Government Plays the Blame Game

by Darcy Lawrey

The “parent/child” relationship between local government and central government being  outdated was the key message of newly appointed Local Government Minister Simon Watts’ speech  at the All of Local Government meeting last week. 

His emphasis on central and local government merrily working together hand in hand seemed to strike a very different note to Christopher Luxon’s “rein in the fantasies […] the days of handouts are over” speech at last year’s LGNZ conference. 

With councils due to deliver their Water Services Delivery Plan by September, Watts encouraged working closely with the government, saying “if you do need help, your hand should be going up […] We have to work together in order to achieve this.” 

However, by Tuesday, the government seemed eager to throw their local-government peers under the bus. After a damning report into Wellington Water revealed Wellingtonians pay three times as much for water repairs than kiwis in other parts of the country, the government says councils are to blame. “The responsibility for these issues lies with the councils who have done a really poor job of maintaining and delivering on water infrastructure in Wellington,” said Minister Chris Bishop.

But Labour Local Government spokesperson Kieran McAnulty says that ministers passing off blame to councils is no surprise. “[…] they're trying to avoid responsibility. The government is the one that scrapped the affordable water reforms, they are the ones that are forcing through a thing their own advice says isn't going to work,” he told RNZ.