Thomas Nash: Wellington Regional Councillor criticises Prime Minister's calls to rein in spending

There's been complaints from local Government officials following the Prime Minister's 'back to basics' speech.

Speaking at the LGNZ Conference, Chris Luxon has said councils need to rein in spending, even calling the Takina convention centre hosting the event a 'waste of money'.

Regional councillor Thomas Nash slammed the speech on social media as mana-diminishing, paternalistic, and visionless.

Nash says he wanted to the Prime Minister to present a vision for the future.

"And we need actually to work together - rather than just sling mud at each other."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now. The Prime Minister's blunt speech to mayors and counselors
last night, he's got some of them fired up. He
told them to spend money on the basics like rubbish
pipes and potholes and quit the weird spending or they
wouldn't be getting any money from his government. Thomas Nash
is a Greater Wellington regional counselor. Hey, Thomas, Hey, Heather,
was what he said a surprise to you, Not really.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
But I guess the sort of manner of the delivery
and I guess the style of leadership and relationship he
wants to have was maybe a bit surprising. But yeah,
it was better today with the Minister for Local Government
who talked about the future.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
So not a surprise that he said it, not a
problem with what he said, just the fact that he
said it in the way that he did.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Yeah, I mean, I guess I was hoping for some
painting of a picture of the future, like what is
the future for our country, what's the future for local government?
How can we work together? But the speech was really
looking backwards and kind of I guess complaining about things.
And I guess this morning we did have a speech
from I mean Brown, the Minister for Looking Government, which

(01:01):
was much more focused on the future.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Well, I thought the future from Chris lux in the
future is you, guys and councils don't get more money
unless you actually start tidying up you spending. That's the future.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Yeah, I guess I would have also liked to have
heard what is he talking about in terms of wasteful spending? Like,
I mean, what what is what is he actually talking about?
There were no real kind of example.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
He talked about Taquina, the conference center in Wellington he.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Did, which was which was funded under a different council
many years ago, so it's kind of irrelevant to the
people who were in the road.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Totally disagree with you. I totally disagree with you because
it is an example of bad spending.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, well, I mean that's yeah, that's the one example
he gave that was not something that you know, any
council was embarking on in this region.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Why did you need to come on though, Why did
you need him to give you examples? I mean, wee
give you examples on a like a weekly basis of
stupid spending. What about the blinking bus hubs that your
council has funded you know, you've got heaps of examples.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah, No, I mean it would have been good to
hear some examples. But I guess my main point was
where all where there's a room of hundreds of people
who have been elected by their communities, many many elected
people have been elected multiple times, and we're all kind
of here waiting to hear some leadership, some vision of
the future, some partnership, and that sounds.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
Like absolutely bureaucratic bs. What you needed was a truth
torpedo straight at you guys about what our problem as ratepayers.
This is the thing that we talk about, right, This
is the thing that winds people up. So isn't this
exactly what you needed to hear? Neive mind all this
kind of airy fairy stuff. You needed to hear what
our problem with you people is.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
Yeah, But I guess the problem with that is that
councils are spending their budgets in a line byline way
on the basics, and there is a huge amount of
noise about a tiny, tiny percentage of spending that has
almost no impact on You can.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
Not tell me that you think takina is a tiny,
tiny amount of spending.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Well, if you, I mean it probably is actually in
terms of the impact it has had on rates increases.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
Made it's one hundred and eighty million dollars.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Yeah, but how much impact do you think that has
on right?

Speaker 1 (03:16):
You tell me?

Speaker 2 (03:17):
I mean it's capitalized over a number of years, and
the impact that capital spending that is capitalized over you know,
ten to fifteen years has on rates increases is very small.

Speaker 3 (03:27):
The real impact on is this fundamentally, Thomas, This is
fundamentally the problem that we've got with you guys is
you look at a figure like one eighty and you
got small bear not going to have a big impact.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
Why do you look at that but you're saying it
doesn't have a big impact. I look at it as
a former rate payer of Wellington and I am shocked
that this is what the money was spent.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Look, I was not I mean I wasn't there when
they made their decision. It wasn't a decision I made.
I'm not saying it was a good decision or a
bad decision. I'm saying that councils now have just been
through a ten year line by line budgeting exercise all
around the country and they have looked very carefully. We
cut our public transport expansion plans in half, well more

(04:09):
than that in the Wellington region in order to keep
our rates increases down, and we put our fares up
by ten percent in order to keep our rates down.
It's not as if people haven't tightened their belts. It's
not as if people haven't cut spending. That I think
is the sort of missed opportunity from yesterday was to
recognize that, yes, people are tightening their belts and councils

(04:32):
all around the country and we need actually to work
together rather than just sling mud at each other.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
Yeah, Thomas, listen, Thank you. I always appreciate you having
on the show. You're great. Thomas Nash, Greater Wellington Regional Counselor.

Speaker 3 (04:44):
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