Councils have three months to come up with amalgamation plans – or have change imposed on them, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s excerpt from The Bulletin.
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‘Either way, change is coming’
Local government minister Simon Watts and RMA reform minister Chris Bishop have given councils three months to come up with reorganisation plans – or have changes imposed on them. As RNZ’s Russell Palmer reports, the new “head start” approach asks councils to form voluntary groupings and bring proposals to government; those that don’t face a “backstop” of standardised transitional arrangements.
Once the August deadline expires, decisions will be made this year, then detailed planning begins in 2027, with the aim of implementation before the 2028 local body elections. Bishop’s message to councils was unambiguous: “Lead your own reform, or we will do it for you. Either way, change is coming.”
Bishop admitted that National hadn’t campaigned on local government reform, but “that doesn’t mean the government can’t do it”. You’ve almost got to admire Bishop’s “brass neck”, says Henry Cooke in The Post (paywalled), who points out that Christopher Luxon in fact explicitly campaigned on “localism” and returning power to communities.
“It is of course easy to make these arguments in opposition, and find many willing allies when you make them,” writes Cooke. “It is then easy in government to realise that dealing with this many different actors is inherently complex and promotes massive inertia.”
From November’s plan to Tuesday’s ultimatum
Tuesday’s announcement revises the plan unveiled last November, which the government heralded as the biggest shake-up to local government in decades. That plan would have replaced the country’s 11 regional councils with Combined Territories Boards of local mayors, who would assume regional governance while developing reorganisation plans, and done so as early as next year. But according to Jonathan Milne in Newsroom, officials found “vehement opposition” when they consulted councils on the pace of change, and the CTB model was “roundly derided” by mayors who were already stretched running their own councils.
The political calculation behind this week’s more flexible approach is evident. As Milne notes, the Fourth Labour Government paid electorally for forcing amalgamations in 1990, and communities pushed back fiercely against the Ardern government’s three waters consolidation in 2023.
The race is already on
Planning for several regional groupings are well advanced. In Northland, the Far North, Whangarēi, Kaipara and Northland Regional Council are looking to merge into one large unitary authority or possibly two, Milne reports for Newsroom, while “New Plymouth, Stratford and South Taranaki are mounting a strong argument to all merge with Taranaki Regional Council into one big unitary authority”.
Wellington’s leaders have increasingly been calling amalgamation inevitable. Non-binding referendums in Porirua and Lower Hutt have already come out in favour – though Lower Hutt mayor Peri Zee says she remains “highly sceptical” of the idea – while Wairarapa appears likely to go it alone. The West Coast may end up with a similar split, involving Grey and Hokitika district councils merging with Westland Regional Council while Buller stays on its own. Waikato, Rotorua-Bay of Plenty and Southland have also signalled their interest in exploring amalgamation.
Is bigger actually better?
The government says the amalgamation drive is all about efficiency – but its case rests on surprisingly shaky evidence. A 2022 Infrastructure Commission report found council size has no bearing on cost efficiency, reports the Herald’s Ethan Manera (paywalled). In areas like road maintenance and building consent processing, “you would expect to see some cost efficiencies… we didn’t find that in the data”, the commission’s Peter Nunns said – larger and smaller councils performed about the same.
The most obvious test case is Auckland’s 2010 super city, where eight councils merged into one. Auckland Council claims it has made $2.4 billion in savings since amalgamation – but local government academic Dr Andy Asquith found efficiency gains were “hard to determine”, noting that staff numbers have climbed above pre-amalgamation levels while household rates have risen 85% since 2010. The super city succeeded on leadership and strategic direction, Asquith argued, but “failed to increase democratic engagement”.
