Overhaul of local government red tape promised

Maori seats and the single transferable vote (STV) electoral system will be abolished for councils under National's local government policy announced by leader Don Brash yesterday.

Under a series of reforms, Dr Brash said a National Government would return to a first-past-the-post system at the local level, scrap compulsory microchipping of dogs, and review key laws such as the Building Act and Resource Management Act. "The National Party does not support Labour's new law that provides for separate seats on councils for Maori. Already these have been introduced on the Bay of Plenty Regional Council and are now being considered by the Rotorua District Council. Racially based seats will be abolished by a National Government," Dr Brash said.

"We also take offence at the provisions of the new Local Government Act that require councils to consult iwi and their communities."

Addressing the Local Government New Zealand conference in Christchurch, Dr Brash said the STV system earned a bad name because of its complexities, low participation and a slow vote count. Twenty-one district health boards and 10 councils used STV at last October's local body elections.

"The debacle over the use of STV made a mockery of New Zealand democracy," Dr Brash said.

On dog control, he pledged National would also scrap the compulsory microchipping of all dogs registered for the first time after 2006, part of tougher dog control measures introduced by the Government after Auckland girl Carolina Anderson was mauled by an American staffordshire terrier in 2003.

"The issues of dog control are radically different in a rural community like Southland as compared to South Auckland and this decision will be left to each council to decide," Dr Brash said.

Local Government Minister Chris Carter said the effect of National's policies would be to muzzle communities and axe legal requirements Labour had introduced for councils to go out and talk to local communities about major decisions.

Green Party co-leader Rod Donald, who managed to get STV written into law in 2001 as an option for local body elections, said National's policy was short-sighted because councils and communities had the power to decide what electoral system best served local needs. Despite some technical difficulties at the local body elections, none of the councils that opted for STV wanted to return to first-past-the-post, he said.

Dr Brash promised an overhaul of local government red tape, saying Labour's local government, dog control, Treaty of Waitangi, climate change, STV voting system, prostitution, building and resource management laws had dumped extra responsibilities on councils and added hundreds of millions of dollars to the rates bill.

"Rates have gone up 38 per cent, or $760 million, since Labour came to office. This is more than double the rate of inflation."

Mr Carter said Government funding of local government had increased by 45 per cent since 1999, including $1.1 billion for local roads, $150 million for sewerage schemes and $136 million to upgrade drinking water systems. These last two items were 10-year packages.

Key points

National's local government policy includes:

Electoral reform

Dog law changes

An overhaul of the Resource Management Act.

Rewriting of the Building Act.

Investigate re-organising councils on case-by-case basis.