The Government has once again been told to "butt out" of local decision-making amid concern Dunedin will lose its voice if a massive planning shake-up goes ahead.
The Government intends to repeal the Resource Management Act and replace it with three Bills — the Natural and Built Environment Bill, the Spatial Planning Bill and the Climate Adaptation Bill.
One after another, Dunedin councillors yesterday took aim at the Government over the reforms, saying they removed power from local communities — mirroring the concerns raised about Three Waters.
In particular, councillors were worried giving planning powers to new regional committees would result in Dunedin’s voice being lost.
Cr Carmen Houlahan said the reforms proposed sounded like "forced amalgamation".
She said with every reform that came over recent times, there was an increasing disconnect with what was needed by local communities.
"The fact that the local voice, the knowledge of the local people is being weakened.
"My message to Government would be to butt out and let local government work out these things; work with us rather than telling us what to do," she said.
Mayor Jules Radich said despite the reforms being marketed as being a simplification to local authorities, it was the reverse.
"It really does not seem like a simplification process. To me it sounds like lots of bureaucracy and centralisation of power and control."
"Its quite ironic that in the same breath they are trying to task local government with how to get people more involved on a local level of participation ... when in fact their voice is being taken away."
Deputy mayor Sophie Barker said the word "concern" was written in the submission more than 16 times, and she was concerned herself about how fast Government reform was moving.
"It makes the hairs on my neck stand on end, because it’s what we’re hearing continually, about all the reforms that we’re getting."
The proposals would introduce a new regional committee to make decisions when developing plans as part of the new Bills.
The committee would be made up of a minimum of six members, with each council in the region holding at least one seat each, two members would be from Māori appointing bodies and one would be appointed by the environment minister.
Cr Barker said the possibility of having one seat with only 20% of the voting power while looking after 50% of the people in the region was worrying to her.
She was also concerned there was no clarity on whether the government representative would have the power to over-rule the rest of the members of the new committee.
