Former Auckland deputy mayor Penny Hulse says reorganising councils will not solve local government’s deeper problems unless funding, local decision-making and the relationship with central government are addressed at the same time.
Penny served as deputy mayor of Waitakere City and later Auckland Council and will be speaking in Raglan on Sunday. She was also one of five panel members appointed to conduct the 2023 Review into the Future for Local Government.
The review asked what kind of local government New Zealand would need to meet challenges such as climate change, weakening social cohesion and declining confidence in democratic institutions.
The panel concluded the funding system was unsustainable, democratic participation needed strengthening and partnerships with iwi, hapū and mana whenua should be reinforced through a Te Tiriti framework.
Penny said there had also long been debate over whether councils should focus narrowly on “rubbish, rates and roads” or play a wider role in supporting community wellbeing, economic development and future generations.
The review recommended that this broader role be more clearly recognised in local government’s responsibilities.
It also supported greater regional collaboration, but Penny said structural reform must not come at the expense of community identity and influence.
“We were very clear that you cannot lose local voice.”
Penny said the Government’s current programme appeared focused on mergers and council boundaries while failing to address many of the wider issues identified by the review, including local government’s purpose, funding, democratic participation and relationships with communities and mana whenua.
Funding remains the central issue
Penny described council’s funding model as “fundamentally broken” and said local government could not continue to rely so heavily on property rates.
Councils are expected to manage population growth, ageing infrastructure and environmental pressures without a funding base broad enough to support those responsibilities.
Changing council boundaries would not address that underlying problem, she said.
The review proposed returning GST collected on rates to the communities where it was raised, expanding councils’ funding tools and requiring central government to contribute more directly to growth costs.
Penny estimated returning GST on rates could inject around $1 billion into the local government system.
Lessons from the Auckland Super City
During Auckland’s 2010 amalgamation, Penny strongly opposed the creation of the Auckland Super City while serving in Waitakere City and joined public protests against the reform.
However, she said the Auckland Plan had become a valuable long-term framework for housing, infrastructure, catchment management, environmental protection and future growth.
“What can go where? What do you protect? Where can you build? How do you understand your catchments, your rivers, your infrastructure that’s needed for the next two or three generations?”
This kind of work could be more effective at a regional level because transport networks, waterways, housing markets and infrastructure systems do not stop at council boundaries.
But Auckland’s experience also demonstrated the risks for smaller and more distant communities.
After 15 years under Auckland Council, Penny believed her former Waitakere area had not fared well.
“Things do get absorbed into the centre,” she said.
Investment, staffing and strategic attention increasingly gravitated towards central Auckland despite the efforts of councillors representing other parts of the region.
Penny said this was not necessarily the result of poor intentions. Larger organisations naturally seek standardisation and economies of scale, but those efficiencies can work against communities on the edges.
Different places may need different models
Penny said reform should keep decisions as close to local communities as possible.
A regional model could manage catchment planning, major infrastructure, environmental policy and combined district plans while local organisations handled community facilities and place-based services.
She doubted there would be a single model that worked everywhere.
“It’s different strokes for different folks.”
Community boards worked well in some places, while other areas might need local councils or different community structures we haven’t seen in New Zealand before.
Penny said Auckland’s local boards had often occupied an uncomfortable middle ground. Some were too large to feel genuinely local, yet lacked enough authority and funding to make a substantial difference.
Waikato’s mix of cities, farming districts, coastal settlements, river communities and places such as Whāingaroa may require several different approaches within any larger regional structure.
Penny said Raglan had repeatedly demonstrated the value of locally led organisations and partnerships. Any new system should preserve that kind of approach rather than forcing every community project through a distant council bureaucracy.
Bigger does not always mean better
Penny said Auckland’s amalgamation also showed how trying to find efficiencies at scale can sometimes create new inefficiencies.
Under the former Waitakere City Council, a community organisation could call a nearby electrician to repair a light at a local hall.
Under Auckland’s centralised model, however, an electrician could be sent from Papatoetoe to Huia, a journey that might take hours in traffic, according to one example Penny gave.
Rather than assuming everything should move into a larger authority, Penny said reform should start at the other end of the scale by identifying which services worked best regionally and which could be delivered locally.
Council restructuring would also not resolve workplace culture, staff turnover or abuse directed at council employees.
“No one does their best work when they feel bullied or unsupported or unvalued,” she said.
Reform could strengthen democracy
Despite her concerns, Penny did not advocate outright rejection of the Government’s reform programme.
“By just rejecting change… I think opportunities can be lost,” she said.
She believed reform could improve regional planning and allow suitable services to be delivered by trusted community organisations if they were given appropriate funding.
But Penny said structural change should also create opportunities for people to become more involved in local decision-making.
With local election turnout often sitting around 30 per cent, she supported citizens’ assemblies, community forums and other forms of deliberative democracy that could help involve communities in complex decisions and strengthen the legitimacy of local government.
The reform process also offered an opportunity to strengthen the role of Te Tiriti within local government.
Penny said partnerships with iwi, hapū and mana whenua should be built into the system rather than treated as an optional addition.
She believed the future of local government should be based on a respectful relationship between central government, councils, mana whenua and communities.
Without that trust, changing council boundaries would do little to address the deeper challenges facing the sector.
Public meeting in Raglan
Penny will speak at the Strengthening Our Voice in Local Government public meeting from 2pm to 4pm on Sunday, June 28 at Raglan Town Hall.
She will discuss the 2023 Review into the Future for Local Government, lessons from the Auckland Super City and the opportunities and risks presented by the Government’s current reform programme.
Waikato District Mayor Aksel Bech will be speaking and Waikato regional councillor Noel Smith along with Whaingaroa Ward Councillor Lisa Thomson will also attend.
The event is being hosted by Raglan Naturally Community Trust in partnership with Raglan Community Radio.
Penny said she hoped residents would become involved and support elected members as they worked through the complex reform process.
“The opportunity for local government done well can turn community around,” she said.