Stefan Speller’s The Public Square: Councils’ role much more than infrastructure

Students at Massey University's Auckland campus show what they think about proposed staffing and course cuts. Photo / Niklas Polzer

OPINION

“What do councillors even do? Surely pipes and roading isn’t that difficult.” This is one of the more common half-question, half-statements I am often presented with.

The Wellington City Council seems to regularly show that managing pipes is not that simple. The Southland District Council is also one of many struggling with the cost of roading network updates. So councils’ bread and butter is hardly child’s play.

One essential but less visible thing councils do is lobbying. Not necessarily hiring formal lobbyists, but throwing their weight behind issues that affect or benefit their region.

Recently a group of students called on the help of the Palmerston North City Council to address proposed cuts announced by Massey University.

Students Against Cuts have asked that the council appeal to the Tertiary Education Commission and the Massey University Council. They also want the city council to make submissions to Massey and call for broader discussions with all stakeholders. Finally, the students want support with a Palmy Save Massey Hui with venue, networks and publicity.

At first glance, this may seem to be out of the council’s perceived immediate role, with infrastructure and roading.

However, Tertiary Education Union organiser Ben Schmidt argues that “while a single university job loss means great economic and social job loss to the community, the proposed cutting of over 100 science jobs and over 40 humanities jobs would be catastrophic. There is no student city without skilled tertiary staff. Massey University must work for a more positive solution with Palmerston North as a thriving student and staff city.”

This shows a reason for the council to be concerned about numbers of incoming students and jobs in the city. You can make your own judgment on university funding and recent Massey moves, but Student City is a key and leading part of the branding of Palmerston North. This has endured in spite of some of the council’s own tongue-in-cheek publicity campaigns trying to remove, or arguably embed, the idea of being boring.

Massey University and IPU New Zealand are large employers of Palmerston North residents. On the southeastern side of the Manawatū River they fall within the city council boundary but outside the Palmerston North electorate boundary. They instead sit in the Rangitīkei electorate.

Manawatū is served by five MPs - two general electorates, one Māori electorate and two list MPs. The council, and especially the mayor, has a key role in lobbying these MPs, tertiary institutes and ministers to address economic and other concerns.

Most of this will never be visible, as it is most often in direct meetings with stakeholders. There are also opportunities for councils to raise concerns more collectively by forming groups such as Communities 4 Local Democracy or through Local Government New Zealand.

I suggest the less we see the mayor in the media around this issue, the more constructive the level of engagement behind the scenes. Councils play an essential role in the economic well-being of a region and provide much more than simply infrastructure. This work, however, can be much more difficult to spot publicly.

Stefan Speller is a Palmerston North governance board chairman, speaker and local government commentator.