News
Opinion: Every business needs to adapt and evolve. The last time there was significant local government reform here in New Zealand was back in 1989 – and it is fair to say that no business, or Council, would be or should be working in the same manner in the passage of those 30 years. This week we held a hearing and deliberations into our representation review initial proposal, which looked at our representation arrangements across the Southland District.
At the moment more than 10,000 Southlanders don’t have access to local decision-making. That’s not fair nor is it equitable, especially when a key cornerstone of democracy is that everybody gets to have their say.
We received a whopping 153 submissions on our initial proposal. It recommended Southland District Council be made up of 12 councillors from five wards (plus the mayor), and that the boundaries of our community boards were changed to cover the whole District.
The hearing panel (myself, 12 councillors, Otautau Community Board chair Andre Bekhuis, Edendale-Wyndham Community Board chair Pam Yorke, and Orepuki Community Development Area subcommittee chair Brian McGrath) listened to feedback from the 37 submitters who asked to speak in person.
They gave us plenty of food for thought during our deliberations, which ran all day on Tuesday. It was a robust discussion and the submissions we received played a huge role in our decision-making.
You’ll no doubt hear more about what we decided soon, and the reasons for those decisions. The recommendations put forward by the hearing panel will need to be formally adopted by Council as a final proposal on 11 July. That final proposal will then be sent to the Local Government Commission, who will make the final decision.
Councils should never be scared of this kind of process, but encouraged by the high level of community conversation the likes of the representation review has drawn out. It’s great to see so many people taking an active interest in local government. After all, you are the reason we are here.