UnitedFuture recognises that it is through local government that communities can provide for their social, environmental, economic and cultural needs in the first instance.
It is UnitedFuture policy to:
- Review the funding and purpose of Local Government;
- Reduce the number of Territorial Authorities where practical by incentivising local government councils to work together;
- Incentivise the increased use of shared services amongst Local Authorities;
- Require the Ministry for the Environment to take a more active role in ensuring that Regional Councils perform their environmental monitoring and enforcement responsibilities under the Resource Management Act;
- Conduct regular reviews of the Resource Management Act's operation, and ensure that local authorities are given the necessary resources and administrative support to carry out their statutory role;
- Progressively align the electoral boundaries for all other elected bodies, such as District Health Boards, with those of Regional Councils;
- Collect EQC and fire levies as a component of property owner's rates instead of their insurance premiums (to prevent 'free riding' on the system by the uninsured);
- Initiate a programme of citizenship and civics education in schools and communities, including some consideration of local government, to address low voter participation;
- Continue to support the Mayors' Taskforce for Jobs so it can continue addressing the local employment needs of youth.
Localism
It is time for a fundamental review of the relationship between local and central government, about the extent to which local authorities are able to set their own policy targets and aims. New Zealand has few checks on central executive power, and for all of the talk of devolution, the reality is that since the early 1990s successive governments have centralised more and more activity at the expense of local communities. Although MMP has improved the checks and balances, "localism" can also help diffuse power whilst keeping the system efficient and effective for citizens and taxpayers.
United Future is strongly committed to promoting debate about a localist agenda, that would enable local communities to take more responsibility for their own actions and priorities, with central government in a supporting, not dictating, role.
That means central and local government working together in a new partnership of equals to achieve regional potential, and welding that together into the overall national interest. It means flattening out the top down approach of the last couple of decades, and recognising that both central and local government have equally important but quite distinct role to play.
There are a number of policy areas where local authorities could have a greater role in decision-making, including:
- Education: planning for the number of schools, teacher/student ratios, local policies on how to achieve national standards;
- Social Development: local welfare policies and goals, provision through national policies such as Whanau Ora;
- Transport: local petrol levies, more input on which projects are prioritised, greater devolution of national transport funding;
- Environment: national bottom lines able to strengthened locally, local environmental priorities;
- Housing: make it easier for local authorities to develop own housing areas, alternatives to rating, more say over state housing design and location.