Christopher Luxon addresses a public meeting at the Suncourt Hotel and Conference Centre on Thursday. Photo: Dan Hutchinson

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says the government is not forcing amalgamation onto councils, and it is “up to you guys” what happens in Taupō.

By Dan Hutchinson

As part of its revamped Resource Management Act, the Government is scrapping regional councils and proposing Combined Territories Boards for district councils to manage regional issues.

Following a public meeting in Taupō last week, Luxon told Taupō News it was some councils around the country that asked to put forward more structured amalgamation proposals, resulting in the Head Start process.

Councils were invited to put forward any amalgamation proposals they favoured, otherwise they would fall under the Government’s ‘Back Stop’ process which could involve the Combined Territories Boards or could be influenced by the ideas put forward by other councils.

“We'll digest all of that, see whether there's anything that's really good that actually makes better sense than what we had proposed anyway.

“So, at the moment, our view, what we call the backstop solution, which is the original idea, it's just actually having mayors work together in Combined Territory Boards to deal with the genuine regional issues, you know, beyond their district councils.”

In the case of Napier, Hastings, and Central Hawke's Bay which are proposing amalgamation, it made sense, he says.

“They're going to be much more influential with us in terms of having debates, discussion with us about resources and plans and infrastructure, because they're more scaled and they now actually have a more strategic plan around that.”

He said many councils had already joined forces on the management of water assets, and, in some cases, that had driven the desire to look at further amalgamation.

Taupō decided against joining the regional Waikato Water Done Well group this year because it felt it had already invested heavily in infrastructure and a combined group would leave it worse off.

Its decision not to put in an amalgamation proposal under the recent Head Start proposal was driven by similar concerns over the amalgamation of assets that were in better condition than many neighbouring districts.

When asked if Taupō would be “lumped in” with neighbouring councils against its will, Luxon said; “No, no, honestly, I think, you know … in some communities … it's been a bit of misinformation and a bit of angst that's been driven. But genuinely, it's because councils came to the central government and said we want to be able to think about working together.

“So as to what you choose to do as a community, up to you. That's up to you. You're a local community; you make your choice and make sure you deliver for the people. And you've been well served here, you know, John (Funnell), Dave (Trewavas) before him, so I think that's up to you guys.”