Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Tania Tapsell: Rotorua Mayor on the Government wanting to scrap local councils' four well-being provisions

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Tania Tapsell: Rotorua Mayor on the Government wanting to scrap local councils' four well-being provisions · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The government is cracking down on councils, forcing them to
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: stick to their core business. It's scrapping the four well
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: being provisions brought in by the last MOB, Social, Economic,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: environmental and cultural. The last MOB added these in twenty nineteen.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: The law change also means councils must report regularly on
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: their finances and reveal how much they're spending on consultants
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: and contractors, wrote Rotorua mayor Tania tapsul Is joining me
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: now good morning to you, Tania.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Good morning.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: What does core business mean for you?
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Look, this is quite interesting actually because it's mostly focused
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: on infrastructure, but overall it's about making sure that our
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: districts are certainly running well, but also that our community
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: is able to access services and feel happy about excellence
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: in customer service. I suppose when they do contact council and.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Who's responsible for the culture of a city, because if
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: they're scrapping their cultural provision, are they saying it's not
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: the council's job to actually promote the culture of a
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: city and every city has a culture.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Well, actually got to give it to this government though,
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: because when the previous one introduced the four wellbeings, a
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: lot of the councils said, well, okay, then are we
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: going to get more funding to do that please? And
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: of course the answer was no, and so all of
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: a sudden, councils were taskedworth also having to look after
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: the social well beings. Now that was quite difficult for
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: us because when we're trying to run a city keep
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: the rates as low as possible, but we also have
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: to drive not only culture but also social wellbeing. We
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: kind of said, hm, hang on them. In a government,
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: isn't it your job? So we are very much looking
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: forward to the removal of the four well beings, But
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: there is a little bit of hesitancy, I must admit
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: of councils across the country where we say, hmm, okay,
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: so you're going to tell us to focus on core business.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: But does that mean that you will pick up the
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: bill and also the work if we do have gaps
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: that are left for our community.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Yes. How do you feel about the government telling you
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: what to do? I mean, you are elected based on
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: your platforms. You go in there telling the people that
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: have elected you what you're going to do. But here's
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: the government saying, now, this is what you're going to do.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: How do you feel about that.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: This has always been a tricky one for us, of course,
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: and we saw that when we had the Three Waters
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: debate now called Local Waters down Well, where our community said, actually, hey,
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: we want to make sure that we maintain local decision making.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: We also saw it when there's the polytechs, the TWU
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: stories got moved across the country and the local DHB
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: has got scrapped, and of course we went to an
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: amalgamated system. So this will be quite interesting because we've
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: seen that when government does tell councils what to do,
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: it doesn't really work very well. So we're hoping, at least,
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: and i'll tell you what we're hoping, at least when
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: they talk about rates capping, they also look at how
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: much cost the government is actually putting on local councils.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Because to tell you what half of our rates increases
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: across the country, certainly in my region it's about eight
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: point seven percent on average. A half of that rates
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: increases actually from government reforms and how much money we
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: have to spend to meet those targets.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: So you're going to have to spend a bit more
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: as well, because you've got to report regularly on your finances,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: and you've got to reveal everything that you're spending. So
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: there's a whole lot of man hours and person hours
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: and that as well. Tell you Tapsle, you spoke so fantastically,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: you always do, and I thank you for your time today.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 3:29
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• 3:32
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