New Zealand First has studied Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown’s “Manifesto for Auckland” and endorses it as a needed next government immediate priority.

Much of what the Mayor’s office is saying is mirrored by Councils all around New Zealand who desperately need alternative sources of funding to do their job properly.

In 2005, the Central Local Government Forum requested the “Review of Local Government Funding” which was the “Shand Report”. That report had 90 recommendations, many addressing deficiencies mirroring 18 years on, the concerns of Auckland Council and other councils.

Sadly, very few of those Shand Report recommendations were followed, which explains why local government is in such big trouble today.

Central government and Wellington bureaucracy must no longer be able to go on loading new duties, responsibilities, and legal requirements onto local government whilst giving local government no funding to handle these new responsibilities imposed by Wellington.

That’s why New Zealand First has been cautioning in this election campaign, against so many promises being made by other political parties, when the real bread and butter issues such as soaring cost of living, or in this case, soaring costs of trying to provide local government, are being totally neglected in the lead up to the election.

New Zealand First went into this election with its “eyes wide open” as to the real and immediate challenges facing the next government. In the last three days, having visited Opotiki, Gisborne, Wairoa, and Napier, talking to locals, underscored the soundness of our political focus on the real issues and ‘must dos’ rather than ‘woke projects’ and ‘nice to dos’.

In more ways than one for our country, the rubber has seriously hit the road and we will be talking to the Mayor of Auckland straight after the election, and other mayors, about what needs to be done right here, right now.

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