South Waikato District Council goes live while others lag behind

Tuesday, 29 August 2023

Live streamed democracy has arrived in another Waikato district yet thousands of ratepayers elsewhere remain in the digital dark, a state of affairs that has been labelled inexcusable.

Victoria University of Wellington political scientist and Director of Transparency International New Zealand, Dr Bryce Edwards, commended South Waikato District Council for the move online and said there was no excuse for other councils not to do the same.

South Waikato mayor Gary Petley said there had been significant interest from the community and councillors to introduce live streaming so those interested could watch proceedings remotely.

“Having the ability to live stream council business is an important part of transparent local governance,” Petley said.

The council’s executive officer Jillian Anderson said live streaming, coupled with the introduction of new meeting management software which would provide “improved efficiencies around the production of agendas and reporting on council meetings” would cost the council $26,000 a year.

Dr Edwards said all councils should be live streaming meetings and there “isn’t any excuse any council can give to remain ensconced in their chambers shielding themselves from the public”.

He said digital technology had made it possible for councils to open themselves up for relatively low cost and live streaming was “at the cutting edge of local government transparency and accountability”.

However, the Waikato District Council does not live steam any of its council or committee meetings, but has plans to do so in future.

A communications spokesperson said it did so during Covid-19 lockdowns and were “currently installing a fully functional conferencing system which will once again enable us to live stream our meetings”.

The Hauraki District Council does not live stream its meetings either but, according to a council spokesperson, has “the capability to live stream meetings when there is a demand, as we did during Covid”.

“We’ve also live streamed some community meetings around specific topics.

“It’s part of what we do now but at this stage, it’s as the need arises rather than every council meeting.”

Edwards said there was a “crisis in confidence in local government” across New Zealand and citizens were feeling alienated from their local councils and wanted more accountability from the people they elected.

“It really is incumbent on all local authorities to turn around that discontent and distrust and at the very least they need to be opening up council meetings in a modern, digital way.

“If citizens are being denied access to council proceedings they would be right to be suspicious if that was the case.”

Matamata/Piako District Council live streams its council and committee meetings at no extra cost to its ratepayers by managing the process in-house using open source technology.

“The only costs for the live stream are staff time, and it is managed by governance support staff who attend council meetings anyway,” a spokesperson said.

The Waikato Regional Council live streams its council meetings and records its committee meetings at no extra cost to ratepayers.

The Waitomo District Council, Waipa District Council, Hamilton City Council, Taupō District Council, Ōtorohanga District Council and Thames/Coromandel District Council either live stream their meetings and/or record them and post them on their You Tube channels within hours of them taking place.

The Rotorua Lakes Council has been live streaming and recording its council and committee meetings, as well as planning and annual plan hearings since as far back as 2015 and also posts them on You Tube.