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Looking to the future
So where is it going? What does the future of local government hold? Councils and other interests – Parliamentary, academic, commercial, community – all have their views of how things should change, and of what changes might be forced by outside pressures.
In these opening thoughts about the future, we look at a couple of the major issues that need to be tracked. MPs from the major Parliamentary political parties provide their views on pages 8 and 9. More issues are explored in other parts of this book. We will keep a watching brief, and report over the years, as researchers such as Professor Scott (see page 7) and other people tell us more.
Central-local communication
Local government can communicate with central government to ensure that communities have adequate information to appropriately identify their future well-being outcomes, and to build up realistic expectations about what government can and should do to help. All central government agencies have opportunities to communicate Government’s goals and priorities in their relevant sector, provide information they may have about communities and their agency’s activities, and raise awareness of particular issues.
Changing communities
One major change that is impacting on our communities is the increasing emphasis on communities of interest, rather than communities of geography. Nowadays, people often work and socialise far from their place of residence – and with modern telecommunications more and more are working and socialising long distance, even when they are at home.
Not citizens just of the future but also of the present.
The principle of subsidiarity
One important concept in the Act is the principle of subsidiarity. This recognises that there are decisions and governance needed on a national and international level, and decisions and governance that are best done at a local and regional level, and that problems are best solved at the most local level possible. When local authorities plan and find solutions for their own local community then this is likely to be a better ‘fit’ and get buy-in from the people who need to implement it than plans or solutions for their local community imposed by a higher central authority.
The subsidiarity principle is illustrated by the Auckland Regional Transport Authority (ARTA), where negotiations between central, regional and local government produced a new arrangement for implementing Auckland’s Regional Land Transport Strategy. Peter Winder, the Auckland Regional Council (ARC) Director of Transport, says the ARTA initiative recognises that it is the regional community of Auckland that is affected by the performance of the transport system. “It is at the regional level that it is most appropriate to make the decisions.”
www.decisionmaker.co.nz
www.parliament.govt.nz
