The regional council\u2019s draft submission, signed by chief executive Fiona McTavish, supported local government reform in principle but called for a \u201cholistic and comprehensive review.\u201d <\/p>\n
It called for reform to protect communities, ensure stability, and maintain services. <\/p>\n
Eight concerns were highlighted, including the need for clear vision, strong regional input, M\u0101ori partnership, affordability, and managed financial risks. It also recommended councillors remain until 2028.<\/p>\n
Eastern Bay regional councillor Sarah McCorkindale raised the strongest opposition to the current government proposal, calling it \u201centirely flawed from the get-go\u201d.<\/p>\n
While she supported the need for reform, she \u201cfundamentally opposed\u201d removing regionally elected officials. <\/p>\n
\u201cRegional, city, and district democrats should be working together with their communities to look at all of local government,\u201d she said, in contrast to the proposal\u2019s emphasis on mayor-led regional governance boards.<\/p>\n
Eastern Bay\u00a0regional councillor Sarah McCorkindale. Photo \/ LDR<\/p>\n
She supported the council\u2019s submission, but questioned the potential effectiveness, given her low opinion of the proposal they were responding to.<\/p>\n
She suggested she would file her own submission outlining her concerns. <\/p>\n
Tauranga regional councillor Stuart Crosby \u2013 a former Tauranga mayor and Local Government New Zealand president \u2013 also wants reform but warned that the Government\u2019s draft proposal was oversimplified. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to walk into these things with your eyes wide open, not full of hopeful wishes,\u201d Crosby said.<\/p>\n
He was concerned about the potential impact on ratepayers and residents should the reorganisation falter \u2013 suggesting it could cost \u201ctens of millions\u201d of dollars. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou can have a dream of a reorganisation proposal that ticks all the boxes, but when it comes to the hard reality on the ground, it\u2019s very different,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He feared central government would provide a \u201cframework\u201d for reorganisation that \u201cwill not address\u201d true costs and benefits.<\/p>\n
Bay of Plenty regional councillor Stuart Crosby. Photo \/ George Novak<\/p>\n
\u014ckurei M\u0101ori councillor Iwi Te Whau raised concerns that the current proposal did not \u201cgive a voice to our people\u201d. <\/p>\n
There is no mandatory role for specific iwi or M\u0101ori representation on proposed combined territories boards \u2013 effectively killing off regional M\u0101ori constituencies.<\/p>\n
The Bay of Plenty Regional Council pioneered M\u0101ori representation at the council table, being the first local government organisation to introduce M\u0101ori constituencies in 2004.<\/p>\n
Te Whau said the lack of a mandatory role in the new proposal was a concern among others, including regarding funding, with huge implications for \u201cthe interests of whenua and iwi\u201d.<\/p>\n
He wanted sections of the council\u2019s submission related to M\u0101ori representation to be \u201cbeefed up\u201d to ensure M\u0101ori voices were being reflected.<\/p>\n
Councillors unanimously approved the submission, which council staff would update to include stronger views on reorganisation plans and M\u0101ori representation.<\/p>\n
Submissions on the proposal are due by February 20.<\/p>\n
Submissions will be reviewed before draft legislation is drawn up by the middle of the year, which the Government aimed to pass into law in 2027.<\/p>\n
Mathew Nash is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based at the Rotorua Daily Post. He has previously written for SunLive, been a regular contributor to RNZ and was a football reporter in the UK for eight years.<\/p>\n
– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dubbed the biggest change in local government since 1989, the proposal aims to strip out duplication in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1561,1853,26519,4101,157672,14739,39539,118976,157673,266,305,48232,157674,440,2720,111,43,139,69,1118,5256,1562,36200,17159,29056,16860,5914,63266,13109],"class_list":["post-282098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-bay","tag-central","tag-councillors","tag-debate","tag-dismay","tag-expensive","tag-expressed","tag-flawed","tag-fundamentally","tag-government","tag-have","tag-labelling","tag-lacking","tag-local","tag-mori","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-overhaul","tag-plenty","tag-potentially","tag-proposal","tag-proposed","tag-reform","tag-regional","tag-representation","tag-several"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}