accessed 23 August, 2022]
[iv] Quality of Life (2020). Quality of Life Survey 2020. [Online] Available from: https://www.qualityoflifeproject.govt.nz/pdfs/QoL-8-City-Topline-FINAL-Interactive-PDF-2020.pdf, [accessed 13 August 2022]
[v] The Legislation Design and Adversary Board. Chapter 13. Interpretation and application of legislation. Part 2. [Online] Available from http://www.ldac.org.nz/guidelines/legislation-guidelines-2021-edition/issues-relevant-to-all-legislation-2/chapter-13/part-2/, [19 November 2022]
[The content of any Opinion pieces represents the views of the author and the accuracy of any content in a post labelled Opinion is the responsibility of the author. Posting of this Opinion content on the CityWatch NZ website does not necessarily constitute endorsement of those views by CityWatch NZ or its editors. CityWatch NZ functions to provide information and a range of different perspectives on New Zealand’s cities and local councils. If you disagree with or dispute the content, CityWatch NZ can pass that feedback on to the author. Send an email to feedback@citywatchnz.org and clearly identify the content and the issue.]
