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Speaker 1: Now locally, let's talk about what's going on here. Local

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Speaker 1: government could be in for a bit of a shake

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Speaker 1: up after those comments from the Prime Minister. Christopher Luxon

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Speaker 1: this morning, so he was on with Mike, told Mike

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Speaker 1: there are too many layers of government in New Zealand

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Speaker 1: and scrapping regional councils will be considered under promised RMA reform.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: I have a personal view that I think that's something

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Speaker 3: that we can explore as part of that Resource Management

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Speaker 3: Act legislation at Chris Bishop's driving through. He'll bring a

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Speaker 3: bill to the House before the end of this year.

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Speaker 3: We'll be introduced into Parliament because we've got to change

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Speaker 3: our RMA laws pretty quickly. But I think we've got

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Speaker 3: too many layers of government. Frankly, if I'm honest with you.

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Speaker 1: There are currently eleven regional councils in New Zealand and

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Speaker 1: sixty seven district and city councils. Darren Ponter is the

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Speaker 1: chair of Greater Wellington Regional Council and with us. Hey,

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Speaker 1: Darren Affluton, Heathern good to talk to you, mate.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 1: Is the Prime Minister wrong?

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Speaker 2: Oh? I think he could have started in a different place,

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Speaker 2: and that is the need for amalgamation of local authorities.

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Speaker 2: Other local government's been up for that for that issue

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Speaker 2: for quite a number of years now, it's nearly thirty

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Speaker 2: six years ago, so since local government reform gave us

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Speaker 2: the current structure that we've got. We have too many

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Speaker 2: local authorities, far too many. And I think the bigger

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Speaker 2: question is what are we actually looking for in a

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Speaker 2: vision and outcomes that we want to achieve. So rather

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Speaker 2: than running around shooting regional councils, we should ask should

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Speaker 2: be asking the question, how can local government better serve

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Speaker 2: our communities in a more streamline?

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Speaker 1: Mate, We're asking that question all the time. Nothing changes. Okay,

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Speaker 1: sure you are, let's talk about this. Okay, So you're

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Speaker 1: in favor of amalgamation. Are you being in Wellington? That

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Speaker 1: would mean of course Wellington City heart putter, do a

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Speaker 1: blah blah blah. You want that first?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, lookin that. I think that that's a rational move

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Speaker 2: and it's been talked about in the past and it's

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Speaker 2: been tried. Would you do it?

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Speaker 1: We spoke to the mayor of New Plymouth last week

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Speaker 1: and he talked about amalgamating all the councils there in

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Speaker 1: the in Taranaki district to get them. Would would you

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Speaker 1: think like a regional a regional amalgamation in a place

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Speaker 1: like that.

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Speaker 2: So, so what I think is that regional councils, rather

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Speaker 2: than getting rid of them, are the building blocks for amalgamation,

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Speaker 2: and Taranaki is a really good point.

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Speaker 1: So would you then scrap all the district, all the

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Speaker 1: local councils, you scrap the new Plymouth District Council or

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Speaker 1: whatever it's called, and instead just get that regional council

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Speaker 1: to do everything.

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Speaker 2: Correct, amalgamate them all into one entity. It wouldn't look

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Speaker 2: and feel like a regional council does, because it would

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Speaker 2: be It would have very it would have many local functions.

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Speaker 2: You already have the nucleus of a single council in Taranaki,

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Speaker 2: and you do in most other parts of the region.

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Speaker 1: In which case would you okay? So would you then

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Speaker 1: in Wellington get Wellington Regional Council, Great Wellington Regional Council

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Speaker 1: to do everything and instead go and shoot all the

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Speaker 1: little councils underneath. Or would you suck them in?

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Speaker 2: You'd suck them in the community local sort of resonate

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Speaker 2: with communities and have a clearer connection to communities than

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Speaker 2: regional councils do.

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Speaker 1: So it's but you'd be looking for efficiencies here, like

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Speaker 1: you wouldn't want to just employ absolutely everybody and just

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Speaker 1: end up with one giant bloated thing instead of five

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Speaker 1: bloated things.

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Speaker 2: No, a good point, and here is an opportunity to

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Speaker 2: actually cut back, pair back. Yeah, some functions. There are

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Speaker 2: some functions that could go to central government. There are

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Speaker 2: some central government functions like state highway roading and the

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Speaker 2: Department of Conservation that probably should be thought of coming

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Speaker 2: down to local government as well. So I don't think

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Speaker 2: that this is just simply a question about councils. This

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Speaker 2: is a question about how do we cut functions and

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Speaker 2: services across the country.

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Speaker 1: Okay, Darren, in your vision of the future, how many

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Speaker 1: councils do we end up with across the country.

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Speaker 2: Then I think we've probably somewhere in the range of

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Speaker 2: sixteen to sixteen to twenty councils across the country, kind

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Speaker 2: of like the feral country for it. Yeah, tree of

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Speaker 2: five point five million. That sounds about right.

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Speaker 1: I don't hate that, Darren, thanks very much. I appreciate it.

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Speaker 1: As Darren Ponter cheer of Greater Wellington Region Regional Council.

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