Federated Farmers Northland president Colin Hannah.
Northland farmers say the Government’s proposal to scrap the country’s 11 regional councils is long overdue.
They say farmers cannot sustain the huge costs regularly being presented to them by local authorities.
Federated Farmers Northland president Colin Hannah said the organisation hoped the Government’s proposal would eventually mean not only was the North’s regional council gobbled up, but its three district councils too, resulting in a single unitary authority.
“We’ve got 1539 employees amongst those four councils. Do we need that many?” Hannah asked.
Hannah pointed to ever-escalating rural rates, citing in particular those imposed on Whangārei’s rural community over the past two years, totalling a rise of 47%.
Farmers were getting little, if anything, in return, he said.
They still had to provide their own water, deal with their own sewage and endure higher vehicle costs, caused by roughly-maintained rural roads.
Hannah also gave the example of a farming friend in Canterbury who was billed this year more than $60,000 simply to have a consent rolled over.
The current system had become “untenable” for those on the land, he said.
“Somebody has to pay at the end of the day, and if the farmer pays, well, you [urban residents] end up paying when you go to buy your groceries or whatever as well,” he said.
Hannah acknowledged concerns from some quarters, such as the Dargaville Ratepayers and Residents Association (DRRA), that scrapping the regulatory tier of local government and replacing it with a mayor-led board risked creating an entity that would effectively be tasked with policing itself.
DRRA chairwoman Rose Dixon warned the proposal could create a “highly unethical” conflict of interest that would play out in every region.
She pointed to Kaipara’s ongoing water issues. Territorial authorities are the biggest dischargers of waste and water – their mayors cannot be both the “polluter and the police”, she said.
Dixon called the proposed reform “a Band-Aid on a gaping wound”.
She argued it removed the imperative for councils to fix failing infrastructure, including drinking water and wastewater systems.
“Ultimately, the residents and the environment will bear the cost of these changes,” Dixon said.
Hannah didn’t dismiss those concerns, saying the risk of mayors effectively regulating their own councils was real, but argued the solution lay in accountability and governance structures that voters could directly influence.
At least under the new system, communities would have the chance to remove mayors at the ballot box every three years if they failed to deliver.
By contrast, regional council chairs were chosen internally, leaving ratepayers with no say in who led them, Hannah said.
One of his long‑standing frustrations was that councillors often lacked governance training and blurred the line between it and management.
“And then everything turns to disaster,” Hannah said.
He argued that clearer accountability for chief executives, with performance indicators tied directly to staff actions, would help ensure councils were held to account.
Hannah also stressed that reforms must be handled carefully to avoid panic about job losses. While he questioned the need for 1539 staff across Northland’s councils, he said unemployment “doesn’t do any of us any good”.
He expected the abolition of the regional council would realistically take about three years, given the legalities that must be followed and the need for workable, smooth transitions.
Restructuring must be done sensitively and with attention to economic impacts, Hannah said.
“Every time we lose a dollar in agricultural income, we see a corresponding increase in either crime or MSD [Ministry of Social Development] costs. That’s the hard, cold facts of life.”
Federated Farmers nationally welcomed the Government’s push to cut bureaucracy but urged a different approach.
Rather than merging rural and urban areas under single councils, the organisation wants a model that separates provincial and rural governance from city-based authorities.
Local-government spokeswoman Sandra Faulkner said this would preserve rural voices and prevent cities from dominating decision-making.
She warned against scrapping regional councillors entirely and leaving future structures to mayor-led Combined Territories Boards, saying that would mean “a lot of regional councillor experience walking out the door on the eve of the Government introducing its overhauled resource management legislation – crucial to livelihoods and the environment".
Faulkner said some regional boundaries were too large for a single unitary council, and Federated Farmers sees a role for catchment boards and community boards to take on specialised functions and keep local input strong.
Sarah Curtis is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, focusing on a wide range of issues. She has nearly 20 years’ experience in journalism, most of which she spent court reporting in Gisborne and on the East Coast.