Source: Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi
The PSA is calling for a more sustainable funding model for local government organisations after a damning report released today revealed the systemic leadership and communication failures leading to the catastrophic failures at Moa Point.
“What we saw at Moa Point, and what this report has confirmed, is that outsourcing our public services to private companies just doesn’t work,” Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi national secretary, Duane Leo, says.
“The drive for smaller, cheaper public services over the past thirty-odd years has meant that our councils and other local government organisations have been forced to outsource public services – often to the lowest bidder.
“The in-house expertise on managing assets like Moa Point is drastically reduced from councils, leading to systemic, decades-long failures like the ones revealed today.
“The only people that benefit from this are the private companies, who are motivated by profit, not the local public good.
“At the end of the day, the rest of us are left holding the bill – in this case, for the environmental and economic impact of flooding Wellington’s South Coast with sewage.”
Leo says the incoming rates-capping legislation will likely see more outsourcing from councils.
A report from the Standard & Poors Agency said that reducing councils’ ability to raise rates would likely result in credit downgrades, negatively impacting on councils’ ability to borrow and driving up interest costs.
“What we’d like to see is a complete rethink of how councils are funded, so that they can sustainably and effectively deliver the public services New Zealanders expect and deserve.”
The Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi is Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest trade union, representing and supporting more than 95,000 workers across central government, state-owned enterprises, local councils, health boards and community groups.