Subscribe to RSSHide: What Needs To Happen Next
A call today for better alignment between local and central government decision making.
It came from the man who drove Auckland’s local government shakeup, Rodney Hide.
Calling that alignment “the key to unlocking our true potential,” he said:
“It seems wrong to me that central government requires local government to make 10 and 30 year plans but then itself does not come to the party. Yet the dominant player in those plans is central government itself.”
Hide, speaking to the Local Government annual conference in Wellington e said the reform was never about savings but good governance.
“We have a unique process now for Auckland as it prepares the first spatial plan in New Zealand.
“The Government has provided the new Council with background papers on its views on Auckland’s development, officials have been authorised to work closely with council officers on the plan, and we have a dedicated Cabinet Committee to ensure close collaboration between Ministers, central government agencies and the Auckland Council.
“The project is proceeding better than I could ever have hoped thanks to the Mayor, his council and council officers. Central government agencies are taking full advantage of the opportunity of at long last being able to work closely with the political leadership of Auckland in their own areas of responsibility.
“We now have a unified Auckland leadership but also we have an Auckland working closely with officials and Ministers on its future development. That’s a huge improvement over where we were.”
Hide said the big challenge for local government now and for the future is establishing its proper place in the constitution of New Zealand.
“To me it’s very clear. Local government is our second tier of government, properly constituted and democratically elected. But successive central governments have not treated it as such.
“It’s now become a mish-mash between central and local government of confused roles, overlapping decision-making, blurred accountability, and too often dual funding.
“We need to establish some clear principles to guide local government and central government decision making.”
Related Posts
- Hide On Auckland Transport CCO
- Hide in Wonderland: Super-Secret Transport Agency “Increases Transparency!”
- Hide: Why Time For Change
- Hide: Supercouncil Could Sack Transport Chiefs
- Hide: One Rule For All
Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
8 Comments
“Central government agencies are taking full advantage of the opportunity of at long last being able to work closely with the political leadership of Auckland in their own areas of responsibility.”
Is that code for ‘Central government is now dictating what will happen in Auckland’?
Good words.
But why am I not convinced that Mr Hide doesn’t in reality mean “Local government should the fu** listen to what National government wants!”?
Oh, because that is the way they (and he) have treated us in the recent past. Call it experience.
Aligning local and national intentions is all well and good. But sometimes - like NOW - those intentions are actually quite a bit apart. I hope they really DO understand that Auckland’s Council IS a tier of GOVERNMENT, not a subsidiary of Wellington Inc.
You know somehow I don’t believe that Rodney wrote that… Strange…
Rodney who?
I see he has admitted it was not about savings now.
This could be genuine. After all Rodney’s party turned its back on him. Maybe Rodney is going to turn his back on his party. Or this could simply be Rodney trying to protect his legacy as this will almost certainly be what he is most associated with when his history is written.
Perhaps he wants to run for Mayor now….
Seems like a change in tune, but perhaps a big public knifing can do that to a man?
He finally realized Auckland voters do play a part in this year’s elections.