The Government will push its head start council amalgamation process past the election, putting on hold plans to redraw the country's local government map despite councils spending millions of dollars on proposals.
Wellington's mayor Andrew Little says the move showed the Government was "not serious" about the process, and ratepayers could rightly ask what exactly they had paid for.
Local Government Minister Simon Watts and RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop said today Cabinet would not consider the head start proposals until early 2027. More work was needed first, they said.
1News understands a series of talks held earlier this week were not positive.
Documents obtained by 1News show 11 councils costs were used to estimate that the cost for all councils on the process would be $10,528,918, including staff costs.
They include four regional councils: Bay of Plenty, Horizons, Northland and West Coast. The other seven are Hamilton City, Kāpiti Coast District, New Plymouth District, Palmerston North City, Rangitīkei District, Thames-Coromandel District and Southland District.
Eighteen proposals were submitted in August. Watts said while their overall quality was high, none had the unanimous support of its region.
"Some needed further analysis before they can progress. These are important gaps we must fill in prior to making final decisions," he said.
Watts said representation and the transfer of regional functions needed more work.
"Rather than asking councils to commit further time and resources to finalise proposals now, the Government will now work to fill in these gaps over the next few months."
Bishop said the Government remained committed to the reform, and still expected changes to be in place before the 2028 local elections.
Decisions on the backstop process, for areas that do not progress through head start, are also expected in early 2027.
The process asked councils to lead their own restructure into unitary authorities, taking over the work of regional councils, which were set to be abolished.
In May Watts and Bishop gave councils until August 9 to come up with proposals, or the Government would do it for them.
Labour had slammed the reforms as "messy and watered-down", with local government spokesperson Tangi Utikere saying the party would assess how far along they were before making a decision if it were to be elected in November.
Ratepayers left with $250k bill - Wellington mayor
Little, who co-chairs the Wellington and Wairarapa Mayoral Forum, said the decision showed the Government was never serious about the process.
He said councils across the region spent nearly $250,000 between them to get a proposal in before the deadline.
"Councils across the region invested significant time and ratepayer money because ministers asked us to move quickly. We did exactly that. It is now clear the Government was not ready to follow through, and didn't have enough support around the Cabinet table," he said.
"Wellington ratepayers are entitled to ask why they were asked to pay for an exercise the Government was not prepared to complete."
Little said councils were facing an "arbitrary rates cap" while being asked to fund a process that went nowhere.
"Councils across New Zealand were given a totally unreasonable three-month deadline to propose a model for local amalgamation, amid continually-shifting criteria by the ministers," he said.
"It claims it is wanting to simplify local government, but today it has confirmed it has no plan for how to achieve this."
Submissions have closed on plans to merge councils across New Zealand, with the Government set to decide which proposals advance and which councils face a backstop process. (Source: Breakfast)
Patchwork of proposals
By the August 9 cutoff, about 48 councils had lodged proposals and 17 had not.
The submissions revealed a fractured picture. Northland councils put forward competing blueprints, Canterbury emerged as one of the most fragmented regions, and Southland ran two rival bids, with Gore formally attached to both.
On the West Coast, a single unitary authority proposal went ahead despite Buller councillors voting against it. The process only required majority support across affected councils.
Palmerston North and Horowhenua wrote jointly to Watts asking for more time, while five other Manawatū-Whanganui councils signed an agreement to build a shared evidence base instead of rushing into a proposal.
Hamilton walked away from the process entirely, citing a lack of time for financial analysis and community consultation.
Auckland, which merged its eight councils into a single "supercity" in 2010, is exempt from the changes.
The Government's backstop process had been set to apply to councils that did not submit proposals or whose proposals were rejected, with new structures due before the October 2028 local elections.
The morning's headlines in 90 seconds, including two people rescued from the bottom of a cliff, how AI might kill us all, and the dramatic moment two military pilots eject from their plane. (Source: 1News)
SHARE ME