HOME   >   OUR MPS   >   CHRIS CARTER   >   SPEECHES

Hon Chris Carter 28 July 2004 Speech to Local Government Conference 2004 Delivered: Carlton Hotel, Auckland

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a real pleasure to join you this morning. I'm pleased that this year the weather has not prevented me from attending your conference as it did last year.

On the topic of weather, I would like to take this opportunity to extend my condolences publicly to those communities and councils who have been affected by the recent flooding in the Bay of Plenty, especially the Opotiki District Council, and the Whakatane District Council.

I hope you know by now that the Labour-Progressive government will stand shoulder to shoulder with you in the event of natural disaster. We proved as much in our response to the floods in the Lower North Island, and we are doing so again in the eastern Bay of Plenty.

To any representatives from Opotiki and Whakatane who are here today, if there is something more I can do as your Minister, I am only a phone call away.

Doubtless there has been some discussion among you on the implications of climate change and its role in these floods.

The floods are an example of the extreme weather events we can expect in the future. They have spurred on central government's efforts to deal with climate change, and I hope they have also reinvigorated the debate about what can be done at a local level as well.

I want to spend most of my time today reviewing where the last five intense years have taken the sector from my perspective, what's coming up this year, and what the future holds. In doing so, I'm mindful of your conference theme – Looking to the Future.

As you are all well aware, we have extensively overhauled the legislative framework for local government, in partnership with you.

The Local Electoral Act, the Local Government Rating Act 2002, and the Local Government Act 2002 are all now in place. So to is the Local Government Law Reform Bill Nos 3, in which we gave you back the option of a casting vote, the Dog Control Amendment Act 2003, and the Local Government Auckland Amendment Bill, streamlining the contentious governance of Auckland transport.

To be blunt this amount of legislative work in a short timeframe has been a heavy burden for central government, as it has for the sector.

Nevertheless, it was necessary and I challenge anyone to deny it.

We had reached a ridiculous situation in New Zealand where our communities and their local government had evolved significantly over 25 years but the legislation governing local decision-making had not.

In place now is a new legislative framework that reinforces the reason local government exists – to enable local people to participate in local decision-making in their community.

The framework reaches for a future that sees councils at the centre of their communities, working hand in hand with their communities towards sensible, sustainable outcomes.

In the time I have been privileged to be Minister of Local Government, I have travelled extensively around the country trying to meet as many of you as possible. In doing so, I have been impressed with the effort councils are putting in to make the new legislative framework a success.

The first full Long Term Council Community Plan is drawing close, but from what I have seen the sector is firmly on track and firmly in control of what needs to be done.

Congratulations on this achievement.

I have to say that it comes as no surprise to me.

Local government has been moving in the direction of the Local Government Act for years. There has been a significant 'gearing up' in the capability of the sector to handle the increasingly complex needs and demands of modern communities.

You have invested considerable time and effort in the training of local government officials with impressive results. You are now making similar progress on the professional development of elected members as well.

All this is important because there are larger challenges ahead for all of us than just adapting to new legislation.

Our nation is booming, economically and socially, thanks to some sensible economic management by the Labour-Progressive government. Economic growth has averaged 3.5 per cent per annum over the past four and a half years, the third highest in the OECD, and unemployment has dropped by 40 per cent.

But as our nation grows the restraints on the economy that remain become more and more apparent.

The biggest of these restraints are a shortage of particular skills in the labour market and the poor state of some of our infrastructure.

Skills are a national issue but infrastructure is also a local issue, it goes to the core of local government responsibilities – roads, sewerage and water.

Whether it is because of rapid population growth, urban sprawl, rising public expectations or neglect throughout the 1980s and 90s, a great many local authorities are struggling with the costs of infrastructure, and will continue to do so. It is the big-ticket item for most councils.

The Labour-Progressive government is helping as much as we can. We have invested billions in transport and sewerage, setting entirely new benchmarks for future governments. Yet infrastructure costs are still being felt by many communities in their rates bills.

As we move in to the future, it is crucial that the sector builds on its work over the last decade, and continues to look for new and smarter ways of doing things.

If that doesn't occur, steady improvements to infrastructure won't be achievable, practically and politically.

The big question is where can new innovations be made?

I've been very impressed by the progressive thinking from some parts of the local government sector, so I'm not going to stand here and pretend to give you an exhaustive answer.

What I will do is briefly underscore a few broad areas of opportunity central government identified when it was writing the Local Government Act.

One area is very obvious: the shared provision of basic services, systems and consultative procedures among neighbouring local authorities.

While our communities may continue to demand 86 councils at a representative level, there is no reason why all these councils must duplicate the provision of services they have in common.

A growing number of councils, from the very big to the very small, have realised this and struck up arrangements with others to jointly purchase computer systems and conduct planning exercises. They have saved their ratepayers large amounts of money.

Unfortunately, not all councils have been so proactive. Quite a number have yet to make much progress in sharing services at all. It is time they did.

For those who haven't already seen it, I'd recommend the Controller and Auditor-General's report on shared services. It's called Local Authorities Working Together.

