Category: Local Government
Voter apathy appears to be the not-so-secret weapon that the Local Government Commission seems to rely on in local government amalgamations proposed for Hawke’s Bay, Northland, and Wellington. If no one objects a transition to amalgamation is self-starting.
Noosa residents were deeply unhappy about the forced amalgamation and the removal of local democracy. They vowed to fight back, and in the lead up to the State Government elections in 2012, they, along with three other Queensland communities, won the right to de-amalgamate.
Local government performance and reorganisation have been popular topics of debate in recent years in New Zealand and Wellington is the latest region under the Local Government Commission’s scrutiny. In December last year, the Commission released its Draft Proposal for Reorganisation of Local Government in Wellington.
Not content with forcing a Maori Ward onto his district at the next local body election, New Plymouth’s Mayor, Andrew Judd, is now calling for a law change so that half of all councillors in New Zealand will be Maori.
The Green Party had a significant impact on government regulation and legislation during the nine years Helen Clark was Prime Minister. While many radical environmental initiatives were eventually dropped or terminated by the National Government, others, like the ban on household fires and older wood burners, remain in place.
The Auckland Council is campaigning to ban domestic open fireplaces and old wood burners by claiming that such fires result in the premature deaths of 110 persons every year even though evidence for such deaths does not exist.
Finance Minister Bill English has just returned from an International Monetary Fund (IMF) meeting in Washington. He said that despite a fair bit of pessimism about the global economic outlook, New Zealand's economy remains resilient and our prospects for 2-3 percent growth over the next three or four years is still on track.
In the lead up to the 2014 General Election, a number of political parties were proposing changes to New Zealand’s constitutional arrangements. Many wanted to strengthen race-based rights and elevate them above the rights of other citizens.
In June, a subcommittee of the Auckland Council announced plans to make grieving families apply for permission to scatter their loved ones' ashes in public places. The new bylaw would have prevented ashes being scattered in cemeteries, parks, even beaches, unless a fee was paid and written approval obtained from the council or the Wahi Tapu Maori Komiti.
A window of opportunity presents itself to amend the egregious errors of the flawed proposed Auckland unitary plan. Original submitters on the plan have until 5pm, 22 July 2014, “for lodging further submissions, either in support or opposition to original submissions.”
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