Napier's mayor asks "Amalgamation – Where are we now?"

We have been told that we must amalgamate. All five councils – the four territorials and the regional council – have been told that they should become one.

So how did this come about?

The government clearly has decided to reduce the number of councils in New Zealand. With a total disregard for democracy, our current government is hell bent on reducing the number of councils to a total they can control from Wellington. And to a size that they can get away with transferring central government costs on to.

To enable this process to take place they have changed the rules so that communities of interest no longer have the right to determine their own governance futures. Don’t be fooled by the disingenuous spin doctoring you will hear from the government representatives about the decision being in the hands of the people. The rules have been changed by the government to assist numerically larger communities to take over smaller communities.

Another major change this government has made is that they now allow anyone or any group to make application for local government reorganisation. So here in Hawkes Bay, we have a small group of self-interested individuals who have been able to ask the government to amalgamate all five local councils into one. Not surprisingly, having been appointed by the very government which removed our democratic rights to determine our own future, the Local Government Commission has accepted totally, the suggestion by this group.

So what is this group’s motivation? Simple answer – control. Please do not be fooled by the story that amalgamation will lift us from the pits of economic hell. Those members of the steering committee of our ‘saviour group’ who have not inherited vast wealth, have in fact become wealthy in Hawkes Bay. Our basket case economy has produced the opportunities for these people to become wealthy and I applaud that. And I applaud them for grabbing those opportunities. Why then, do they insult my intelligence by telling me that amalgamation is the answer to the regions perceived ills?

The role of local government is to serve its community of interest. In Hawkes Bay we have four individual communities of interest – Wairoa, Napier, Hastings and Central Hawkes Bay. And we have a common community of interest which is our environment and waters and the HB Regional Council looks after those matters for us.

It is not the role of local government to create the wealth of a community. To create wealth you need to take risk and that is the role of private enterprise. The role of local government is to ensure there are no administrative road blocks in the way. To ensure that the wheels are oiled and the tracks greased so that private enterprise has the best possible chance of establishing and maintaining successful enterprise.

So we need to look at our current structure.

We have a nine member regional council which collects rates, takes the big picture and looks after the environment. And we have four councils who collect rates, are close to their communities and make full decisions on behalf of those communities. We are served by 53 elected and paid representatives.

So what is the proposed new structure?

A nine member Hawkes Bay council which collects rates, takes the big picture and looks after the environment. And five community boards who don’t collect rates, have no teeth and have their decisions controlled by the Hawkes Bay Council. We would be served by 47 elected and paid representatives.

See what I mean about control?