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LGNZ and SOLGM raise questions over LGA Amendment Bill
By LGNZ editor, Graham Hawkes

Local Government New Zealand and SOLGM are preparing a joint submission on the Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill 2012 that the Government plans to pass into law.
The two groups are currently running seminars on the Bill and are using feedback from those events to build their submission.
They plan to accept submissions on the document until 4.30pm on Friday July 13, giving themselves time to finalise a submission before the cut-off date of July 26.
LGNZ and SOLGM say they read the regulatory impact statement (RIS) that accompanied this Bill with great interest and believe the scale of change signalled in the Bill and in the other parts of the Better Local Government programme “have the potential to create the most significant change to the sector since the amalgamations and accountability review of 1989”.

“We would have expected that the proposals would be matched by a robust assessment of all of the available evidence,” the two groups say in a paper which invites feedback from members. They note these two warnings in the RIS statement:
“There is limited evidence to inform the development of these proposals, and the timeframes within which the proposals have been developed have restricted the ability to assess multiple options. As a result, the problem analysis and option assessments of specific proposals rely on assumptions that are not, or are only partially tested” and:
“The short timeframe for formatting and drafting the legislation creates some risk that interventions could be incorrectly aligned, and/or require subsequent amendment to address unforeseen circumstances.”
SOLGM and LGNZ say neither organisation has come across statements of this nature in a RIS document before and believe they raise questions about the quality of the policy analysis on which the Bill has been developed.




News

Local government among IPANZ winners
Success for the local government sector in the 2012 IPANZ public sector excellence awards. Read More...
Hastings DC stars in Oz
A team from Hastings District Council came up trumps at the Australasian Grand Final of the Local Government Management Challenge in Melbourne. Read More...
Most Aucklanders want underground rail
Independent research says two out of three Aucklanders support the underground city rail link which would link existing above-ground networks from from the west, east and south. Read More...
Sunny outlook for business trip
A group of prominent Auckland business leaders head to Samoa, Tonga and the Cook Islands next week, led by Auckland Mayor Len Brown, to promote Auckland, the city with the largest Pacific islander population in the world. Read More...
More bad news for Akaroa residents
Christchurch City Council has closed Akaroa Museum after receiving the results of a detailed engineering assessment. Read More...
Council attacks sky-high waste problem
A pile of waste that would fill Eden Park’s rugby pitch to twice the height of Sky Tower each year has focused Auckland Council’s collective mind on waste minimisation. Read More...
Engineers under earthquake scrutiny
The Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission wants to dissect two issues raised by investigations into the massive damage inflicted on Christchurch by the Canterbury earthquakes. Read More...


Asset Management

Opening Waikato River trails
The Waikato River Authority is funding major planting on key areas of a 100km trail which stretches from Karapiro in the North to Atiamuri in the south, providing a major boost for the River Trails project which has been underway for almost 10 years.
FNDC ponders airport ownership
The Far North District Council may take back ownership of the Bay of Islands Airport at Kerikeri from its commercial trading company Far North Holdings Ltd.
Pipes given earthquake protection
Porirua City is fitting a new type of seismic valve to underground pipes in an effort to prevent breakages in the event of an earthquake. Read More...

Opinion

Mayoral power scrutinised
The recently introduced Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill extends aspects of the Auckland mayoral model to all mayors, writes Dr Grant Hewison a special counsel at Kensington Swan. Read More..
Changes to the LGA need care
Kobus Mentz, director of Urbanismplus and Susannah Goble, urban planner, give their thoughts on proposed changes to the Local Government Act and the ways that community aspirations can be delivered through local councils. Read More...



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What's On

What’s On in Local Government
To add to this list of Local Government sector conferences and events, email the editor: grahamh@mediaweb.co.nz


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