Mayor criticises local govt gap in Govt’s four-year term proposal as ‘short-sighted’

Hawke’s Bay leaders are all in favour of a four-year term, including Central Hawke's Bay Mayor Alex Walker, who says a conversation about four-year terms is absolutely the right one.

Central Hawke’s Bay Mayor Alex Walker says the Government is “short-sighted” for not including local councils in its four-term proposal.

The Government has agreed to introduce legislation that would enable a four-year term of Parliament, subject to a referendum.

Walker said a move to four-year terms would be a great step to allowing the machine of both central and local government to be more efficient.

“Over the last few years, the flip-flopping of policy direction has cost our communities dearly in lost opportunities and the lack of certainty in funding, in particular, for delivery of infrastructure.

“For us in Central Hawke’s Bay, this has been particularly evident in our roading work where we are so reliant on the three-year funding envelope from NZTA.

“I think the Government is short-sighted in not including local government in the scope of this four-year term work from the beginning, but a conversation about four-year terms is absolutely the right one.”

Her position is supported by mayors across Hawke’s Bay, as well as Local Government New Zealand president Sam Broughton, who says the legislation presents a strong opportunity to move to a four-year term for both central and local government.

“The LGNZ Electoral Reform Working Group was formed in June last year to address declining voter turnout in local body elections; just 41% of Kiwis voted in 2022.”

“One of the key topics that came out in the Electoral Reform issues paper was a move to a four-year term for local body elections, something both councils and the public are in favour of.”

Hastings District Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said it was challenging to go through an election, train and build a new council team of elected members, talk to the community to understand their aspirations and priorities, develop a Long Term Plan and deliver on it within three years.

“It is really important that the Local Government term is aligned with that of Central Government to maximise efficiencies both financial and otherwise.”

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council chair Hinewai Ormsby and Wairoa District Mayor Craig Little both support a four-year term for central and local government.

Napier City Council acting mayor Annette Brosnan said she supported a term change to four years and said “we need to align with central Government”.

Broughton said there were several compelling reasons for councils to move to a four-year term.

“New Zealand’s current three-year term for local government is short by international standards; most OECD nations have a term length of four or more years in local government.

“Longer terms improve councils’ ability to make decisions for the long term by providing more time to get things done.”

He said proper alignment with central government elections has been a key concern for local councils.

“Having a larger overlap in productive windows between central and local government will also foster greater collaboration and increase joint delivery while decreasing the impact of changes in direction after elections – at either level.

“On the flip side, if Government moved to a four-year Parliamentary term and local government didn’t then key events and processes – such as planning and budgeting cycles – would align differently every term.”

Following the close of public submissions, a draft position paper will be released in March. The final version will be launched at LGNZ’s SuperLocal Conference in July.

Local Government Minister Simon Watts said while council terms are not part of the bill, he had feedback from councils that they would be interested to also align to a four-year term if this happens for central government.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.