PM Christopher Luxon open to scrapping regional councils amid RMA reform

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says he wants to explore the possibility of scrapping New Zealand’s regional councils as the Government reforms the Resource Management Act.

NZ First minister Shane Jones told a local government forum last week his party does not see a compelling case for maintaining regional government.

Speaking to Newstalk ZB today from Belgium before the Nato leaders’ summit in The Hague, Luxon was asked whether he supported disestablishing regional councils.

“I have a personal view that I think that’s something that we can explore as part of that Resource Management Act legislation that Chris Bishop is driving through,” he responded.

Luxon said Bishop, as Minister for RMA Reform, would bring a bill before the House before the end of the year but also said he believed there were too many layers of government.

Jones, speaking at last week’s forum as reported by the Post, said there was “less and less of a justifiable purpose for maintaining regional government” after the expected RMA reform.

“After the upcoming changes to the RMA, I doubt, well, certainly in the party I belong to, that there’s going to be a compelling case for regional government to continue to exist.“

New Zealand has 11 regional councils. According to Local Government NZ’s definition, regional councils played a “core role” in managing natural resources such as land and water, supporting biodiversity, providing regional transport and building resilience to natural hazards and the effects of climate change.

Luxon today was also asked about the potential of capping council rates increases, to which he said Local Government Minister Simon Watts was assessing options.

He added councils should organise their finances better, saying they needed to be “smart with the balance sheet” and use debt in different ways.

Bishop, who is also the Housing Minister, last week announced a new power in the RMA that gave central government the ability to overrule local councils if their decisions were going to negatively impact economic growth, development or employment.

Before using the power, a minister would need to check whether the council’s decision was consistent with the national direction under the RMA, and engage with the council.

It would only be an interim measure while the Government worked on new RMA laws, which were due to take effect in 2027 to align with the councils’ next Long-Term Plans.

Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald’s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei and the Herald in Auckland.