Ngāi Tahu releases Head Start proposal for Te Waipounamu

South Island iwi Ngāi Tahu has unveiled its own Head Start vision for local government, setting out a proposal for how councils across Te Waipounamu could evolve to meet future challenges.

The proposal would replace 24 councils currently operating within the Ngāi Tahu takiwā with five larger councils aligned to major river catchments, supported by locally elected boards and a South Island-wide shared services entity.

Kaiwhakahaere Justin Tipa says the Head Start conversation was too important for Ngāi Tahu to sit on the sidelines.

“As an iwi whose takiwā spans most of Te Waipounamu, we have a unique perspective on the opportunities and challenges facing our communities. We've stepped back and looked at the South Island as a whole and asked what kind of local government would best serve future generations.”

The proposal argues the current local government system is coming under increasing pressure from rising infrastructure costs, uneven population growth, climate change impacts, and increasingly high rates bills.

One of the most significant changes would be the creation of a large council encompassing Christchurch, Selwyn, Waimakariri, Hurunui and Kaikōura, bringing together communities facing many of the same growth and infrastructure pressures.

“A lot of the discussion to date has focused on where the lines should be drawn between urban and rural communities, but council boundaries need to be at the right scale to deal with the challenges in front of us.

“Rivers flow from the mountains to the sea, through both rural and urban areas and decisions made up stream directly affect communities much further down the catchment. Natural disasters don’t discriminate between one district and the next either.

“Planning around natural water catchments is simply a better way of managing systems and communities that are already connected."

He says local communities would continue to have a strong voice through elected boards.

" Some people will inevitably try to frame our proposal as favouring centralisation at the expense of local voices. They're missing the point.

"This proposal keeps democratic local government at its core. Communities will continue to elect their representatives and make decisions about the future of their districts and cities.

"We're not proposing centralisation for centralisation's sake. The experience of our iwi since Settlement shows that scale can sit alongside local voice and authority. Different parts of the system can hold their own responsibilities and powers while working together on the issues they have in common."

Justin Tipa says many smaller councils were increasingly being asked to tackle complex and expensive infrastructure challenges that were difficult to manage alone.

“Rather than every council trying to build that capability on its own, our proposal would create a takiwā wide shared services entity, giving councils access to specialist skills and expertise that would otherwise be difficult or expensive to maintain.”

He says while iwi were not invited to submit a formal Head Start proposal, Ngāi Tahu believed it was important to contribute to the discussion given the significance of the decisions ahead.

"We don't pretend to have all the answers. These ideas will need to be tested, refined and strengthened as the conversation develops.

“But if local government reform is going to succeed, we need to be ambitious and prepared to seize the opportunities in front of us. Our focus is on what will best serve the people of Te Waipounamu, now and for generations to come."

Justin Tipa says Ngāi Tahu is willing and ready to play an active role in the detailed design and implementation of any reforms that emerge during the next phase of the process.

Read the Head Start proposal here.