Don Brash Speech: An Address To Local Government New Zealand By National Party Leader Don Brash
A National Perspective On Local Government
President Basil Morrison, Chief Executive Eugene Bowen, Mayors and Councillors.
Thank you for the invitation to address your conference this morning and for the opportunity to outline National’s
perspective on key issues of importance to local government in New Zealand.
May I, before I begin, pay a special tribute to the work of local governments in the Manawatu and the Bay of Plenty in
dealing with the serious flooding which has devastated vast areas of both provinces this year. Only those who have seen
the floods at first hand can have any idea of the trail of destruction left by both major floods, and the hard work and
dedication by the local governments in the areas most badly affected represent New Zealanders at their most effective.
My motivation in coming to politics from the Reserve Bank was a deep concern about New Zealand’s direction and
particularly about the widening gap in living standards between Australians and New Zealanders. The current government’s
programme will not see New Zealand making up any lost ground. This year’s Budget has Treasury projecting lower growth
rates for the next ten years than in the last ten years. That is simply not good enough.
Local government in New Zealand has a very significant role to play in helping us achieve our goal of lifting New
Zealand’s living standards. Your annual expenditure of over $3.5 billion represents some 3% of Gross Domestic Product.
The value of the assets for which you are responsible exceeds the capitalised value of the New Zealand Stock Exchange.
You also play key regulatory roles in areas like resource management, health standards and building laws. Your councils
perform an invaluable role at the grass roots of our democracy.
A future National Government will need a close and constructive working relationship with local government for National
to achieve our ambitious goals for New Zealand.
That is why I have appointed a senior and experienced spokesperson to this role. Dr Nick Smith has himself served in
local government as a District Councillor and in many portfolios as a Minister of the Crown. He is also National’s
Environment spokesperson, focussing on important work in reforming the Resource Management Act, in which the linkage
with local government is critical.
I have also appointed Sandra Goudie, our Coromandel MP, as an Associate Local Government spokesperson to work with Nick
to help build the relationships that will be so important to us in Government. Nick and Sandra’s presence at your
conference shows their commitment to working with you.
I intend to take a lead role myself in developing the important relationship with local government. That is why I have
attempted to meet, whenever I am travelling around the country, as many mayors and councillors as possible. I am also
committed to retaining the regular forum between local government leaders and Government Ministers so there is a
whole-of-government approach to the interaction between central and local government.
I emphasise the importance of relationship building because it is the basis of good governance. While I want to outline
to you some specific policy views from National, we do want to work with you as we finalise our policy over coming
months.
National’s broad approach to local government policy is as much as possible to let locally elected community leaders get
on with the job of providing good quality services at least cost to your communities. Our worry is that, far too often,
central government has become overly prescriptive vis-à-vis local government in ways that don’t work and which just add
costs for the ratepayer.
Words like “partnership”, and phrases like “the power of general competence”, have been overused to the point where they
have become meaningless. It seems strange that the new Local Government Act, supposedly conferring the power of general
competence on local government, puts so many restrictions on what councils can and cannot do. The prohibition on
charging for library services, for example, or the restriction on ownership of water systems and many other similar
provisions, has central government micro-managing councils. The dog control laws repeat this mistake by requiring every
council to microchip their dogs, and even to set the fine for all manner of offences. Councils are quite capable of
making these decisions and National would provide empowering legislation with maximum fines that leaves councils to get
on and manage what is an inherently local issue.
We have also watched with disappointment the Government’s mishandling of the issue over casting votes at the council
table. National consistently took the view that this should be left to councils to determine, in the same way that
Parliament determines its own standing orders, and we are pleased that eventually the Government came to our point of
view.
I particularly want to express concern at the very tight criteria laid down by the current Government for determining
ward boundaries. We do not believe that these criteria give sufficient flexibility to ensure recognition of communities
of interest. We opposed this provision in the Local Government Act; we tried to amend it with the most recent Bill; and
we commit to changing it in Government because communities of interest are so important in local government.
A key area of reform for National on becoming Government will be the Resource Management Act. We remain committed to the
core principles of this legislation, notably sustainability, an integrated approach to resource management and a focus
on the environmental effects of development. However, we believe the Act requires substantial amendment if we are to
meet the infrastructure and growth needs of the New Zealand economy.
The New Zealand Forest Industry Council noted recently that there are 21 new wood-processing plants under development in
Australia but none in New Zealand. They attributed this largely to problems with our Resource Management Act. Imagine
the nationwide outcry if the Wallabies had cleaned us up 21 - 0 in the Bledisloe Cup. While speed became a bit of an
issue around that rugby game, it is the lack of speed that has lead to so much concern about the Resource Management
Act.
It is just not acceptable that it often takes several times longer to get resource consent for a new road than it takes
to actually build it.
Nor should we pretend that the environment is winning from these costly delays. Projects like the new Canterbury
land-fill - that is a huge environmental improvement on the existing tip - has taken years and $10 million to get a
consent. Both the economy and the environment are losing out. We must do better if we are to aspire to be a leading
first world nation.
We are frustrated that National’s attempts to reform the Resource Management Act in 1999 were rejected by the current
Government when it came to office at the end of that year. The Simon Upton Bill was well researched and widely consulted
on, and there would not be the head of steam for reform today had those changes been adopted. The tragedy is that not
only was the Bill rejected but also the belated changes that were finally made in 2003 actually made the Act worse and
not better.
