An appetite for amalgamation - what do the experts think?

Monday, 11 November 2024

Is council amalgamation in the Waikato region the cash cow many think it would be?

Is it time to amalgamate the region’s councils? In the final piece for this series, the Waikato Times checks what experts in the local government area think.

Government-appointed commissioners, incompetent councillors and local referenda - there are many reasons for and against council amalgamation - but the experts agree it’s all about representation.

Dr Andy Asquith is an Industry Fellow at the Centre for Local Government and Institute for Public Policy and Governance at the University of Technology in Sydney.

He also ran for mayor and council in Palmerston North in 2019, and has written extensively - and also advocated for a Royal Commission of Inquiry - during the Auckland “Super City” amalgamation in the late 2000s.

He said in Auckland’s case it was “bonkers” having so many councils in such a small area.

Dr Andy Asquith, pictured here in 2019 when he was running for a council seat and the mayoralty in Palmerston North, said most councillors were not fit for their roles.

“On balance, Auckland was a success, but it’s still not completely right.

“When people think about amalgamation the words ‘efficiency’ and ‘economy’ are always thrown up.

“But it wasn’t all about saving money, and virtually every time you hear the word amalgamation today it’s all about money - not about connecting the institution to the people.”

Asquith questioned whether locals actually knew who their elected representatives were, and said this would get even worse if councillors were to represent larger population bases.

“The current institutions in the Waikato aren’t very well connected to their people and the crudest measure of that is voter turnout, which in most cases is less than 50%.

Until 2010, Auckland was served by seven city and district councils and one regional council.

“It’s about councillors being close to their communities … and they will always seek to cut councillors first.

“If you put four councils together who have say 40 councillors [before amalgamation], you may end up with 20 councillors.

“It’s also about the calibre of those councillors.

“You get some interesting personalities all in the same room … some of them are not fit for office … many of them are unable to put their gumboots on the right feet.”

Asquith said quality councillors were in the minority and he had observed people standing for councils with no knowledge of what the role entailed, and what they could or could not do.

James Ross, right, from the NZ Taxpayers’ Union, says amalgamation could be a time consuming and expensive gamble.

He said the most effective model would be Government-appointed commissioners, with no elected members, “essentially a manager who directs the CEO what to do”.

But, a recent analysis of local councils carried out by the New Zealand Initiative, a pro-free-market independent public policy think tank, found local councils across New Zealand want more power to make decisions for their communities, rather than having rules set by central government in Wellington.

New Zealand Initiative researcher Max Salmon said the survey of mayors, councillors, and council chief executives found 94% of respondents agreeing that central government exerts too much control over councils.

More than 80% said the current power distribution between central and local government was at least somewhat ineffective, and 74% supported moderate devolution (a mix of central and local control) as their ultimate vision for the balance of governance in New Zealand.

'Local council members are telling us they know their communities best,' Salmon said.

'They want the ability to make decisions that suit their specific local needs, rather than having one-size-fits-all rules from Wellington.'

However, the survey also highlighted challenges with 80% of respondents saying resistance from local ratepayers makes it hard to build necessary infrastructure, “and 98% believe central government will resist handing over more power to local councils”.

'While council members want more control, they also recognise there are hurdles to overcome.

'They're concerned about having enough funding and expertise to take on more responsibilities.'

He said the survey confirmed The New Zealand Initiative's long-standing research on the potential for localism.

'We look forward to the government progressing this idea.

'As our survey shows, New Zealand's local government sector is ready for change.'

James Ross is policy and public affairs manager for the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union and said recent events had proven to him and his organisation that “local government in New Zealand is broken”.

That being said, Ross said if amalgamation was to occur it should only be done after a referendum of the people and communities involved.

“Bigger does not always mean better - just looking at Te Pūkenga and Te Whatu Ora and we can see the doubling up of bureaucracy.

“You can share services, and we’d like see more of that where there are cost savings to be found, but this does not mean rolling councils into one entity.”

Ross said amalgamation could be a time consuming and expensive gamble.

“If people are telling [central] government how they want to be governed, then this could be imposed from above … but this is not to say that in some instances amalgamation would not be a good thing.'