Local government reforms a chance to for ‘visionary’ thinking

Tuesday, 9 June 2026

‘Think about what it would really take for this place to be an awesome place to live and then work backwards,’ Waikato Mayor Aksel Bech said.

Waikato District councillors continue to dance in the dark around amalgamation but are determined the result will be something “awesome’’.

That’s what Mayor Aksel Bech asked elected members to focus on at a workshop on Monday, as they nutted out how local councils might be reorganised.

“Think about what it would really take for this place to be an awesome place to live and then work backwards from that, rather than starting from where we are and trying to improve,” Bech said, “because that sort of holds us down to thinking about how to fix pot-holes, as opposed to what we could do.’’

Waikato District Council staff and elected members workshop high level principles they want to establish for a new unitary authority.

Councillors were presented with new modelling and data designed to help assess various amalgamation options, including a single council covering much of the Waikato region, a Hamilton-Waipā-Waikato grouping, and a Hamilton metropolitan authority.

Despite very little direction or advice from the government on how it wants councils to respond to its Simplifying Local Government reforms and the abolishment of regional councils, Bech told councillors the process was entering a critical stage.

Public consultation material has now been released and discussions with neighbouring councils becoming more focused.

This is a chance to come up with something ‘visionary’, Cr Lisa Thomson said.

“We’re now pretty comfortable that what we’ve landed on is the starting point that we talk with our communities about,” Bech said.

Lisa Thomson echoed those sentiments, urging councillors to take a one in a lifetime opportunity to produce something “visionary’’.

Despite rumblings from some councils and individual councillors outside of Waikato District, a Waikato-wide unitary authority remains “a live option’’, Bech said.

He noted at least six councils are still considering a region-wide amalgamation as a viable option.

He stressed, however, that the district could not determine its future structure in isolation.

“It’s literally partnering up and subject to what others think.”

It was also pointed out that if a Headstart proposal was rejected by the Government, the Backstop option might mean the council would have to join a grouping it hadn’t favoured - or even been involved in proposing.

The workshop centred mainly around a new interactive dashboard developed by council staff that compiles financial, demographic, governance and economic data from councils across the Waikato region.

The tool, which will be shared regionwide in coming days, allows users to compare different amalgamation scenarios and assess their implications for debt levels, rates, representation, population, infrastructure assets and economic activity.

The dashboard has been designed to provide a common evidence base for councils considering future governance arrangements.

The data model also should help ease some discomfort from other councils on the size of Hamilton City Council’s debt - now sitting at $1 billion.

However, the data model shows infrastructure assets substantially outweighed debt across all councils.

For Waikato District, infrastructure assets were valued at more than ten times its debt level, while even Hamilton City’s infrastructure assets were worth more than four times its debt.

The modelling also examined how debt would be spread across ratepayers under different merger scenarios and whether councils retained capacity to take on additional borrowing.

Chief executive Craig Hobbs urged councillors to focus on the long-term future of the region.

“The reality is Waikato District Council will not exist in another two and a half years or thereabouts.

“My recommendation is to think strategically around not so much your specific needs or interests, but what the wider picture looks like.”

Councillors should be considering governance arrangements, infrastructure funding, commercial opportunities and service delivery outcomes when assessing future options.

Council staff will spend June gathering community feedback while technical analysis continues. The results are expected to help shape a preferred proposal before councils must submit formal options to the Government later this year.