Rotorua Lakes Council and iwi partnership wins award for outstanding service and value in local government

Local Government New Zealand is delighted to announce Rotorua Lakes Council has won the MartinJenkins Judges’ Choice Award for Outstanding Value and Service Delivery for its partnership with iwi Te Arawa.

The LGNZ EXCELLENCE Awards, now in their third year, were held in Dunedin last night to recognise and celebrate the outstanding leadership role local government plays within communities. More than 600 delegates from local and central government, and stakeholders, celebrated the outstanding leadership role local government plays within communities.

Selected from all finalists the Judges Choice award is recognition of outstanding delivery of best practice value and service to their community. The award recognises the increased value, benefit or improvements to the overall well-being of the people within their town, city, district or region, in this case delivered through outstanding community engagement.

Following discussions on how the relationship between the Council and Te Arawa might be strengthened both parties worked together to develop an innovative, strategic and enduring partnership.

The Council wanted to develop a new partnership model with Te Arawa, support community leadership, work innovatively, and reshape the Council to be more effective and responsive. Te Arawa had also called for a new partnership to ensure recognition its significance as Tangata Whenua and to identify and leverage opportunities to work together for the betterment of the Rotorua district.

One major innovation of the partnership includes the development of a charitable trust, Te Tatau o Te Arawa, to provide ongoing engagement between the iwi and the Council. Following community consultation it was also agreed Te Arawa representatives would be appointed to council committees and strategic working parties.

The Partnership was hailed by judges as representing “a step change in council/iwi relationships which will influence the manner in which relationships develop in other parts of New Zealand.”

LGNZ President Lawrence Yule says the partnership showed an innovative approach to community consultation and engagement.

“This was an outstanding example of building trust in a genuinely collaborative way and working together to build greater links and involvement of Maori in local government. This is an excellent model that could be rolled out in many parts of New Zealand,” Mr Yule says.

Judges for the awards are former Wellington Mayor Kerry Prendergast, Chair of EQC Sir Maarten Wevers and The New Zealand Initiative’s Executive Director, Dr Oliver Hartwich.

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