Brash tells local bodies to stand up to Government

Don Brash

National Party leader Don Brash yesterday called on local authorities to stand up to the Government's "bureaucratic buck-passing" in the face of rising rates.

"New Zealand is currently on the brink of a crisis of confidence in local government," Dr Brash told the Local Government New Zealand conference in Wellington.

"You [local councils] must tell Labour that your ratepayers simply will not accept any more unnecessary costs being loaded on to them."

Dr Brash said Government policy had forced local authorities to raise rates, angering citizens and stifling economic growth.

Local Government president Basil Morrison said authorities were under unprecedented pressure over projected rates rises.

Rates nationwide are increasing by 7 per cent, with projected average increases for the next decade as high as 54 per cent in Auckland.

Dr Brash said a National government would change the way central and local governments worked together to ease pressure on increasing rates and give the private sector more freedom.

"We have seen a major blow-out in public-sector employment in this country that has unnecessarily constrained the growth of the private sector - the wealth creators.

"Both central and local government ... have started to believe that it's all about us, when in fact it is all about the hard-working individuals who make investment and employment decisions. We are here to serve them."

He said National would look at slimming down several money-guzzling processes including those surrounding the Long-term Council Community Plan, the rates rebate scheme and the Building Act.

But Local Government Minister Mark Burton said the main reason for rates rises was increasing infrastructure costs, not new legislation.

He said that in the coming year about $3 billion was earmarked by councils for capital spending, more than three times the figure spent a decade ago.

Mr Burton also cited the Government as the fastest-growing source of revenue for local government from 1999 to 2004, and said the rates rebates scheme would benefit many thousands of lower-income ratepayers.

A Government review of its local government funding is expected to be done by October.