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Speaker 1: Now, regional councils will be going the way of the

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Speaker 1: dinosaur under the government's RMA changes. Instead, their consenting powers

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Speaker 1: will shift to new combined territory boards made up of

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Speaker 1: mayors from the affected region. Dion Swigs is the chair

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Speaker 1: of the Canterbury Regional Council and chair of our local

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Speaker 1: government New Zealand Regional and he's with us. Hi Dion, Hey,

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Speaker 1: good egk Heather, how are you very well? Thank you?

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Speaker 1: What do you make of this announcement?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's definitely the it's definitely come out and we're

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Speaker 2: saying that it's the biggest change to local government since

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Speaker 2: the nineteen eighty nine reforms, so it is massive. It's

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Speaker 2: a big change.

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Speaker 1: You like it.

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Speaker 2: We've only seen it for the last hour, so it's

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Speaker 2: hard to say whether we like it or not. But

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Speaker 2: it is definitely going to change how regional councils work

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Speaker 2: in the country and that's going to be a big

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Speaker 2: change for a lot of people who have just been

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Speaker 2: elected into those roles.

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Speaker 1: Do you think that a board of mayors will do

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Speaker 1: a better job than elected councilors.

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Speaker 2: Mayors are elected for a different mandate meors at the

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Speaker 2: moment who are elected because they want to get into

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Speaker 2: their communities and do that work that they're doing in

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Speaker 2: those communities. They were not expecting to then also be

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Speaker 2: on the board of a regional council in two years time.

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Speaker 2: So I do think that there might be some mayors

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Speaker 2: will go great, yep, we want to get our hands

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Speaker 2: on that regional council. There are others who will go,

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Speaker 2: this is not my jam. I don't want to do that.

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Speaker 1: What are you thinking, Do you think they'll do a

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Speaker 1: better job.

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Speaker 2: The regional councilors have been elected to do the work

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Speaker 2: that they want to do, and it's the staff that

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Speaker 2: actually deliver the work. And I think that's the critical

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Speaker 2: part here, is that the staff are actually the ones

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Speaker 2: that are delivering the work. Regional councilors are just a

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Speaker 2: governance layer of doing the work. But we are elected

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Speaker 2: because we do want to do the work of a

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Speaker 2: regional council. A mayor has been elected because they want

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Speaker 2: to do the work of a district council.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So it's part is obviously the first I mean,

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Speaker 1: you have to see it in its context. It's the

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Speaker 1: first step in what is going to be a lot

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Speaker 1: more change and ultimately what it's going to end up

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Speaker 1: with is you can have the mayors doing this kind

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Speaker 1: of regional work and the planning is where things are

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Speaker 1: really going to change, and there's going to be a

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Speaker 1: lot more I want to say standardization. I suppose of

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Speaker 1: the plans that we have across the country. Are you

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Speaker 1: on board with that?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Absolutely, And I think what we do have is

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Speaker 2: that we as a country have got into a bit

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Speaker 2: of a mudd or around Resource Management Act all the

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Speaker 2: different layers that are in that. So it's not necessarily

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Speaker 2: regional councils who have been the handbrake on let's say

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Speaker 2: the economy or getting things done. It's the system that

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Speaker 2: we operate that's been the problem. And the last government

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Speaker 2: recognized that they wanted to do RMA reform. This government

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Speaker 2: has also now repealed that last one and doing another

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Speaker 2: round of rm A reform. The rubber is going to

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Speaker 2: hit the road around the rm A reform. But what

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Speaker 2: we've also got around what the work of regional councils

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Speaker 2: is we've got a whole lot of other functions that

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Speaker 2: aren't just RMA that we need to deliver. This is

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Speaker 2: public transport that there's biosecurity that's crosses borders and crosses

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Speaker 2: boundaries of territorial authorities. We've got flood resilience and we've

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Speaker 2: got massive amounts of flooding problems that we have across

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Speaker 2: the country, with with the ever increasing weather impacts that

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Speaker 2: we have. These are regional functions that are absolutely critical

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Speaker 2: and they must stay at regional levels so that you

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Speaker 2: can get that economy of scale and get that work done.

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Speaker 1: Dion, is it fair you sound a bit shocked by

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Speaker 1: what's been announced today? Is that fair?

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Speaker 2: Well, yes, it is, it is. It is. It's fair

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Speaker 2: to say that I think a lot of people are

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Speaker 2: probably going to be a little bit shocked. We've only

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Speaker 2: just received this information in the last hour.

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Speaker 1: All right, Dion, as always appreciate your time. Mate. That's

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Speaker 1: Dion Swig's Chair of Canterbury Regional Council, also chair of

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Speaker 1: our local government New Zealand Regional. For more from hither

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Speaker 1: Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news talks. It'd be

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Speaker 1: from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.