Simon Watts: Local Government Minister on the Government's new bill for local councils

The Local Government Minister says new legislation in the works will give councils clarity. 

An amendment bill's been introduced to Parliament to make local bodies focus on core services. 

It also demands regular public progress reports - and disclosure on the cost of consultants and contractors. 

Simon Watts says it's a return to bread and butter duties. 

"Previously, terms like social, cultural and economic type activities - they were all just catch-all. And as a result, some councils across the country were doing stuff that was basically wasteful spending."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Questions, answers, Thanks analysis, the drive show you trust for
the full picture. Brian Bridge on Heather Duplicy Ellen Drive
with one New Zealand let's get connected news talks.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
That'd be good evening at a seven half for five.
The government changing the lord of force counsels to stick
to their knitting, stick to their core business. So there's
four wellbeing provisions that the previous Labor government introduced in
twenty nineteen, Social, economic, environmental and cultural, and this government
says nay, get rid of them. The law change will
also require counsels to regularly report on their financial performance. Hello,

(00:40):
I mean I thought that would have been a requirement anyway.
Forces them also to disclose what they spend on consultants
and contractors. Simon Watts is the local government minister with
me now, Hello, good.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
Day Ryan, Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Yeah, good to have you on. Hey. Can you give
us some example what exactly are we talking about here?
You know, the well being provisions? Some examples of what
councils were doing to meet them.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
Well, look, I think the key issue is is those
well being four aspects. We're pretty vague overall what we've
done and the changes that we're making is saying, look,
there's five key areas or core services that you need
to deliver public transport, waste, civil defense, libraries, museums, and
network infrastructure, and those are the five things that you

(01:27):
need to do and what councils need to deliver. Before
it was all pretty vague, and as a result of that,
councils were doing a whole lot of stuff that weren't
core services.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
So what happens if they provide something other than one
of those five things, what happens to them?

Speaker 3 (01:42):
Well, look, the reality is now legislation that they are
managed under means that they have to deliver those core services.
If they are in breach of a then obviously that's
going to be something that through our additional reporting requirements
that we're putting on them will pick up and also
importantly RPE players will be able to see that as well.

(02:04):
But at the end of the day, you know, if
we have an instance where there's some blatant disregard around that,
at the end of the day, that will flows back
up through to the minister. We'll have to take a
look at that.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
You said that the well being provisions were vague, aren't
these vague two. I mean, isn't it it's the eye
of the behold that whether they've done enough on transport
or whether they've done enough on waste.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
Well, I don't think they are. I think the five
areas that we've designed of what you would expect, and
I think what most rate payers would expect their council
to deliver, you know, picking up the rubbish, making sure
that public transport services are available, water infrastructure, you know,
those are all civil defense, those are all things that
you are bread and butter, core services for counsel. You know,

(02:48):
previously you know terms like you know, social, cultural and
economic type activities. I mean, they were just all catch
all and as a result, as I said, some councils
across the country, we're doing stuff that that was basically
wasteful spending.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
So some if a council moves from picking up rubbish
once a week to once a fortnite, are they in trouble?

Speaker 3 (03:10):
Well, the reality is they're going to be judged by
their rate payers in terms of that. You know, different
requirements in different parts of the country. But I do
know that you know, people have an expectation of getting
those basic services right, and you know councils. Rate players
are pretty good at giving feedback back to council on
whether they're happy or not.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
All right, Minister, appreciate you coming on the program tonight,
Simon Watt's local government minister.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
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