Mike's Minute: We need to amalgamate councils

My fun fact of the week, not that it's that fun or even new, given it's been around if you could be bothered looking. 

In Hawke’s Bay there are 56 mayors, chairs and councillors spread across five councils. Just for Hawke’s Bay. 

Not Mexico City, or London, or New York. Hawke’s Bay, in little old regional New Zealand. 

This is contained in an excellent piece well worth reading over the long weekend to be found on the Newsroom website. 

Broadly it looks into amalgamation of councils. The good news is amalgamation is coming. 

In my view it cannot come fast enough. 

This small land is festooned with councils and boards and groups who do little other than add to inflation with cost, plus accounting. 

The trick, and part of it is the Government's Water Done Well programme, is once they spin those duties out to new entities you won't need as many councils and councils won't have a ratepayer base to be able to afford stuff anyway. 

But here is where it might go wrong: 

1) Fiefdoms. Too many still argue they are more important than they are. 

2) The Government says they won't enforce this change. They will act on the communities’ will. 

Big, big mistake. 

On the upside there is talk of as few as 13 unitary authorities. That would mean 11 regional councils gone. Good, do it as quick as you like. 

We are grossly over-councilled in this country, with 67 currently. We have authorities for handfuls of thousands of people. It's absurd and that’s before you get to the quality, or lack of it. 

The savings are huge, with $5 billion on the RMA side alone. 

By the time you read the article you are left uplifted by the possibility that one of your more boring topics, local body representation, might, just might, be heading somewhere good. 

My hope is if it does head somewhere good, we may at last start to pay attention to it, be invested in it and it becomes a virtuous circle of success, productivity and positivity. 

And if that doesn’t fizz you up for a good Easter, nothing does. 

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