Opinion: Wellbeing is at the heart of what Local Government does, law change or not.

By Gareth Hughes

Originally published in The Post

In and out, in and out. We have a history of flip flopping on important legislation like the Local Government Act. It’s a waste of time and resources. 

The Coalition Government has just just introduced legislation to remove the ‘four wellbeings’ from the Local Government Act.

The wellbeings — social, economic, environmental, and cultural — were added in 2002 by Labour, removed 2012 by National, added back in 2019 by Labour, and now to be removed again. 

It’s frustrating that so much parliamentary time has been spent adding words and then deleting them, but the fact of the matter is you can take the word ‘wellbeing’ out of legislation but you can’t take wellbeing out of local government. Collective wellbeing is at the heart of what our councils and local boards are there for.

The reality is if the wellbeings are once again removed from the Act, councils will do wellbeing work anyway because this is at the heart of what it means to live in a community. Central government isn’t going to build parks, playgrounds or pools and they are not going to drive local economic development. Only local governments can do that because they are closest to their citizens. “Local government is one of the most important institutions our species has created for expanding human wellbeing” says WEAll Aotearoa Research Economist Dr Dalziel. 

Local government is more than just roads, rates, rats and rubbish — it plays a key role in building local economies and is uniquely positioned to foster local resiliency and wellbeing in our communities. It’s in the parks we walk through, the water we drink, the pools we take our kids to, the buses we ride, and yes even the rubbish and recycling we put out on the street. 

There are many systemic challenges facing the local government sector that are crying out for leadership — from funding models to the number of councils. 

For years, successive governments have piled obligations on councils without additional funding and now ministers are threatening to cap rates and remove their purpose.

We have one of the most highly centralised systems of government compared to other OECD countries and if ministers want to enable councils to ‘focus on the essentials and deliver value for communities’ – as Minister Watts has said – they should focus on fixing the broken funding model. 

We support good policies like returning a portion of GST to the regions – advocated for by NZ First and Act — and would like to see them get on and do it. Returning GST charged on rates back to councils could return $1.1b to support investments and potentially lower the rates burden according to Infometrics’ Brad Olsen. 

Despite this creaking funding model councils are getting on with it. Fantastic work is happening every day across Aotearoa improving local prosperity, resilience and wellbeing. 

Last week WEAll Aotearoa published a new report that reaffirms the vital role of local councils as stewards of public good. The guide, Policy for the Public Good: A Local Government Resource Guide, shares 100 common-sense, evidence-based policies for local councils, along with 80 real-world case studies of these working.

The case studies range from neighbourhood parks and infrastructure, to nature-based solutions and community engagement. For example, the power to grow hundreds of local jobs through social procurement processes at the award winning Te Ngaengae Pool and Fitness Centre led by Hutt City Council. 

Crumbling infrastructure, unaffordable housing, extreme weather and cost of living crises are the challenges we need our councils to confront, challenges which people are feeling the effects of every day. A diminished role for local government will see us collectively worse off, both in terms of the economy and wellbeing. 

Wouldn't it be great if we could build long-term political agreement on the purpose of local government like we see with national security issues and the Zero Carbon Act. How can we move forward and progress as a country when successive governments spend their scarce time and resources reversing the previous governments changes? We can’t keep flip flopping on core legislation.

One thing we have heard time and time again, is that councils will continue to do what’s best for their communities and the environment they are kaitiaki for, whether the wellbeings are in the Act or not.