Source: Radio New Zealand
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. RNZ / Marika Khabazi
A shake-up to local government is imminent, as the government works to introduce its Resource Management Act replacement to Parliament by Christmas.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told National party members there would be a “very serious shake-up coming” to local government alongside the upcoming RMA reforms.
“Watch this space,” he said.
Luxon later told media there would be “major reform coming” and the government wanted to “radically simplify” local government, but he would leave the details to RMA reform minister Chris Bishop and local government minister Simon Watts.
“I’m just signalling very strongly that, and it’s not a surprise in my conversations I’ve had with local government leaders as well, that this is a country that has so many layers of management and government that actually it’s stopping us from getting things done,” Luxon said.
“It’s hard and difficult decisions, but I’m sorry, we have to keep changing the way we run the country to make it simpler and easier to get things done.”
Earlier this year, regional development minister and New Zealand First deputy leader Shane Jones told a forum there was “less and less of a justifiable purpose” for keeping regional government once the RMA reforms went through.
In July, Bishop told councils to halt work on district plans until the new RMA legislation took effect.
Watts has also been tasked with bringing policy options for rates caps to Cabinet by the end of the year.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
