Michael Laws on New Zealand's Local Government Crisis
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 มี.ค. 2024
- Michael Laws on New Zealand's local government crisis.
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Rates go up. Services reduce. More consultants. Less efficiency. No KPI. No incentive to be productive. Multiple groups/people doing the same thing.
More red tape/bureaucracy/applications and approvals process.
More staff employed from overseas.
When restructuring happens, middle management stays, productive staff are overworked, "do the bare minimum" staff are kept.. 🤔
Facts ⬆️
It's called Government Failure. We are in big trouble.
MAORI WARDS ARE DESIGN TO MAKE LOCAL COUNCILS TO HAVE A MAORI MAJORITY SOME COUNCILS HAVE SIX MAORI COUNCILORS ANSTILL WANT MAORI WARDS WHAT DOES THAT TELL U Co Gov at work wake up Kawerau
"do the bare minimum" staff are kept.
Every month a truck with four workers drive down our street to clear the dirt and muck from the roadside. In 9 years they haven't stopped once to actually do their job and clean them.
Yup, we keep paying more and get less back. Our roads are rubbish, but the council in Christchurch put up 30 kph signs everywhere overnight that are never observed. They're working hard on spending ratepayer money on complete nonsense.
it's easy spending other peoples money. No responsibility, no accountability.
None so generous as those spending others money!
Socialism rule Number 1.
Hi Michael you are right. Our Thames Coromandel District Council appears beyond repair. Time to scrap it and start again with a more efficient model. Well said and thank you for your accuracy.
As an ex councillor you are 100% right.
Absolutely no entrepreneurs within councils. They don't seek to innovate or think outside the box... they simply seek to maintain the status quo because that is the easiest road to travel. Councils pay their management huge salaries (with golden handshakes) and those managers then hire consultants to do their jobs for them. Pay twice, get inferior results.
Anyone with real skills, knowledge, expertise, drive, enthusiasm and entrepreneurial ability won't be working for a council -- they'll have a real job.
Sadly that’s true and needs to change. If you’re employed to do a job yet need to hire a third party consultant to do your job fir you then you are ineffective at your job therefore is there any need for that position at all. They’ve effectively made themselves redundant. The rate payers have saved themselves big time straight out the gate either on an ineffective management wage or a consultant fee. Which is it because it shouldn’t be both.
Never heard anyone else put it so well. Michael, you’ve hit the nail on the head.
Upper Hutt City Council is dead broke. The current mayor has suffocated our city for over 20 years and will probably be in council chambers until he croaks. One example of the utter incompetence would be the pool upgrade that later turned into a pool extension and almost total rebuild worth 50 million +!!!!!!! It’s fkn infuriating.
Spot on Michael.
Yes, I agree. They are very wasteful and there seems to be very little accountability.
There is actually zero accountability. I’d love a job where I get over paid to underperform - where do I sign
@@patriceking9583 Anything in local government, apparently. You would do OK at many government ministries as well. The higher up the hierarchy you go, the less you have to do, and the less talent and ability you need.
Maybe us sheep need to stand up to these incompetent tyrants!!
Yes indeed start today...I have 😊
@@patneho6684I will join you petitions to parliament
You nailed it big time on this one.
Councilors need to be stopped being paid the massive amount of money they get.
It isn't the councillors, it's the bureaucrats!
Mayors maybe, councillors are on peanuts...its the staff getting big money
@elizabethserene9957 agreed.
@elizabethserene9957 agreed.
Well said Michael
Why do we pay gst on rates? They are a property tax, since when should we pay tax on a tax?
@@shagsheep8832True. It’s like taxing unrealised gains? The property increasing in value doesn’t actually give us any money in the hand?
Thank you Mr laws, thank you.
Don't forget the regional councils in this! 300 employees for the ORC. At least they abandoned the waterfront site. Must be the climate emergency... Rates have doubled in 5 years and still going up.
Brilliantly put, Michael
I'm in the construction industry, mostly work on council projects. Every year they add more officers adding more red tape, make us do two day inductions when 2hrs would be ample. H&S ,environmental, cultural, quality, plant inspection, test & tag, traffic management, construct safe, SHE certification, public liaison, archaeologist, the list goes on. The actual job has the least importance to council staff. All they are doing is adding more cost that the contractor adds into the next tender. It's easy to spend other peoples money!!
The Hutt City Council wasted $65 million on a 3.5km bike track which knowone uses and want to increase our rates FFS !!
REFUSE TO PAY
Stop paying your rates protest
This is brilliant Michael, I wonder if you could apply your brilliance to get us out of this crazy juggernaught that is driving us all broke.
