HAMILTON MAYOR BACKS LOCAL GOVERNMENT NZ AFTER CHRISTCHURCH, AUCKLAND EXIT
Hamilton mayor Paula Southgate says she is disappointed Christchurch and Auckland are no longer members of Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ), because there is strength in numbers.
The recent exit of Christchurch City Council, following the departure of Auckland in March last year, was a "very disappointing outcome" and Southgate defended her council's continued membership despite ratepayers being saddled with a 16.5 percent rate rise this year.
In the past five years, Hamilton ratepayers forked out $540,267 for their council to be a member of LGNZ including $126,147 for the year to March 2025.
Nearby Tauranga City Council paid $94,793 in membership fees for this financial year and had paid a total of $406,030 over the past five years.
Southgate, who is on LGNZ's national council and is a metro sector chairperson, said being a member gave councils better access to central government and Members of Parliament, as well as enabling the sharing of resources, challenges and legal costs.
"I do believe there's strength and efficiency in numbers. Also being able to share information, examples of good practice, share challenges, legal resource, planning resource, expertise and those sorts of things is very beneficial."
Southgate became metro sector chairperson this year, a role that was voluntary and required four meetings per year including some by Zoom.
"It is extremely useful when all of the mayors from the big cities come together and look at critical issues we're facing that may be quite different from other parts of the country, like rural and provincial towns.
"And we get access to ministers first-hand, who regularly attend our meetings. We get regular updates from the ministries and senior officials from government, and we are able to sit down and work it out together, what do we need to collectively do to get the best results for our individual councils."
It would be too time-consuming for her or any other mayor to ring around other metro councils to get their views on key issues, Southgate said.
"Likewise, central government has been quite clear with Local Government New Zealand that they do not want or have the time and resource to talk to every single one of the 71 [other member] local councils across the country.
"So having us altogether in one place is very beneficial to central government also because they're able to sit in the same room and have in-depth conversation on critical issues."
Asked if half a million dollars over five years was justifiable to ratepayers, Southgate said she believed Hamilton derived a "great deal of value" from being a member.
She pointed out she was in the fortunate position of being elected to the National Council, was chair of the metro sector and also in a transport advisory role.
"So I get first-hand information. I get access to central government across national issues of importance.
"I get to meet regularly with Ministers and MPs, one-on-one and in meetings and I get to share the work that Local Government (NZ) does on our behalf - for example, legal advice or planning advice that each council would have to do on their own."
Professional development was also cheaper through being a member, Southgate said.
LGNZ chief executive Susan Freeman-Green said the organisation was primarily funded through the membership fees of 72 councils.
In the 2023/24 financial year it also received $1.25 million from the Department of Internal Affairs sector engagement, $112,500 from DIA libraries and $10m from the Ministry of Social Development's community employment programme to fund the Mayors Taskforce for Jobs.
Freeman-Greene said fees would not increase for the remaining councils because of the loss of Christchurch's membership.
There was no concern by LGNZ that other large councils would follow suit and end their membership due to cost, she said.
"We continue to work with our member councils to ensure we are delivering what they need from us."
It had an executive leadership team of five, including Freeman-Greene, and holds an annual conference for councils with one planned in mid-August in Wellington called SuperLocal 24.
LGNZ president and Selwyn District mayor Sam Broughton said Christchurch now stood to lose economically from the council's decision.
"LGNZ was due to hold its 2025 conference in Christchurch, however as they are not members this will no longer take place in the city.
"Last year's conference injected $1.2m into Christchurch's economy. Christchurch will also lose out on a potential $500,000 in annual savings from our Street Light Profiles.
"Our professional development platform also has over $700,000 worth of material available to our members which, done individually, would be seriously expensive to replicate."
Asked if Hamilton would put up its hand to host the next conference, Southgate said she had not considered that but it was a possibility.
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2024-07-01T02:06:40Z dg43tfdfdgfd