Decision making, laws, funding and taxes are all concentrated on Wellington.
LGNZ has been vocal in recent years arguing for local and regional councils to be given more power to enact laws, pursue social policies, protect the environment, and prepare for climate change.
On this last one, climate change, local bodies are well ahead of where the National Government is.
LGNZ president Lawrence Yule, in his conference address, called for a post-election government to be far more proactive, both in transitioning to a low-carbon economy and preparing communities for extreme weather events.
This needs centralised co-ordination, but local councils, he argues, should be given more licence to play their part effectively.
In light of future challenges, Yule made a general plea for "empowering and strengthening local democracy".
"We call it localism, or the principal of subsidiarity which argues that decisions should be made as closely as possible by those they will impact."
This is particularly true of environmental stewardship. People are more motivated to care about a river, a beach, an area of native bush if they are local.
The further away pollution or exploitative land use occurs the less we are inclined to worry about it. And the less we think we can change things.
While we can't solve all the world's problems at the local level, our democratic systems could do with being revitalised by more political debates and action that draws in ordinary people.
Central government often seems so far away and dominated by career politicians and spin doctors. This is alienating to most of us.
For democracy to be rejuvenated, however, local councils will need more money to operate with.
LGNZ is pushing for councils to be allowed greater flexibility in raising revenue, other than being restricted to rates and debt.
Possible options are regional petrol taxes to fund public transport initiatives and hotel levies charged to tourists to help meet increasing infrastructure costs.
Another common sense measure, which I've also advocated previously, is for gst charged on rates to not go to central government but rather stay in the regions.
A remit on the table at the LGNZ conference, coming from the Gisborne District Council, showed thinking along similar lines.
Their remit called for LGNZ to lobby central government for a proportion of the 15 per cent GST to be returned to the regions in which it was generated.
Taxes are an unavoidable fact of our current political system, it cannot hurt to have more of that revenue under the control of local government, and less at the national level.
The internet is opening up new opportunities for thinking about democracy, resource use and co-ordination that is far less centralised.
With the right democratic structures in place, greater autonomy and financial resources to try ideas, it could be that local councils are in the best position to facilitate the use of new technologies that empower people and communities.
In all of this we can do with a mind-shift, that we need to put more trust in ourselves to engage with politics and democratic decision making.
We might find we actually enjoy it.
■ Vaughan Gunson is a writer and poet interested in social justice and big issues facing the planet.