The second area the government believes local authorities should be thinking seriously about is the formation of co-operative community networks.

There is immense scope for efficiencies if councils, central government agencies, business groups, charitable and community trusts, and volunteer groups, more effectively dovetail their activities toward joint ends.

How many times have you seen different groups in your community with similar goals, working at cross purposes and spending public and private money in the process?

Local councils are uniquely placed to take a leadership role in their communities to overcome some of these absurdities.

The government has recognised this leadership role and sought to encourage better co-operation among different community groups through the planning and consultative processes of the Local Government Act, notably the Community Outcomes exercise.

My political foes on the Right claim some of these processes create costs rather than saves them. That is a short-term view, lacking in vision. Over the medium to long term, the Labour-Progressive Government is confident the opposite will occur.

Experience at the central and local government level shows the earlier disputes and differences of opinion among groups on issues are resolved, the more time and resources are saved at the other end of the process. As we all know, court action is extraordinarily expensive.

The character of modern communities has already prompted many sensible local authorities to generate new consultative models, and it was on these models that parts of the Local Government Act were based.

I know you have had some inspiring speakers here at your conference and I hope they have further encouraged you to try new things, and new ways of making a difference in your community.

The collective knowledge in this room is fertile ground for innovation, so I, like all ratepayers, look forward to a rich harvest of new ideas.

When considering central government's work plan for the local government portfolio this year, I wanted to build on the new legislative framework, the thinking behind it, and the good work Local Government New Zealand does in promoting best practise.

With this in mind, there are three significant pieces of work underway in partnership with the sector, two of which have evolved from representations by local government.

As the Prime Minister has already advised, we are exploring the capability of local authorities, particularly small ones, and whether we need to develop a new framework and/or guidelines to steer the development of central government's regulatory policies affecting councils.

We are also looking at some of the affordability issues faced by councils, such as those caused by rising infrastructure costs.

We are asking can these issues be resolved through better use of new flexible funding tools provided in rating legislation, or are there other tools that need to be considered.

Thirdly, we are working on an entirely new initiative - the Local Government Information Database, which was funded in the Budget.

There has been a great deal of discussion over a number of years about whether or not we should introduce a system to rank the performance of councils in New Zealand.

Those sorts of systems exist in Australia, and on a number of occasions recently business and political lobby groups have attempted to do the same here, often with some pretty unfair results.

I'm not a fan of ranking councils. I think it is a waste of time because different communities have different values, different resources and thus different priorities. They want their council to do different things. How can you officially judge those?

Having said that, I do think there is a strong case for providing a single database of information that anyone can access to explore what each local authority is doing in the context of what others are doing.

I want a ratepayer or a councillor to be able to call up the database on the Internet and find a local authority that has created efficiencies by sharing the provision of a service with its neighbour. I want them to be able to say: 'I wonder whether that will work in my area?'

I would envisage this database containing material that can be compared, such as that already collected on resource and building consent processing times.

But I stress, the database will not make comparisons or judgements. Each individual looking at the database will use its content in his or her own way.

The Department of Internal Affairs is currently discussing what will go on the database with the sector and how it is to be presented. I urge you not to be defensive about the initiative; it is a tool for your use as much as anybody else's.

To keep pace with the rapidly changing world in which we live, councils need to be continually learning from the experience of others, and adapting what works for one council to suit another.

One of the problems, the local government sector has faced historically is poor public participation.

I believe the Local Government Information Database will help people get involved by providing them with more, easily accessible information with which to make informed judgements about their council and issues.

In a local democracy, that can only be a good thing.

Speaking of local democracies, the local authority elections are looming.

This will be a historic election for those councils that have chosen to use the Single Transferable Vote system for the first time.

The work that has gone into planning for the introduction of STV is great example of the successful partnership that exists at present between central and local government.

The Department of Internal Affairs has been working with LGNZ and individual local authorities to ensure voters will be well informed about the new system.

The STV – Simple to Vote campaign will be very visible through television, radio and print advertising, brochures, online and other publicity activities in the run up to the voting period.

I want to thank you all for your continuing commitment to delivering the best possible local government for your communities.

I’d like to say a special thank-you to those of you who are planning to retire in October – and those whose retirement may not come quite so willingly!

The sacrifice that individuals make to participate in public life is considerable and worthy of everyone's respect.

Finally, I'd like to reiterate that if you need assistance with anything please don't hesitate to give me a call. You all have my cell-phone number.

I try to be as accessible and responsive to the sector as possible because frankly, I enjoy talking with you. Local government is diverse, colourful and challenging, something it is not always given credit for by media commentators.

I hope your conference has been an enjoyable and rewarding one and I wish you all well as you head into the busy election build-up period.

It’s a great time to be involved in local government and Looking to the Future.

 

• OUR MPs | 
• FEATURES | 
• LATEST NEWS | 
• SPEECHES | 
• PORTFOLIOS | 
• POLICY | 
• MULTIMEDIA | 
• SEARCH | 
• CONTACT US