Dialogue: Historic legislation extends grasp of local body octopus

Under the Local Government Bill, every facet of life is potentially a subject for a committee's careful deliberation, write JULIE CHAMBERS and CHRIS DIACK*.

To whoops of joy from many in local government, the Government proposes to grant councils the "power of general competence" through the Local Government Bill.

Broadly, the bill reverses the present law that local authorities need specific statutory authority to act, must adhere to prescribed procedures and avoid statutory prohibitions. They may soon be free to do anything not specifically prohibited.

Coupled with the power comes a responsibility to consult their citizens, and the bill prescribes procedures for that.

The Local Government Bill is sweeping and ranks as the third or fourth most significant development in local government history.

However, there is little in the bill to indicate what the power of general competence should be used for, and little recognition that local authorities often face conflicting economic, environmental and social goals, without cultural wellbeing entering the mix.

Quality advice from council management will be essential.

Conflicting objectives are likely to be even more common as greater powers lead to increased demands for goods and services from local authorities, and ratepayers are unable or unwilling to pay for them.

Nor does the bill protect individuals from the ravages of ratepayer-backed competition. The doyen of local government law, Associate Professor Ken Palmer, has joked that the bill is broad enough to allow local authorities to enter the used car business should they wish.

Individuals and business may find their rates being used to compete against the very businesses that helped finance the local authority in the first place.

To be fair to the Government, the bill is mainly about process rather than any particular vision of what local authorities should do.

Its boosters say the range and scope of local authorities' activities will not change much - what will change is how things are done.

Under the bill, consultation is big and special consultation is even bigger. Whether one gets special consultation hinges on the decision to act or not to act being significant. Selling of sizeable assets or dropping an existing service are likely to be significant.

In other cases, significance depends on a list of considerations including the impact on affected and interested parties (however that is determined) and reference to a policy on significance.

The obligation to recognise and respect the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi lies at present with the Crown, which finances the obligation from taxation. The bill passes these general obligations to local authorities without sending a chequebook.

If the bill contains any vision, it is that no problem is too complex not to be planned for in the new 10-year community plans - which are non-enforceable anyway. Nor does a local authority need to restrict its planning activities to those things it can actually do something about.

Every facet of life is potentially a subject for an earnest report, submissions and a committee's careful deliberation.

Some like John Hutchings from Local Government New Zealand (the councils' lobby group) have an even higher ambition: that the bill will strike another blow at neo-liberal economics, market solutions and pricing-based incentives as the dominant means of changing behaviour.

Market-based instruments will still have their place, they say, but it is time for planners to adopt a more inclusive, sustainable, empowering and collaborative approach.

Whether our newly empowered local authorities can plan your way towards a bright and better future remains to be seen.

In the meantime, perhaps we could suggest a more modest ambition - one shared by Aucklanders stuck in traffic - some progress on the motorways?

Submissions on the bill close tomorrow.

* Julie Chambers is a former member of the Hobson Community Board and Chris Diack is its deputy chairman. Both are members of Auckland Citizens & Ratepayers Now.