In May this year - ironically after the shift in polls and u-turns on a number of other fronts by the Government - the
Government announced a new review of the Resource Management Act, with a new Minister David Benson-Pope replacing Marian
Hobbs.
National has welcomed this review on the basis that a review is better late than never, although we are very doubtful
the Government has the courage to make the scale of changes that are necessary.
Our concern has been amply confirmed by Ministers’ comments to this conference suggesting that only minimal change is
being considered.
It would be easy for National to sit back and wait for the Government to declare its hand, but instead we have publicly
outlined the areas in which we want to see change in the RMA.
We want to see the decision-making process streamlined, with the option of direct referral to the Environment Court for
major proposals. We want both the councils and the Environment Court to have the power to limit vexatious and frivolous
objections. We want to see the complexity of the Act reduced. We believe the Maori and Treaty provisions need to be
rewritten so that the culture and values of all New Zealanders are put on an equal footing. We also want to see a
greater use of national standards, and a rewrite of the principles of the Act to better recognise the need for public
infrastructure and economic development.
Addressing this issue quickly and decisively is vital for local government and for New Zealand. National will introduce
a substantial Resource Management Amendment Bill within three months of being elected to Government and have it passed
within nine months.
Local government also has a key role in transport. The traffic congestion problems in not just this city of Auckland but
in centres like Tauranga, Wellington, Nelson and Christchurch must be addressed. The problems of traffic congestion have
got worse since Labour came to office in 1999 and looking to the future I do not believe current policies will address
this critical issue for your communities.
The new Land Transport Management Act passed last year is a major impediment to speedy road construction. It is the sort
of law you pass when you want to stop building new roads. This very prescriptive legislation will limit private sector
participation in road building and the extra obligations to consult with iwi just add to the problems created by the
Resource Management Act. The legislation was a sop to the Greens and will need to be substantially rewritten if we are
to make progress.
There is also a critical issue about funding. The Government would have you believe that never before has so much been
spent on roads. The records tell a different story. In National’s last year in office, $135 million was spent on new
roads and state highways in Auckland. That total was not reached again for the next three years under the Labour
Government, and spending fell as low as $82 million in 2000-2001. Only in 2002-2003 did spending by Transfund on new
roads in Auckland exceed that of National and that by just $5 million - less than the amount needed to cover the effects
of inflation over the intervening years - and this despite an increase in the government’s revenue from petrol taxes of
32% over the same period.
National is committed to putting the funding of the roading network onto a sound basis. National will invest more on
roads, and we want to gradually move away from such heavy dependence on rates on property as a source of the funds to
build roads to a greater use of user charges and congestion pricing. This would be much fairer to ratepayers.
Funding is not the key constraint at this time, as shown by the $250 million in Transfund’s kitty at the end of the
financial year, but if necessary we would look to divert more of the money that now goes into government coffers from
petrol taxes into roads. We are committed to completing the Auckland corridor network within 10 years of our election.
A major issue linked to the new Local Government Act is the record increase in rates during the last year. Statistics
New Zealand has identified a 10.4% increase in local government rates in the year to June 2004 during the first full
year of operation of the new Act. By a large margin, this increase is the biggest for any year in the last 10 years. The
10.4% increase is more than four times the increase in the Consumer Price Index for the same period, of 2.4%.
This increase is simply not acceptable. It is making budgeting for families on fixed incomes more difficult and it is
undermining the competitiveness of New Zealand businesses.
Responsibility for this record increase rests partly with the Government. Many groups, including the National Party,
warned the Government that the new local government legislation would add costs for the ratepayer. The new gaming, dog
control, building and many other statutes that add new responsibilities or extend existing responsibilities without
funding have added significantly to the rates burden. We cannot allow this situation to continue.
National wants to work with the local government sector on reducing the burden on local governments of central
government legislation. We don’t want to play the blame game. We want to work with you on how we can ensure ratepayers
get efficient services at least cost. We propose establishing a joint working party between Local Government New Zealand
and an incoming National Government to review the full range of local government legislation to reduce the cost to your
ratepayers.
We have also heard local governments’ concern about financial pressures and the limits of existing funding channels. We
are particularly sympathetic to councils in respect of the huge rating burden of roads. In looking to the future, we
would want to talk with local government about how the costs of maintaining the roading network can be met more by road
users and less by ratepayers, as I’ve indicated.
We need to revisit the consultation and planning requirements of the new Local Government Act. We believe the law is too
prescriptive in the degree to which councils must consult and we are concerned about the costs this imposes on councils.
We also want to revisit the provisions that require councils to consult with both their community and with iwi - this is
surely bizarre. It implies that somehow Maori are not part of the community, and of course they are. We also note with
concern the increasing practice, flowing from the new Act, of Maori requiring payment for this consultation, whereas few
other groups, if any, are paid for expressing their views to councils.
National will be applying the policy of one standard of citizenship to local government, and this includes abolishing
the special provisions in the Local Government Electoral Act that provide for separate Maori representation on councils.
New Zealand is a beautiful country. We are blessed with so many natural resources and our people have many skills and
talents. We all have a responsibility to work together to ensure New Zealand can be the very best country on earth. It
is a challenge the National Party relishes.