Stuart Smith
National MP
Kaikoura
Below is Stuart Smith’s response.
Being a public servant, such as a councillor in your local area, is an incredibly difficult job and is often underappreciated. But it gives you the ability to serve your people and possibly improve lives.
If we didn’t have councils or representatives in our local wards, there would be stark changes to the services of everyday life we are used to. Local parks, waterways, roads, rubbish collections and many other things simply wouldn’t function without local Government representing the people who live there.
Local representatives are voted in by the people they aim to serve. Despite the importance, local body holds, local elections have traditionally had a low turnout. To make meaningful change, it is vital that those who are eligible to vote in the upcoming elections do so.
Local councils are not in a healthy state. Their approval ratings are dismal and central Government is loading them with reforms and grabbing vital assets. Local democracy is inevitably heading towards a fractured system and risks even lower voter engagement.
A great example of these asset grabs is the Three Waters reform. The Labour Government is taking local water assets from councils and centralising them, forcing them into a ‘one-size-fits-all’ model and silencing the local voice.
Ratepayers currently own their water assets, and under this new model they will be taken from them and bundled into one of the four new water entities. For any single water entity, which might encompass up to 20 councils, there will only be 6 councillors and 6 iwi representatives in the “representative group” at the bottom of the pecking order.
These reforms are taking the ‘local’ out of local Government and make council operations less relevant to the concerns of many voters.
Local elections are important. Voting for who you want to represent you and be your voice is an essential part of our democracy. Under National we will ensure that local Government is supported, and ratepayers get what they deserve from their local bodies.
