Transparency approach welcomed by councils

LGNZ says that benchmarking and increased transparency should help communities better understand what they get for their rates.

Today the Government announced it will begin benchmarking council performance, with the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) to publish a yearly report on key financial and delivery outcomes to help ratepayers hold councils accountable.

“Rates can't continue to increase at the levels we have seen recently, and councils want to be held accountable by ratepayers for every dollar they collect,” says LGNZ President Sam Broughton.

“It’s something we recently spoke with the Government about, and we signalled that improved transparency and score cards could be useful tools. Local government already reports to government agencies on a raft of financial and non-financial performance measures, including decisions on how to use ratepayer money.

“Alongside this, the Government’s decision to modernise parts of the Local Government Act is also welcome and is something we’ve been lobbying for – as it’s long overdue.”

Sam Broughton says that councils want to work with the Government to ensure the benchmarking and performance measures give a full and accurate picture to the community.

"It’s important the report card contains the right information and context for ratepayers, as crude performance measures won’t tell all the story. Every community is different.

“The report card needs to give communities the complete picture on council performance. As we already report on all these metrics, putting them into a report card is one potentially useful way for councils to be more even transparent to ratepayers.”

Sam Broughton says that LGNZ’s conversations with South Australia have shown the benefits their transparency model can have on keeping rates in check.

“South Australia introduced a rates transparency model back in 2016 as an alternative to rate capping. Their approach focused on improving council transparency and accountability to communities. It included measures like council benchmarking and ‘at-a-glance' reports for ratepayers on councils' finances and performance.

“This transparency allowed the public to be more informed and to hold councils to account. It empowered communities to better engage with decision-making processes.

“Today, South Australia is Australia's best-performing economy, in part because of councils’ sustained investments in local economies. There’s a lot we can learn from their success.”

Sam Broughton says that councils will always look for ways to deliver better value to communities.

“A transparency-driven approach, in conjunction with cutting cost-generating red tape plus diversifying funding and financing tools, offers the best chance for New Zealand’s economy to bounce back quickly.

“Shared services, increased efficiency and cutting red tape are all on the table. We’ll keep working with the Government to determine which solutions work best.”