Well said. Councils are in trouble because they have squandered rates money from the populace for the last 50+ years and not actually investing back into the infrastructure that they are there to build and maintain. Because of this blatent mismanagement, ratepayers are going to carry the can. Councils need to be 100% transparent with the money they take. Also, no GST on rates. It is neither a good or a service, it is a property tax. Cut the massive middle-management layers of beaureucrats from all councils too and will mean a crazy amount of money saved as well. People who work in councils are not there for the betterment of the localality they manage, they are there to pad themselves in a cushy job making it hard for people who actually want to innovate.
Well said Michael. Councillors on the gravy train.
We have one councilor - Lee Vandervis - who says "No" quite often. The rest of the councilors vilify, and the local paper ridicules him.
Our local media used to be true to the tenets of the Fourth Estate and would investigate the actions of local government. These days however, that media (operated by Stuff) seems to be just a paid propaganda sheet for the council's agendas. So sad the way the media has sold out.
I have worked in a local Council as well and you really are hitting the nail on the head. A bunch of numpties with more power than they can handle honestly. Stuck behind desks and computers hoping no one would put any work their way! They wouldnt know what work is!
I think Wayne Brown has attempted to remove some of the ineffective, although I don't think he got the amount of change he had hoped
Unfortunately he is just one voice and needs a ton more councilors on board with what he wants to achieve
Can scarcely believe how perfectly bang on this is.
Great rant Michael. When covid mandates hit in 2021 most thinking people left in local govt were kicked out. We are left with compliant order followers in the lower echelons, and authoritarian dictators at the top. What we need is decentralisation. We need local governance, but not by the people in there now, nor the policies or legislation. We need good quality, intelligent locals who live and participate in their community, to manage their community resources and assets. Flush it all out and get the best people for the job. Not the most compliant of bullyish. And not only in local govt. In schools, health boards, Parliament. Decisions makers are totally out of touch with the people, and the people know this.
In the 30 years I have lived at my current house never have the council done a single thing to improve or increase the service to the property yet my rates still increase, why?
You can go to the library and find that they do not have the book that you are looking for.
@@JohanThiartMust be a b**** expensive library.
@@idenhlm libraries and main stream media are potential casualties of the electronic age.
Most books are already available on online libraries. Not vulnerable to flooding or earthquakes.
One point to make, not only of the council, but all government entities, is that there are a huge amount of staff that are due to retire over the next 3-5years, most are in "leadership" positions, and Voluntary redundancy as a cost cutting measure will speed up this process. We are going to see huge changes because of this, and it may prompt a central government review of necessary services. Councils may find themselves redundant entities over the coming years, especially When theres a recession, which there will be.
Quite right!!
Totally agree!
and Labour Party political hacks..
There is another question
Why is it the same all around the western world?
Local councils are donut makers.. Big circles of dough and with a big hole in the middle.
Rates we pay go up every year.
Since changes in about 1991. Local government started stop having it own works department, grass cutting department etc. design by National to reduce cost and provide efficiency. Long it has not worked. UK MP J Corbin identified this.
Looking at the way the wellington mayor and some of the councillors are behaving , we the ratepayers should be expecting better from them, as a business owner you always look at every dollar spent to make you at least $3 dollars in return, this is the way that they should be treated our money
The actual property owner and spouse should be the only people allowed to vote for Council.
And Public Excluded meetings should be illegal. The thousands of Students in Wellington vote for Woke Green Councillors who do not work in the in the Ratepayers best interests.
Hear, hear.
Excluding the public, that's exactly where this has all started. It's the public that know there communities the best and to have our elected reps lock us out is the real sign of dictatorship, Winston Peter's is right.
Either that or a poll tax, per person resident in the locality. So students pay too and then they can swallow the real cost of their demands (cycleways, cycleways, cycleways, greenwash and arts and entertainment), just like the rest of us.
I hear there's an opportunity for new mayor in wellington
Those that vote in the Greens to the Wellington council are an example of left wingers who have no respect for other people’s money. Some of them are probably students & never had a real
Job?
when I was growing up council members were volunteers..they all had day jobs and were DCC volunteers
But what can we do about that? All of us that are struggling with paying our bills and mortgage and groceries....the backbone of the country....what can WE do about that??
Rise up,refuse to pay your rates. Stand united.
Well said mate.
I couldn't of said it better myself 😅
Environment canterburys rates have gone up 25% this year, ffs
And this is one Council we certainly do not need, complete waste of space and unable to get a proper job.
Local government and the people employed thereby has been, for the most part, the ditherers' paradise for at least two decades. We've all let geometric rate increases through for some time now, but now we've reached the part of the cost curve that rises so quickly that you are right to question the very basis for the current regimes.
We've just voted out a national government that has crippled our economic prospects for years to come. It is very much time to do the same thing at municipal, district and regional levels. Oh - first thing we do is fire most of the local government who choose the contractors for drains/pipes maintenance and road works.
