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Council rates hikes ‘mature approach’ to help pay for billions needed for infrastructure – LGNZ
New Zealand is being warned it is heading toward a tragedy if more is not invested in council infrastructure, and that people need to get used to double-digit rates increases.
Local Government New Zealand and the lead group of infrastructure management professionals, now known as Āpōpō, today outlined their concerns, warning of looming infrastructure costs of hundreds of billions of dollars.
Āpōpō president Gary Porteous said the country was staring down the barrel of a tragedy if it did not come up with a long-term plan to invest in its infrastructure assets.
“Wellington is a good example with the pipe network. There has been a lot of issues with the pipe network in the last two years. That is becoming quite a challenge. The potholes, it is not just the potholes, it is the state of the roads and the general condition that have become a real challenge. And there are a lot of road works out there this summer addressing those issues.”
A burst pipe in Aro Valley in Wellington. File photo. Photo: RNZ / Dom Thomas
Local Government New Zealand president Sam Broughton said the costs the country was facing were huge.
“Over $100 billion was identified just for water; those aren’t my numbers, those are the government’s numbers. Once we start to add transport into that, and we start to think about ports and airport strategies long term that the country needs, there is going to be hundreds of billions of dollars required that need to be paid for, and yes there will need to be a large contribution made by New Zealanders.”
Broughton said the councils which were looking at double-digit rates increases, including Hamilton, Hutt City and Christchurch, were just facing reality.
“The councils who are talking about large rates increases, that’s a mature approach to the problem that we’ve got. And continuing to not spend on infrastructure that is failing is only passing the problem on to our children. We need to have this discussion now, and I’m proud that many councils around the country are front-footing that discussion with their communities.”
Broughton said Local Government NZ wanted to speak to the government about ways to open up new money sources.
“There might need to be ways around local tax revenue: petrol taxes, congestion charging or tourism levies. Some of those things need to be discussed too. As do government contributions towards rates themselves, government doesn’t pay rates on a lot of their land and assets within districts. So those things we will be talking to government about.”
He would also like the government to introduce a four-year term for councils, which he said would make a dramatic difference in productivity.
“It means we don’t just jump from elected members who say we’re going to fix this and then they put out how much it is going to cost, and then the community say – no we don’t want you any more, and they re-elect someone else and six years later we have a bigger problem than we did to begin with.”
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown said he was not currently considering a change to the council term.
His focus was on ensuring councils could access long-term funding and financing to deliver infrastructure, he said.
Brown said he wanted to ensure councils focused on their core business, and the efficient delivery of local services and infrastructure.
rnz
The chief executive of the Parliamentary Service is confident there will be enough room to accommodate the increased number of MPs and their staff coming into Parliament.
On current numbers, up to 131 MPs could be sitting in the Chamber following the election, brought on by a record overhang result.
Clerk of the House of Representatives Dr David Wilson told the Spinoff that currently the debating chamber had enough chairs to seat 124 MPs – including the Speaker of the House – and work was being done to accommodate more by altering the seating arrangement.
In a statement, Parliamentary Service chief executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero said planning for a larger Parliament had been going for “some time”.
“Now that the election results have confirmed an increase to the number of members we are looking at several options.
“We are confident we will be able to accommodate all members within the Chamber.”
VNP / Phil Smith
Gonzalez-Montero said office accommodation for members and their staff would be “stretched” for a short time, but the new Members’ Building was only a few months away from “practical completion”.
That building – located behind Parliament – was due to be ready to occupy in April next year and had capacity to accommodate around 30 backbench MPs.
“All members should be in fit-for-purpose accommodation from that point,” Gonzalez-Montero said.
Following the 2023 election, 123 MPs sat in the Chamber – a record number at the time. That decreased to 122 following the resignation of National MP Judith Collins.
Collins held the seat of Papakura and stepped down in May and Parliament voted against holding a by-election because it was too close to the election.
The election result also meant high-ranking National Party MPs like Chris Bishop, Paul Goldsmith, Nicola Willis and Gerry Brownlee – Speaker of the House and an MP for 30 years – would likely not make it back into Parliament.
Only resigning or retiring MPs were permitted to give a valedictory speech meaning none of them would get the chance to give a valedictory statement.
Asked if their would be special allowances for valedictories, Wilson said in a statement that normally only MPs were allowed to speak in the House but the House could suspend its own rules or temporarily alter them.
“It could do so to allow former members to address the House.”
Wilson said no such arrangements could be made until the next Parliament opened and members sworn in.
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