Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Andrew Dickens: We Want Less Bureaucracy—Until We Don't

Transcript

Andrew Dickens: We Want Less Bureaucracy—Until We Don't · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So I find it a bit ironic that the government
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: and the electorate are once again keen on getting rid
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: of some of the layers of our council bureaucracy. The
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: irony is this, First we've got New Zealand, first, Shane
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Jones publicly questioning the role of regional councils, wondering whether
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: there's going to be a compelling case for regional government
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: to continue to exist. Then the Prime Minister, Christopher Leuxan
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: told Mike Hosking that the government was looking at local
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: government reform, and on Friday, Matthew Houghton wrote a piece
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: about regional councils, reiterating a question Chris Bishop has been asking,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: is there any point in having regional councils. So it's
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: on the table, and of course the battle against bureaucracy
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: is alive and well around the world. Duplication of services
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: and excessive layers of governance means that savings could be
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: made easily and safely, and it's something we've already discussed.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: So look last term the government reformed district health boards
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: from twenty boards into a single entity Health New Zealand
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: or and that was just because that's gone now or
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: is going because the new government has taken against it.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: They want to return to locally delivered healthcare because they
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: believe in regional decision making being the best way to go,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: so they're unlike that amalgamation. Meanwhile, reform of regional councils
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: looks awfully like the formation of all consupercity, a reform
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: that has heaps of enemies because of its devolution of
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: power away from communities, and as Houton says, the reason
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: we hate the super city are the cco's council controlled organizations,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: which was supposed to replicate the state owned enterprises. But
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: the problem there is we can't because there are no
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: shares in CCOs, so they become the worst of things,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: a mongol hybrid of council bureaucracies and private monopolies. Anyway,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: it looks like we want to amalgamate public bodies. But
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: in the past, as I pointed out, we don't like it.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: We moan that our voices are no longer heard and
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: that the bureaucracies have become too huge and out of control,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: so let's just centralize it. So what is it? People?
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: For More from early edition with Ryan's Bridge Listen live
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: to news talks. It be from five am weekdays, or
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: follow the pot cast on iHeartRadio