Coalition disagreement understood to be behind halt of local govt reforms

Coalition disagreement is understood to be behind a decision today that blindsided mayors across the country, with ministers halting progress on local government reforms.

Regions were given a three-month deadline to put together proposals for major structural shake-ups – or risk having it done for them – to “get on with simplifying and streamlining local government”, RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop said at the time.

Eighteen jurisdictions scrambled to put together proposals in time, some asking for extensions to get plans over the line.

A letter to local government leaders from Bishop and Local Government Minister Simon Watts said that “after careful consideration, Cabinet has decided that it will not be making decisions on individual Head Start proposals at this time”.

The Herald understands there wasn’t consensus around the Cabinet table for Head Start to progress.

No proposal carried the unanimous support of councils, meaning that going ahead would have led to difficult and politically fraught conversations with councils in the middle of the election campaign.

It was therefore decided this would be a distraction.

Act declined to comment except to say it supported the Government’s position.

New Zealand First local government spokesman and former Wellington Mayor Andy Foster would not comment on what happened in Cabinet, noting he is not part of it, but said the party had multiple concerns with the Head Start programme.

Foster said the earlier deadline was “unreasonably tight” and he also had issues with the idea “that every council needed to have a dance partner”.

Wellington Mayor Andrew Little said councils in the region spent $250,000 scrambling to meet the Government’s “totally unreasonable” three-month deadline.

Speaking to the Herald today, Little speculated the “parochial” coalition partner NZ First may have taken issue with progressing the reforms.

Little said unanimity “was never a requirement” of the process.

“They explicitly said in the material they issued at the time they were inviting us all to do it, they said it doesn’t have to be unanimous, just put up a coherent proposal.”

The announcement has left some mayors “fuming”, while others say they’re pleased to have more time.

In response to Little’s earlier comments, Watts dismissed the outrage as political.

“I’d suggest that we leave the political campaigning to central government politicians and local government to focus on their core tasks of delivering services for ratepayers,” Watts said when contacted by the Herald.

While today’s announcement does not mean Head Start is being scrapped, it is at risk with a potential Government change after the election.

Ethan Manera is a Wellington-based journalist covering Wellington issues, local politics and business in the capital. He can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz.