Stop him before he kills again

I’ve been thinking about Rodney Hide that it was a case of someone stop him before he kills again. Having made a hash of the Super City, and now wreaking havoc with ACC, the prospect of his review of the Local Government Act began to seem like one act of mayhem too many.

I’d heard via officials that his paper to be discussed at Cabinet tomorrow contained draconian proposals to curb Council activities. But then Bernard Orsman reports in today’s Herald that Hide has backed off from his core services agenda:

Mr Hide yesterday said he was conscious of working with a centrist, pragmatic National Party and needed its support to pass changes to the Local Government Act 2002. That meant he was no longer pursuing the removal of the social, environmental and cultural “wellbeings” in the act that, he previously said, had pushed councils into providing services beyond their core role.

Sounds like his coalition partner has told Mr Hide to pull his head in.  Instead of the core services agenda, the Minister wants to make Councils open their books before elections much like Treasury’s pre-election fiscal update. No mention in the story of the idea he flagged back in April of Councils being required to hold referenda on significant or irreversible decisions. But given his opposition to referenda on the Super City, and on privatisation, maybe he has gone off the whole referendum thing?

In any case Hide is hoping his proposed changes to the Local Government Act, whatever they are, will turn back the rising tide of rates increases. No one likes to see rates going up endlessly, and no one is going to quibble with a bit more transparency and accountability in the local government sector. But if Hide, in spite of his soothing words in the Herald, persists with the nutty rate-capping and core services agenda he floated in April then he will surely have a fight on his hands.

The softening up began at the Local Government and Environment select committee on Thursday when officials presented a report showing councils’ operating costs will increase 39 per cent over the next 10 years. Over the same period councils’ planned capital expenditure will total $31.4 billion, and total debt is forecast to rise to $10.8 billion.  The report met with synchronised oohing and ahhing from the Government members.