“It would probably be the easiest and safest,” Brown said.
Northland’s local government inter-council reform leadership group is expected to choose its preferred amalgamation structure by the end of the month, before sending a high-level proposal to Wellington.
Cabinet is scheduled to consider this, if submitted, in September.
Whangārei District Council (WDC), Far North District Council (FNDC), Kaipara District Council (KDC) and Northland Regional Council (NRC) have committed to the process but are yet to formally choose which new council structure to back.
Northland Local Government Reform Elected Member Steering Group chair and Whangārei Mayor Ken Couper has from the outset said putting a “By Northland for Northland” proposal to the Government makes sense, rather than having the Government later direct amalgamation.
Auckland is the only region in New Zealand to have, since the 1989 local government reforms, undergone major council amalgamation of the scale being pushed by the Government.
Auckland Council was created in 2010 by amalgamating eight councils.
Brown became Auckland mayor 12 years later.
Sixteen years on from the amalgamation, Brown said it had worked well.
“I don’t think anyone would undo that amalgamation,” Brown said.
However, he was not in favour of council-owned companies – known as council-controlled organisations (CCOs) – that were created as part of the amalgamation.
“We’ve slowly been getting rid of these.”
Brown led an early push for council amalgamation in Northland during his six years as Far North mayor.
In 2012, FNDC and the Far North district local government working group lodged a reorganisation application with the Local Government Commission.
It proposed a unitary council combining FNDC district council and NRC regional council functions.
When considering the application, the commission widened its assessment to include the whole region and identified a single Northland-wide unitary authority replacing all four councils as its preferred option.
Northland would have moved to a single council structure more than a decade ago, had that proposal gone ahead.
However, in 2015 the commission decided not to proceed after strong community opposition.
Brown said while he favoured a single Northland council under the latest restructuring – “it’s about the Government’s plans for large councils” – he would not be particularly against Northland having a two unitary authority model.
The main thing was combining regional and district council responsibilities, he said.
Northland has four councils and about 200,000 people.
Brown said amalgamation was not just about population size.
And when it came to population, it was not just about assessing numbers in the depths of winter.
The population of places like the Far North increased hugely over summer and that needed to be taken into account, he said.
A single unitary authority combining WDC, KDC, FNDC and NRC is currently among the North’s leading likely restructuring options.
Another option is for two unitary authorities – most likely one combining WDC and KDC with NRC functions and another combining FNDC and NRC functions.
Further options proposed by councils during recent informal community engagement also included a Whangārei-only unitary authority with a second combined Far North-Kaipara unitary authority, a Far North-Whangārei unitary authority, and a standalone Kaipara unitary authority, all with regional council functions.
■ LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.