The Environmental Defence Society is urging caution following today’s announcement by Local Government Minister Simon Watts and Resource Management Reform Minister Chris Bishop that local government is in for the biggest shakeup since 1989.
The government is seeking feedback on a two-stage proposal for change. The first stage would see regional councils disappear and be replaced by a Combined Territories Board. This would be made up of district mayors within a region. A regional level of local government would still exist, but its governance would no longer be separately or directly elected.
The second stage would see the Boards create a regional reorganisation plan. This would, within two years, outline a plan for how all councils in a region would evolve. The plan would be guided by statutory criteria and could involve anything from shared services to unitisation.
Consultation on the proposals is open until February 2026. The government then plans to introduce legislation in 2026, with enactment in 2027 after the general election.
“These are not the nuclear options that many feared,” said EDS CEO Gary Taylor, who has held roles previously as both a regional and city councillor.
“Regional councils would not be disestablished or ‘cancelled’ per se. Nor would their many important functions – from freshwater management to public transport – simply cease to exist. At least in the short term they would remain as entities, but their layer of elected governance – councillors themselves – would be replaced by a group of district mayors.
“That is a big concern because it could lead to a reduction in environmental priorities and deterioration in outcomes. How it would work in practice is very unclear from the thin discussion paper that has been released.
“Boards that are made up of mayors who will have many other priorities, including strong development imperatives and local priorities, does not sound like a good way forward. Direct democratic accountability for environmental outcomes would be weakened if regions are not elected directly.
“Ministers have hinted that unitisation – the merger of regional and district functions into one council – may well be the end result of all this. That would not necessarily be a bad thing, given we have a large number of councils for a small country. We have too many district and city councils and that’s the scale problem.
“Overall, our view is that local government reform is needed. But shaking up regional governance while resource management reform is rolling out does create uncertainty and confusion about who does what in the new system.
“We will be watching closely how these proposals evolve, and how they intersect with replacement legislation for the Resource Management Act, expected to be released before Xmas,” concluded Mr Taylor.
A summary of regional council functions is attached here.