Opinion: Why cancelling regional councils would be a very bad idea

Imagine what would happen if regional councils were no more. Photo / Hawke's Bay Regional Council

THE FACTS

• Regional councils play crucial roles in environmental management, infrastructure planning and public safety.
• They also make bylaws for navigation safety, appoint harbourmasters, and respond to emergencies.
• Amalgamating regional, city, and district councils could enhance governance while preserving essential functions.

Local government reform always seems to bubble away just under the surface, occasionally flaring up into serious and dramatic proposals for change.

Some have said that we have too many councils. That they are dysfunctional. That they spend too much. Sometimes, as we’ve seen lately, regional councils are singled out for criticism.

Frustrations are understandable. But what’s the solution? A recent Herald editorial sensibly concluded that any changes must be “the right ones for the right reasons”. That’s a more nuanced position than the impulsive view we’ve heard recently from Minister Jones and the Prime Minister: that regional councils should simply be “cancelled”.

Imagine what would happen if regional councils were no more.

For a start, we could expect more environmental degradation. Regional councils are responsible for controlling discharges of contaminants to air, land and water, and the taking and diversion of water. They identify and monitor contaminated land, and control land for the purpose of soil conservation. They manage the use of land in the coastal marine area. And they are involved in waste minimisation.

Neither district councils, nor the national Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), are positioned to take on those roles. They simply do not have the capacity, capability or mandate.

We might also expect increased dysfunction in infrastructure and growth planning. Regional councils have many development functions. They have a vital role in the provision of public transport and land transport planning more broadly. Some are involved in community infrastructure like stadiums and parks.

Councils are involved in waste minimisation. Photo / Western Bay of Plenty Regional Council

They have strategies for regional economic growth and are heavily engaged in spatial planning, urban expansion and infrastructure alignment. This regional level has been vital to bring councils together to spatially plan metropolitan areas across district boundaries.

And what about people’s health and safety? Regional councils make bylaws for navigation safety, appoint harbourmasters, and respond to emergencies like oil spills. They are a core part of civil defence emergency management groups, which combine councils, emergency services and other organisations. They are responsible for ensuring the safety of dams under the Building Act. As catchment authorities, they actively manage rivers to prevent flooding and erosion to protect infrastructure and property. We have seen how important this function is in the wake of devastating flooding over the last couple of years.

In this context, the Cabinet has confirmed an important role for regional councils in the new resource management system. In many respects, the new system has been designed specifically around regional councils, which will be responsible for setting environmental limits, identifying protected areas and undertaking regional-level spatial planning.

Axing regional councils now, therefore, makes absolutely no sense.

Regional councils actively manage rivers to prevent flooding and erosion to protect infrastructure and property. Photo / Taranaki Regional Council

That said, our system of local government is not perfect. Reform is needed. But it must be more nuanced than just putting regional councils on the chopping block.

New Zealand is highly governed. We have 11 regional councils and 67 city, district and unitary councils. Governance is also inconsistent. The Auckland Council governs 1.7 million people, while 77 councils are responsible for the rest of the country. Auckland is a unitary council, combining both regional and city functions in one entity, as are Marlborough, Nelson, Gisborne and Tasman.

Therein lies a possible way ahead. Amalgamating regional, city and district councils at a regional scale makes sense as a starting proposition, especially when some councils have such small populations that they lack an adequate rating base to properly undertake all statutory functions.

Amalgamation would minimise the loss of institutional knowledge and retain the broader catchment-based boundaries so vital to environmental management. This was one option put forward in an independent panel’s 2023 report on The Future for Local Government. A rethink of the structure, functions and features of the EPA needs to happen at the same time and in a complementary way.

Institutional reform needs to be free from knee-jerk and haphazard policy shifts that have so far characterised this Government’s approach to resource management reform. Local Government Minister Simon Watts seems to be aware of the need for care, and such voices need to be heard.