Deon Swiggs: LGNZ Regional Sector Chair on the Government's new reforms set to impact local councils

Newly elected regional councillors are in for a big change, with sweeping Government reforms.

RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop recently unveiled plans to replace the country's 11 regional councils with boards consisting of local mayors. 

He suggests this will streamline decision-making, planning and infrastructure across regions.

LGNZ Regional Sector Chair Deon Swiggs says the mandate for mayors is different, so they wouldn't have expected to be on a regional board. 

"There might be some mayors that go - great, yep, we want to get our hands on that regional council. There will be others who go - this is not my jam, I don't want to do that, what are you thinking?"

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now, regional councils will be going the way of the
dinosaur under the government's RMA changes. Instead, their consenting powers
will shift to new combined territory boards made up of
mayors from the affected region. Dion Swigs is the chair
of the Canterbury Regional Council and chair of our local
government New Zealand Regional and he's with us. Hi Dion, Hey,
good egk Heather, how are you very well? Thank you?
What do you make of this announcement?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah, it's definitely the it's definitely come out and we're
saying that it's the biggest change to local government since
the nineteen eighty nine reforms, so it is massive. It's
a big change.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
You like it.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
We've only seen it for the last hour, so it's
hard to say whether we like it or not. But
it is definitely going to change how regional councils work
in the country and that's going to be a big
change for a lot of people who have just been
elected into those roles.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Do you think that a board of mayors will do
a better job than elected councilors.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Mayors are elected for a different mandate meors at the
moment who are elected because they want to get into
their communities and do that work that they're doing in
those communities. They were not expecting to then also be
on the board of a regional council in two years time.
So I do think that there might be some mayors
will go great, yep, we want to get our hands
on that regional council. There are others who will go,

(01:15):
this is not my jam. I don't want to do that.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
What are you thinking, Do you think they'll do a
better job.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
The regional councilors have been elected to do the work
that they want to do, and it's the staff that
actually deliver the work. And I think that's the critical
part here, is that the staff are actually the ones
that are delivering the work. Regional councilors are just a
governance layer of doing the work. But we are elected
because we do want to do the work of a
regional council. A mayor has been elected because they want

(01:44):
to do the work of a district council.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Okay, So it's part is obviously the first I mean,
you have to see it in its context. It's the
first step in what is going to be a lot
more change and ultimately what it's going to end up
with is you can have the mayors doing this kind
of regional work and the planning is where things are
really going to change, and there's going to be a
lot more I want to say standardization. I suppose of
the plans that we have across the country. Are you

(02:06):
on board with that?

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah? Absolutely, And I think what we do have is
that we as a country have got into a bit
of a mudd or around Resource Management Act all the
different layers that are in that. So it's not necessarily
regional councils who have been the handbrake on let's say
the economy or getting things done. It's the system that
we operate that's been the problem. And the last government

(02:29):
recognized that they wanted to do RMA reform. This government
has also now repealed that last one and doing another
round of rm A reform. The rubber is going to
hit the road around the rm A reform. But what
we've also got around what the work of regional councils
is we've got a whole lot of other functions that
aren't just RMA that we need to deliver. This is
public transport that there's biosecurity that's crosses borders and crosses

(02:52):
boundaries of territorial authorities. We've got flood resilience and we've
got massive amounts of flooding problems that we have across
the country, with with the ever increasing weather impacts that
we have. These are regional functions that are absolutely critical
and they must stay at regional levels so that you
can get that economy of scale and get that work done.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
Dion, is it fair you sound a bit shocked by
what's been announced today? Is that fair?

Speaker 2 (03:16):
Well, yes, it is, it is. It is. It's fair
to say that I think a lot of people are
probably going to be a little bit shocked. We've only
just received this information in the last hour.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
All right, Dion, as always appreciate your time. Mate. That's
Dion Swig's Chair of Canterbury Regional Council, also chair of
our local government New Zealand Regional. For more from hither
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