Brash slams big rates increases

By BERNARD ORSMAN

Opposition leader Don Brash has condemned councils for raising rates by 10.4 per cent and is signalling greater use of user charges under a National government to reduce the rates burden on families and business.

Last year's rates increases of 10.4 per cent were more than four times the inflation rate of 2.4 per cent and "simply not acceptable" Dr Brash told the Local Government New Zealand conference in Auckland yesterday.

Dr Brash said part of this increase, the highest by far in 10 years, was due to the Government placing extra costs on councils from new legislation dealing with gambling, dog control, building and other laws.

He said National wanted to work with councils to make sure ratepayers received efficient services at least cost.

"National will invest more on roads, and we want to gradually move away from such heavy dependence on rates on property as a source of the funds to a greater use of user charges and congestion pricing. This would be much fairer to ratepayers."

Dr Brash said National also wanted to move away from the Government's overly prescriptive controls on local government, such as the prohibition on charging for library services, ownership restrictions of water systems and requiring councils to microchip dogs.

Dr Brash repeated his promise to overhaul the Resource Management Act within nine months of coming to office and review the consultation and planning requirements of the new Local Government Act, including provisions requiring councils to consult separately with iwi.

His speech brought a sharp response from Dunedin Mayor Sukhi Turner, who characterised Dr Brash's plans for local government as a throwback to the 1980s and 1990s policies of cutting costs and not listening to communities.

"To take out consultation with Maori completely is just going backwards. Maori consultation in local government is critical," she said.

Local Government New Zealand president Basil Morrison said Government legislation had a rating impact but the greater impact was the cost of developing infrastructure to meet the rising expectations of communities and extra costs arising out of the growing economy.

Local Government Minister Chris Carter, who also addressed the conference, said the major reason for last year's rates increase was infrastructure costs.

"The chickens are coming home to roost. The 80s and 90s saw enormous neglect on issues like roading, wastewater and fresh water reticulation," Mr Carter said.

He said Dr Brash overstated claims about extra Government consultation increasing council costs because many of the provisions of the Local Government Act had not kicked in, such as microchipping of dogs.