Change should not be made for the sake of change

Change should not be made for the sake of change

The government is proposing changes that begin with regional councils, but ultimately signal a broader reorganization of all local government. Change should be made if a system is broken, needs change or a better system is proposed. Change should not be made for the sake of change. Manawatu District Council (MDC) is not broken and to date I have not seen a better system proposed. Manawatu District is generally in good shape.,

The Three Waters and Local Water Done Well (LWDW) was an example of that and showed clearly that Manawatu District ratepayers would be much better off financially if MDC retained the 3 waters service in house and established a water services business unit as part of MDC. We looked at a large number of alternative models from a 7 council Council Controlled Organisation (CCO) model down to a 1 council CCO model under LWDW. The Three Waters model had us in a 21 council model before a proposed 7 council model. As well as saving our ratepayers a lot of money including millions of dollars of set up costs and stranded overheads, MDC retains all direct decision making and accountability including casting an economic development lens over our 3 waters decisions, which a combined CCO Board won’t do in the same way.

This is all very relevant when we consider the reorganization of local government within our region as the Government is proposing. The current Government proposal is that I, as Mayor also become a Regional Councillor running Horizons with my fellow regional Mayors on a Combined Territories Board. In two years, we would be tasked tocome up with a plan for how the region’s local government would be organised in the future.

Do we amalgamate into 1, 2 or several councils? Do we form 1, 2 or several unitary authorities? Do we share more services? Do we set up a CCO or several CCO’s? A unitary authority does the work of both a district or city council and a regional council. Gisborne, Marlborough, Tasman and Nelson are relatively successful unitary councils.

Many seem to be rolling over and accepting that amalgamation is inevitable. I disagree. I will be fighting amalgamation unless I can see benefits for the people of the Manawatu District, and currently I can’t. We already benefit from many government procurement deals, and bulk discounts because we band together. We already have several shared services and a combined CCO along with several MDC owned CCO’s. Amalgamating with other rural and provincial districts is likely to financially disadvantage the ratepayers of Manawatu, and while we complement and work with Palmy, we are very different in character and make up. Palmy is a significant, regional city. We are a farming and agri business based provincial district with multiple villages, marae, and a strong country town.

We need to be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Horizons carries out many important functions, but I do however see the need for some changes.

The Government has said that they will make changes to what regional councils do. I think that they should do that and finalise the Planning Bill and Natural Environment Bill (both replacing the Resource Management Act) before they change the governance of regional councils, remembering that regional councillors were democratically elected in October 2025 just like mayors and councillors of districts and cities.

In summary I am open to looking at the unitary authority model for MDC, more shared services, CCO’s and I am also open to leaving Horizons intact but making improvements.

It will take a lot of convincing to get me to agree to amalgamation.

Michael Ford, Mayor
Manawatū District