Mayor Craig Rowley and Councillor Tom O’Connor attended the Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) Annual General Meeting and Conference on behalf of Council in Wellington on 21-23 August 2024.
“One significant outcome was the chance to speak directly with the chief executive of Taumata Arowai, New Zealand’s water services regulator, about the issues related to providing safe and reliable rural drinking water,” Mayor Craig Rowley said.
“We now have a direct line of communication and are working on potential solutions for the Waimate District’s water services.”
Mayor Craig said the conference was a valuable opportunity to observe how other councils are addressing their challenges, and to network with peers.
Each year, LGNZ adopts new remits. To decide this, each council receives votes to decide which proposals to support. Waimate District Council is entitled to two votes.
At the Ordinary Council Meeting on 23 July, Council decided to support the following remits:
- Advocating for changes to ensure councils have timely and accurate regional and sub-regional population data for use in council representation reviews.
- Allowing the Community Services Card to be used as evidence when accessing Council services.
- Reforming the fee structure for driver licensing and better preparing young people for licensing.
- Enabling councils to compel building owners to remediate unoccupied derelict buildings and sites where they negatively impact the amenity of the surrounding area.
- Lobbying for an equitable and appropriate funding model for central government initiatives.
- Lobbying central government on sharing GST revenue with local government from rates and service fees related to flood protection mitigation, roading, and three waters, for investment in these areas.
Council decided not to support the following:
- Lobbying central government to ensure that Māori wards and constituencies are treated the same as other wards, meaning they should not be subject to a referendum.
- Lobbying to entrench Māori wards and constituencies for the 64 councils which currently have them, and require the support of a supermajority of parliament should either parliament or councils seek their removal.
