Issue #979

by Scott Stevens - Lakes Weekly Bulletin

I was absolutely crushed to learn there was no such thing as a money tree from Central Government, and according to PM Christopher Luxon in a speech he made a few months ago, local councils (like QLDC) will now have to “do the basics brilliantly and not be distracted by nice to haves”.

And here I was, convinced there was a money tree, and local councils could just throw it around without a care in the world. It’s quite deflating to learn central and local government cannot just spend spend spend and not worry if they spend it well. No money tree. Bloody hell, shock horror.

So what is a poor little local council like QLDC to do? Well, they could do as PM Luxon said, and do the basics brilliantly but then, does a leopard change its spots? With no disrespect to QLDC as they are not alone, I have never known any government organisation in New Zealand, central (yes Luxon, you too) or local, capable of doing the basics brilliantly. It’s just not possible when the layers of bureaucracy our society seems to think are compulsory get in the way. So, the default position when faced with a fiscal hole, is to put up rates, get nasty with parking enforcement, put up table and chair rental rates and kill alfresco dining, screw your constituency for all they are worth, do what it takes to raise more money, and keep doing the basics poorly.

It seems the local government model has things around the wrong way. Rather than doing more with less, we are getting less for more. Double digit annual rate rises are now the norm country wide. There is a reason for this, you can decide if it’s a valid reason or not. New Zealand was designed and built on a shoestring budget with piss poor infrastructure, the resulting mess is this generation’s inheritance. Piecemeal development with Band-Aid ‘she’ll be right’ (for now) infrastructure underinvestment has caught us with our pants down when faced with the basic needs of a functioning society in 2024 and beyond.

New Zealand is a small country with a small economy, the only way we are going to get ahead is when we all work together. That requires trust, trust that when you pay your dues to the IRD, QLDC, and ORC you get a reasonable outcome. It’s a two-way street, we are funding it and we expect the job to be done brilliantly. Or at the very least efficiently. The question is what is QLDC going to change so that this happens in our district?