“New Zealand’s city councils once focused on fixing potholes, maintaining pipes, keeping the buses moving, regularly collecting the rubbish, keeping flood waters away, as well as maintaining libraries, museums, reserves, parks, and recreation facilities.These were considered their “core services” prior to 2019. According to the November 2018 version of the Local Government Act 2002, “core services” were defined as:11A Core services to be considered in performing role.
In performing its role, a local authority must have particular regard to the contribution that the following core services make to its communities:
(a) network infrastructure:
(b) public transport services:
(c) solid waste collection and disposal:
(d) the avoidance or mitigation of natural hazards:
(e) libraries, museums, reserves, and other recreational facilities and community amenities.
According to the New Zealand Parliament website, in April 2018 a bill was introduced which would become the Local Government (Community Well-being) Amendment Act 2019.
This amendment act removed the “core services” section 11A from the Local Government Act 2002 and instead replaced the purpose of local government with “to promote the social, economic, environmental, and cultural well-being of communities in the present and for the future”. Section 3(d) was also replaced with “provides for local authorities to play a broad role in promoting the social, economic, environmental, and cultural well-being of their communities, taking a sustainable development approach.“
I have found that the amendment act 2019, some are very abstract, have made it harder to measure the council’s performance. Shall we go back to the old fashion of “core services”, including infrastructure, transport, and waste removal?
Issues regarding local government in Wellington City in my opinion include:
1. The current water crisis
It is caused by ignorance of maintenance for a long time. The water charge council had collected from the ratepayers was supposed to be 100% used in the maintenance of the pipes. However, according to the “rumors” of social media, Wellington City Council didn’t. It had used some of that money to fund other projects that could buy more votes to be elected. However, I will have to justify this (truths or lies of these “rumors“?) after I get elected and have access to those information in detail.
2. Public transportation
Bus and train timetables sometimes do not match. How to make them more integrated? I haven’t had time to dig into how we operate the train system and it will be on my to-do list. For buses, as far as I am aware, it is complicated. The Central Government funds buying buses (and maybe some other costs), the Regional Council designs the bus service, runs the information system and lets the bus company contract, and Wellington City Council has to provide the bus stops, interchanges and bus lanes. It’s a messy joint affair full of inter-government agency rivalry.
3. Sufficient accommodations for the students and working people
We have two universities in Wellington (Massey University and Victoria University of Wellington) but we don’t have sufficient accommodations for the students. And actually we do not have sufficient accommodations for working people too.
4. Safety in the evening
Vulnerable but very rough people living or gathering in parks and on the streets have discouraged residents from walking to CBD to support local cafes and restaurants and shops in the area. How to break this bad cycle of Wellington CBD?
5. Road maintenance
How to fix those potholes and improve the quality of fixes so they could last longer?
6. Sufficient support for senior people & disabled people
Currently the senior people and disabled people haven’t gotten sufficient support to meet their needs.
Approaches for addressing those issues:
All these come down to funding, planning, and finding the right people to lead the projects. Today I would like to just talk about funding. Planning and finding the right people to lead the projects would be for another day.
My approach in funding:
A. Explore the ways to increase WCC income:
1. Direct funding from the Central Government;
2. Public Private Partnerships(PPPs);
3. Get the rate GST(15%) refund from the Central Government;
4. For the long run, explore the rates from Crown Land, as at this moment Crown Land doesn’t pay rates, and Wellington has lots of Crown Land.
B. Reprioritising those projects to find savings:
Identify what project is needed but not urgent, can be delayed. For example, I currently identify that New Rubbish Bins (food waste bin projects) can wait or be axed.
The projects list in my bucket that I would like to look at to find savings:
- $139m Golden Mile
- $94m Hutt Rd and Thorndon Quay changes
- $226m Cycle Network
- Up to $329m Town Hall Strengthening
- $189m Central Library rework
- Kilbirnie Skate Park
- New Rubbish Bins (food waste bin projects)
The solutions are in US. We need to care about this city, and care about each other. We need a City for People, not People for City. We need a city that everyone feels safe and comfortable to be out and about. Wellington city has a diverse culture but the current structure of council doesn’t reflect the diversity. I would like to bring a diverse voice to the decision making table.