Councils could spend the rates a lot better also they should reduce staff
plus do the Job they are paid to do
A lot of it is our fault, as we do not vote very much on the local elections
And we (not me) vote for people that love our city
When are Councils going to be brought to heel, rate increase of this magnitude cannot continue people need to start asking hard questions and tell hem to stick to the basic council services rather than all the nice to haves
It's the same everywhere because they're allowed to get away with it. No one has any idea how to do something about it.
Buller council are talking about a 38.1 % increase, horrifying.
That's insane mate
Nope not paying that what they going to do stand up people
The services ( or lack of ) in the Buller town I live in definitely do not make me happy about this increase in rates, it's expensive enough now, considering the sporadic footpaths, poor street lighting, no wheelie bins for glass ,or general rubbish, and you have to put your rubbish in specific Buller council rubbish bags that they charge big money for . Talk about a raw deal.
Thankyou Michael Laws! It would be great if you could come to Gisborne and tell our overpaid Council employees exactly what you have written! They never get rid of staff, always empire building. Never mind that the hard-hit ratepayers can’t afford to pay the fancy salaries on offer here!
Councils keep grabbing because they have misappropriated the capex depreciation (which should have been saved) and spent it on opex (which should come from recurrent funding).
The situation in Wellington City should be investigated as a financial crime.
You really need a new mayor in that town hic hic
Having a drunk for a mayor surely doesn’t help thing?
It would be better if they were corrupt rather than incompetent that way we could negotiate a fee and then be left in peace.
Instead, they gouge and gouge and still tell you what to do, even when what you are doing is perfectly legal.
Councils need to stick to core responsibilities of infrastructure not parades, festivals or any other feel good event that they believe they can waste ratepayers money on, let private corporations sponsor those events. And if their pay was tied to performance we'd see a change too not doubt.
Well put Michael. But what can be done about it?
I am boycotting the Auckland council by not paying my rates sure the can put a lean on my house but i still have my money, first want to see the wages (what the clowns get paid)evidence of them cutting staff and trying to save money no more cycle ways dumb speed bumps etc etc whos with me
I've already asked questions regarding rates, until I receive a reply....
A mirror of central government really.😢
For the average Auckland house of 1 M, the rates is $2700 per year. For the pensioner, his total net super (after tax) is just under $20,000 per year. Therefore, the rates is more than 10 percent of what they get from Winz. In this cost of living crisis, it is already hard to survive on the super. How are they going to afford paying more rates? Councils have to think of other ways to raise money to finance their fantasy projects.
They are like feudal lords who sally out to levy the hapless peasants.
Landlords are often cost plus!
Hi Michael laws our local govt is a Corporation
Maybe its time to tax everyone towards local bodies - eg a poll tax.
They tried it in England
Or they need to cut back on all the vanity projects and the cycle lanes that no one wants and the bus lanes that no one uses.
Eg here in Tauranga there are 700 people (moving into a new building?)
Agreed. Inexcusable. Completely irresponsible and slaves to the current woke fashions, at our expense. They all seem to be busy rebuilding ever larger plush palatial office buildings, and continue profligate spending while council debt is at reckless levels. And they never look internally for efficiencies as it is simpler to just ram up rates. Some serious Afuera! required.
Councils have layers of managers, staff, team leaders, managers, and managers the money is spent on nice to have stuff, the arts, charities, owning airports investing in airports stadiums, etc, etc
Time for less staff. Less boards Time to work on core projects only infrastructure 3 waters, roads and maintenance of core projects. No stupid ideas about holding Commonwealth games what are these people doing its insane as the saying goes it easier to spend other people's money
The madness has got to stop and yes do we really need councils??
Yeah.....right
The Waimakariri Council is $180 MILLION in debt!! And yet they're planning on spending over $20MILLION to upgrade the Rangiora Library or....build a new library to also house "all council staff". They ie the ratepayers...own 900 properties...why???
But we still have to pay 😢😢
In Christchurch we certainly do not need buses every 10 minutes as proposed by Evan,,given 90% of buses are currently running empty why would we do this in the current economic climate
Local Councils could learn from ACT Party, making sure every dollar spent by rate payers is well spent and not wasted.
That's exactly what's happening in the lakes district,, l worked around it for years ( lam self employed)
It's getting worst every year in so many ways .. we haven't had any councilors effective in any way ....
The first change that needs to take place,is to run Local Body elections,as proper elections?Postal voting is just a complete joke,it just keeps perpuating what we have.
Very true Mr Laws, however someone has to pay for the Smart city bill, 20, 30 minute cities will not pay for themselves, hence the phenomenal rate increase now in in the future, we will be paying for our own prisons, works well when they start to drop pandemic and climate lockdowns.
