Simon Watts: Local Government Minister on the plans for council reform, amalgamation

The Government is focusing council reform efforts on those who are willing to amalgamate. 

It will be looking at 18 proposals put forward under its Head Start programme. 

Local Government Minister Simon Watts says work will start now, and they'll make final decisions early next year.  

He told Mike Hosking the plans for those who haven't participated will come later down the track. 

Watts says there will be a back stop for them, but work won't start on those until next year. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So where do we end up on the great journey
of council of malgamation. Around forty eight have submitted a plan.
Seventeen abstained Simon Once is the local government minister and
he's with us, good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Good to be with you, Mike.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Of those who didn't, how many couldn't versus how many
wouldn't do you think, well.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
We've got eighteen proposals.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
I guess the context is is that we've only had
one amalgamation in the last thirty five years. So to
actually have proposals on the table, which is a significant
number more than that, is a good step forward. But
it's fair to say that there are a wide range
of councils that have put the hand up and said, look,
we can make this work. And actually all of the
councils and the grouping have also agreed. But there's also

(00:38):
some councilors said look, we just can't get ourselves sorted
within the time period. This has always been a voluntary process.
We wanted to put it out to the councils because
the council's told us and the feedback that we got
from the consultation, they wanted to get on with us faster.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Than what we were proposing.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
So look, I'm pretty happy with the proposals that we've got.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
We're working our way through that detail.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
And as I said, the backdrop, we haven't had any
amalgamations in this space for a long long time, and
the fact that they're actually doing this off their own
backs is in itself pretty significant.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
So what happens now of those who did submit a proposal,
do you just tick that off if they're happy, you're
happy or not.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
So the teams are working through those eighteen or so proposals.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
They're pretty significant.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
You know one of them, you know one and a
loan is about eighty pages of information, and so they'll
work their way through against the criteria. They'll be having
some conversations with those groupings and we're going to land position.
We're in effect, we're going to get Cabinet to take
a decision around which ones do we push through to
make sure that the officials draft the legislation ready for

(01:41):
the new government so we can get that enacted by
midnext year. And for some potentially they won't meet the criteria,
we'll give them a go to see if we can
help them out. And there'll be some that will be
ineligible most probably and we'll have a conversation with them.
So that's a process we're going to do over the
coming weeks.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
Right when do those who haven't applied or filed know
about the backstop and what that looks like.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
That's going to be after the election.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
We're going to focus on the ones that actually want
to get on and do reform. That's always been the
point of head start work with the ones that are
up for it, the ones that are showing, you know,
leadership and have got an idea and a plan. We've
always signaled that for those that are not up for
that voluntary process, then we'll be considering a backstop.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
But we'll be doing that after the election, and.

Speaker 3 (02:28):
We're taking on board the feedback we've had from all
of these plans as well to help us design what
that will look.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Like is the backstop potentially, Lawyers at dorn.

Speaker 3 (02:37):
Look, I'm looking our position is one enduring reform and
my viewers as if that is done by from local
up and lead locally that during reform is going to stick.
We saw with the last guys in the last government.
When you force it from Wellington, it can become a mess.
Pretty quickly. The reality is is these are reforms as

(02:59):
we stand that have been put together by local communities
on a valuntary basis. I think that's a pretty good
starting point and again, if you go back, it's a
pretty significant change versus status quo over the last thirty
five years.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
All right, mate, appreciate it. Simon wants Minister for Local Government.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
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Speaker 1 (03:16):
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