Daran Ponter: Greater Wellington Regional Council Chair on Chris Luxon expressing interest in scrapping local councils

Prime Minister Chris Luxon has expressed interest in scrapping regional councils as part of the new RMA reforms - and it's sparked debate among experts.

NZ First's Shane Jones has expressed similar sentiments, having recently told a local Government forum he doesn't see a compelling reason for maintaining regional Government. 

Greater Wellington Regional Council Chair Daran Ponter says there's a need to amalgamate local authorities.

"Local Government's been up for that issue for quite a while for quite a number of years now - it's nearly 36 years since local Government reform gave us the current structure that we've got."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now locally, let's talk about what's going on here. Local
government could be in for a bit of a shake
up after those comments from the Prime Minister. Christopher Luxon
this morning, so he was on with Mike, told Mike
there are too many layers of government in New Zealand
and scrapping regional councils will be considered under promised RMA reform.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
I have a personal view that I think that's something
that we can explore as part of that Resource Management
Act legislation at Chris Bishop's driving through. He'll bring a
bill to the House before the end of this year.
We'll be introduced into Parliament because we've got to change
our RMA laws pretty quickly. But I think we've got
too many layers of government. Frankly, if I'm honest with you.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
There are currently eleven regional councils in New Zealand and
sixty seven district and city councils. Darren Ponter is the
chair of Greater Wellington Regional Council and with us. Hey,
Darren Affluton, Heathern good to talk to you, mate.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Now.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Is the Prime Minister wrong?

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Oh? I think he could have started in a different place,
and that is the need for amalgamation of local authorities.
Other local government's been up for that for that issue
for quite a number of years now, it's nearly thirty
six years ago, so since local government reform gave us
the current structure that we've got. We have too many

(01:09):
local authorities, far too many. And I think the bigger
question is what are we actually looking for in a
vision and outcomes that we want to achieve. So rather
than running around shooting regional councils, we should ask should
be asking the question, how can local government better serve
our communities in a more streamline?

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Mate, We're asking that question all the time. Nothing changes. Okay,
sure you are, let's talk about this. Okay, So you're
in favor of amalgamation. Are you being in Wellington? That
would mean of course Wellington City heart putter, do a
blah blah blah. You want that first?

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, lookin that. I think that that's a rational move
and it's been talked about in the past and it's
been tried. Would you do it?

Speaker 1 (01:56):
We spoke to the mayor of New Plymouth last week
and he talked about amalgamating all the councils there in
the in Taranaki district to get them. Would would you
think like a regional a regional amalgamation in a place
like that.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
So, so what I think is that regional councils, rather
than getting rid of them, are the building blocks for amalgamation,
and Taranaki is a really good point.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
So would you then scrap all the district, all the
local councils, you scrap the new Plymouth District Council or
whatever it's called, and instead just get that regional council
to do everything.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Correct, amalgamate them all into one entity. It wouldn't look
and feel like a regional council does, because it would
be It would have very it would have many local functions.
You already have the nucleus of a single council in Taranaki,
and you do in most other parts of the region.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
In which case would you okay? So would you then
in Wellington get Wellington Regional Council, Great Wellington Regional Council
to do everything and instead go and shoot all the
little councils underneath. Or would you suck them in?

Speaker 2 (02:55):
You'd suck them in the community local sort of resonate
with communities and have a clearer connection to communities than
regional councils do.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
So it's but you'd be looking for efficiencies here, like
you wouldn't want to just employ absolutely everybody and just
end up with one giant bloated thing instead of five
bloated things.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
No, a good point, and here is an opportunity to
actually cut back, pair back. Yeah, some functions. There are
some functions that could go to central government. There are
some central government functions like state highway roading and the
Department of Conservation that probably should be thought of coming
down to local government as well. So I don't think

(03:37):
that this is just simply a question about councils. This
is a question about how do we cut functions and
services across the country.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Okay, Darren, in your vision of the future, how many
councils do we end up with across the country.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Then I think we've probably somewhere in the range of
sixteen to sixteen to twenty councils across the country, kind
of like the feral country for it. Yeah, tree of
five point five million. That sounds about right.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
I don't hate that, Darren, thanks very much. I appreciate it.
As Darren Ponter cheer of Greater Wellington Region Regional Council.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
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