|
Hi John --
If you’re a ratepayer, you
probably want your council focused on doing the basics brilliantly –
fixing the pipes, filling in potholes and maintaining local assets
quickly, carefully and cost effectively.
But nothing in life is free – you
expect your rates to pay for that stuff. What you don’t expect to pay
for is the laundry-list of distractions and experiments that are
plaguing council balance sheets across the country.
That’s why I announced four new
measures at today’s Local Government New Zealand conference to get
councils back to basics.
Here’s what we’ll do:
- Make changes to the Local
Government Act to restore councils’ focus on local services and
infrastructure
- Investigate performance
benchmarks for local councils so ratepayers know exactly what they’re
getting for their rates
- Investigate options to limit
councils from spending ratepayers’ money on pet projects and
nice-to-haves
- Review the transparency and
accountability rules that apply to councils to ensure democratic
decision-making for ratepayers.
In central government, we’re
getting on with the job. We're stopping wasteful spending, shifting
money from the back office to the frontline, setting clear delivery
targets and expectations, prioritising what to do and what not to do,
and letting Kiwis keep more of what they earn.
My parting message for councils
today was that it’s time for them to do the same.
Go line by line, stop the
wasteful spending, remove the bureaucracy, focus on better customer
service, and end the projects that aren’t delivering value for
money.
You can read my full speech here.
Christopher
|
