Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Campbell Barry: Local Government NZ Vice President on the NZIER report on the cost of Government reforms for councils

Transcript

Campbell Barry: Local Government NZ Vice President on the NZIER report on the cost of Government reforms for councils · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Back here, double digit rate rises. You would have seen
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: this if you live in say Hamilton, you've got nineteen
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: point nine percent increases. Wellington you're getting about sixteen percent
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: to need in seventeen and a half percent. It hurts right,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: and there are big issues like infrastructure and climate resilience
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: that need to be paid for. But a new report
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: out this morning from Local Government New Zealand and NZII
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: says that government policy changes are costing council's millions. They
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: say that one size fit all policies from central government
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: don't consider the impact and the cost for local government.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: It's death by a thousand cuts. Joining me this morning,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Campbell Barry, Vice President of Local Government, New Zealand and
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Lower Hut Mayor Campbell, thanks for being with me. Can
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: you give us an example of one of these issues
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: that central throws onto you and you guys have to
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: pay for.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, good morning. The first example I can give you
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: is the speed restriction changes that were brought in by
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: the previous government for us at Lower Hut that cost
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: US five hundred and seventy thousand other three years to implement.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: We're now being told by the new government to reverse
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: that or to go through a process to confirm our position,
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: which will cost another five hundred and seventy thousand dollars
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: over three years to implement. In my mind, that's just
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: the definition of insanity and a waste of money.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: That's madness. Can you not just why does it cost
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: so much to change the speeds? Can you not just
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: rip the old signs down?
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: Basically, the national policy statement in that space, or the
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: policy that the government put forward, requires us to go
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: through a certain process and implementation.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: There's a range of different things that part of it.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's incredibly frustrating. I feel immediately annoyed just
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: hearing you say it, and what a waste. So do
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: you what are you asking for that? When government makes
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: changes like this, they actually cost it and then reimburse you.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they should fund it. We need to put an
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: end to unfunded mandates. They are having a serious impact
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: on the bottom line, either they contribute towards the rate
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: increases that we're seeing or simply councils suck it up.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: They absorbed that cost, and it means that there's an
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: impact on services and other places which communities are expecting
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: us to do things. So another example I could give
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: you is the National Policy Statement on Urban Development seven
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: hundred and fifty thousand dollars for us to implement, and
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: also delayed our full district FLAN review by eighteen months,
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  Speaker 2: which had a number of other file on effects. We
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: could go on all day, and councils have been feeling
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: this for decades.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Do you have a total figure? Have you worked out
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: how much these death by a thousand cuts changes are
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: costing local government in total?
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: What the report found? It was really difficult to put
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: a number on that, but it undoubtedly is in the
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: tens of millions. We know it's a lot. The reason
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: for not being able to put a number on it
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: is because so often councils just suck it up, They
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: absorbed that cost and it has an impact on other
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: areas of council services. So we don't necessarily we aren't
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: exactly able to point to it, but there are a
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: number of anecdotal examples which councils could give you of
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: this happening over such a long period of time.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: All right, thanks so much for your time this morning,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Campbell Barry. For more from News Talks EDB listen live
• 3:18
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• 3:20
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