The trouble with Councils in this country is they have fare to much power and regulation-over the average people, do as I say or I will beat you with this big stick is there mentality, you carn’t fight them on any query that you may have because they hold all the cards and use your rates money to fight you. I Don’t have many good thing’s to say about Councils and I don’t know anyone that has, they need to stop wasting money on bet vanity projects and start using the rate payer’s money on the things that really matter the most like roading water sewage and rubbish removal, all other spending should only come after these essentials have been covered.
A democracy demands we have local representation, where do you want it from? Local councilors and representatives have already articulated that they have been subject to outside mandates that have been out of their control. The solution is not to kill off democracy and local voices but to protect them from outside exploiters , which is the democratic duty of parliament, otherwise just throw Kiwis to the WEF and every other alphabet agency and corporation.
Just think, maybe councils should have spent the money they collect over decades under the banner of "water rates" on.... water infrastructure. There's an idea.
💯
Our regional council seems to increase the number of useless jobs, while the scientific and technical roles that ‘do the doing’ have to fight to keep their numbers static. Useless roles such as ‘customer insights’ (not applicable with the council being the ONLY entity that takes rates and allocates these services), ‘Democracy’ (still can’t work this out) and various‘advisors’ who seem to have no professional skills whatsoever
Ratepayers need to take actions against snowballing rate increases and regional rates are also unaccountable to the ratepayers. High court action is appropriate, we the people should be rising up and dictating to council, not them dictating to us.
Maybe tell your mates in the government this so they don't leave critical water infrastructure in local council hands?
Councils are corporations..
Does that mean when i have finished paying my mortgage i am really just transferring my mortgage payments to my Rates and more on a weekly basis does that seem fair
Local government staff are generally very well qualified. There are sone really good people working at local governments.
But they are generally all very self serving!
Most of them know full well that they need to tell council what management wants them to tell councillors.
This could be said of government to
When ratepayers will fail to pay their rates, then the locals might start to understand how the land grab is going to work.
they like to give themselves big salaries. And we have to pay?????
Councillor’s and mayor’s should only be payed by confidence performance statistic’s not for just turning up and being there, after all that is what everyone else has to conform to in the work place.
We recall the new government says they are best to manage water. But you see your comments bring this into doubt. In September and October you did not speak like this. Why?
Your description of those who end up working for Councils sounds not too dissimilar to anyone working in Parliament.
Dunedin
Borrowing 1 million a week to pay the interest only with the billion dollar loan
Aren't they all corporations, businesses there to take n make money for the government, local and national. AND are we constitutes born as legal corporations in ourselves not seen as living people , isnt that why all mail from them and government offices arrive with our names in capital letters.
I agree with everything but we vote them in.
Words from spin doctors. You say proganda. The new government does same. The obvious question is why does council need to use private business to build everything? ( Go back to the 1960s). Were rates lower then with council run works department?
Labour identified this cost and expertise issue. This was part three waters change.
If governance model as an issue. Hold referendum about this part of the law only.
Sleep walking, are you?
Look around you and look at what your rates are spent on.
Where's Robin hood oh that's right running the councils
@@ronaldwarren1267 the only problem is that Robin Hood was working with Government and decided that stealing from the poor will improve things for the privileged and wealthy. 3Waters was a bad deal.
@JohanThiart see what happens now! Can places like Gore pay ! Its rates need to rise by 5,000 to fund the needed work.
( or borrowing ( fueling the debt based economy).
@@adsdft585 go and look at your council long term plans.
What changed?
OK, there is a new regulator who brought in new rules. Are the councils arguing that the affordability of managing three waters was affected by these new rules. We survived quite well up to the establishment of the new regulator, mind you.
Is it our regulations around mitigating and managing climate change that is causing the affordability? Ask yourself, ask your council.
Then who would have paid for the 3Water rort? Ask yourself that question. If your answer is Robin Hood, then good luck bro!
That is such a lop-sided view Michael. As a former Mayor you would know all about the Local Government Act. District Councils are the meat in the sandwich between National legislation created by do-gooders and ideologues and the land owners with enormous vested interests. Local councils are forced by law to roll out whatever dodgy dictats go through NZ's democratic process. They are forced to implement them within formal timeframes and they simply don't have the resources do what is asked of them. I think your tirade could be better directed further up the chain of command.
I blame the National Party gov of the 1990s for this debacle.Who was the guy who gave National government contracts to his wife?I’ve forgotten his name
WTF?….Comrade.
@@banjopete don’t panic 😱
Self reflection Micheal?? Still waiting for your apology# nextdaychchnextSupercity
Yet again not really on the money...some home truths, but partial truths are hardly truths.
👍💔😵😜😖🤪