Whanganui Chronicle
  • Whanganui Chronicle home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Taranaki
  • National Park
  • Whakapapa
  • Ohakune
  • Raetihi
  • Taihape
  • Marton
  • Feilding
  • Palmerston North

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • New Plymouth
  • Whanganui
  • Palmertson North
  • Levin

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Whanganui Chronicle

Authority to review how councillors get paid

By John Maslin
Whanganui Chronicle·
6 Oct, 2017 10:00 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

How councillors get paid is under review.

How councillors get paid is under review.

Changes are coming in the way Whanganui's mayor, district councillors and community board members will be paid.

The Remuneration Authority (RMA), the body which sets guidelines on levels of pay for elected councillors, is proposing changes to the current funding model and has asked councils for their opinion.

Mayor Hamish McDouall and council chief executive Kim Fell drafted a submission to the RMA and it was discussed at council's meeting this week.

It will be tweaked before being signed off at the council's November meeting.

The RMA is consulting both on how the "size" of a council is set and the method that elected councillors are paid.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The current proposal is that the size of councils is based on population, operational expenditure, asset size, social deprivation and number of guests nights (visitor numbers).

Once these are established then councillors' remuneration will be set by a 75 per cent majority vote by each council.

The McDouall-Fell submission said that all of those issues except population were significant influences determining the responsibilities and workload of councillors.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"An example of this is where two communities of similar population chose different levels of service for an activity.

"A community with a higher level of service, resulting in higher expenditure, is likely to require more governance oversight than a similar service with a lower level of service," they said.

Authorities such as Whanganui, which have significant rural roading assets, need greater priority of council resources which again impacts on councillors' workload.

They agreed with the RMA that the role of mayor should be considered as full-time position and agreed that councils should be allowed to set their members' pay scales.

Mr McDouall said none of his councillors were remunerated enough for the amount of effort they were putting in.

Cr Jenny Duncan said Whanganui had its own particular and complex issues to deal with which included a smaller urban area than some other councils, but a big rural area with difficult country and significant waterways.

She said while the population may be smaller, assets and their maintenance, such as rural roads, continued to have a major impact on council's operation.

Cr Rob Vinsen said councils had traditionally been remunerated on population "but we've always argued that's not a fair reflection of the work we put in".

"Asset size and operational activities are key here," he said.

Mr Vinsen said he still favoured paying councillors more for meeting attendance rather than a base salary and said he believed splitting the remuneration between salary and attendance would work.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Whanganui Chronicle

Kāinga Ora needs to be ‘responsive to need’, says minister

04 Jul 06:00 PM
Whanganui Chronicle

Work begins on key phase of port project

04 Jul 06:00 PM
Whanganui Chronicle

Pop star to speak on new book at Whanganui Literary Fest

04 Jul 04:57 PM

There’s more to Hawai‘i than beaches and buffets – here’s how to see it differently

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Kāinga Ora needs to be ‘responsive to need’, says minister

Kāinga Ora needs to be ‘responsive to need’, says minister

04 Jul 06:00 PM

'We want to take a very detailed specific look at what Whanganui needs' – Chris Bishop.

Work begins on key phase of port project

Work begins on key phase of port project

04 Jul 06:00 PM
Pop star to speak on new book at Whanganui Literary Fest

Pop star to speak on new book at Whanganui Literary Fest

04 Jul 04:57 PM
Premium
Gardening: Pruning deciduous fruit trees and roses

Gardening: Pruning deciduous fruit trees and roses

04 Jul 04:00 PM
From early mornings to easy living
sponsored

From early mornings to easy living

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Whanganui Chronicle e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Whanganui Chronicle
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP