Category: This Is Christchurch -> Local Governance
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NZ Pandemic Response Raises Questions Over Future Structure of Health System
We’re still evolving what this site is about and how we will use it, but we are sticking for now with our plans that it won’t be a general political site, but that we will continue to use it to address a small selected range of issues that we feel are of key importance. The…
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Canterbury District Health Board campaign increasing in public prominence
This post is a followup to the last two posts we wrote which were also relevant to this subject. Our post of 18th August referred specifically to the relevance of proposed health sector reforms to the overall direction of government policy, and yesterday’s one was about the need to ensure that elected representation is maintained…
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Local / Democratic Representation Important In Government Services
Last time we talked about the Government’s “centralist authoritarian path” as described by Dr Ian Powell, former head of the senior doctors’ union ASMS, in the context of funding challenges at Canterbury District Health Board. As we know, in the year 2000, the Government set up the 20 District Health Boards to run local health…
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Serious Health Sector Questions Raised By CDHB Funding Debacle
In the news for the last few weeks has been the debacle over CDHB’s deficit. The issue is driven by underfunding of CDHB in recent years, and questions are due as to why the present Government has failed to address this matter, despite expectations. In fact, there is a much greater picture brewing over government…
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Why Councils Are Risk Averse In Building Processes
So this one is a little different, it’s defending councils against the allegations that they have ensnarled building processes in red tape. Anecdotally you can hear many concerns over what it costs to build a house or some commercial premises these days, and especially over the consents process with a local council and the fees…
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Hamilton City CEO Calls For Local Electoral Reform
An interesting op-ed appeared in the Stuff website yesterday, reporting on the call from Hamilton City’s CEO Richard Briggs for reform of local government elections (reported on Radio NZ three weeks ago). The Stuff article is written by three academic management specialists, so it’s refreshingly non-partisan in its approach. Briggs has stated his view that…
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Allegations Made Against Central City Councillor
Most of us reading this will know that during the recent local government elections in Christchurch, allegations of improper conduct (amounting to a form of sexual harrassment) were levelled against a sitting Councillor in the Christchurch Central ward. The allegations were first reported to the Mayor in May 2019 and were kept quiet at that…
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Long Term Ramifications of Insufficient Oversight of Local Government
The 2010/2011 earthquakes in Christchurch were a huge wakeup call for local government in terms of its capability and willingness to ensure high standards were being achieved in building safety. We believe that the standards subsequently exposed in Christchurch were woefully inadequate. There had been a long legacy in the city of failure to properly…
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If the Government wants to increase local election voter turnout they should mandate STV for all councils
What is completely wrong is that a council can choose their own electoral system. We don’t believe people would find STV too difficult to understand. Dunedin City Council, as it turns out, has all of its councillors elected at large (no wards) and uses STV to elect them and the mayor. This should be a…
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Solution To Low Local Election Turnouts: Stop Disenfranchising Non-Ratepayers.
Well the local government elections are all over, and crocodile tears are being wept over the poor turnout, which is practically a record low across New Zealand. It has been claimed by a former Labour president in Auckland that the local government structure there which puts control of transport and other significant municipial functions outside…