Newsletter
August 2022
Kia ora koutou,
Welcome to the August update from Te Arotake i te Anamata mō Ngā Kaunihera, the Review into the Future for Local Government.
We hugely appreciate the continued support for our mahi and it’s great to see new subscribers to these emails every month. To all of those who are new to these updates – welcome!
A new due date for our draft report
The impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and other illness have been challenging for everyone, and unfortunately our mahi is no exception to this.
It is important to us that the report reflects the breadth of engagement, the material that has been gathered, and the quality and quantity of information we have considered. This two-week extension gives us the time we need to incorporate this information into our draft report and recommendations.
The release of the draft report will begin the submissions phase of the Review. The submissions period will run for a four-month period, from 28 October 2022 to 28 February 2023. As we have signalled previously, the final report is due to be released in June 2023.
Our journey so far
Since releasing our interim report we’ve embarked on roadshows, held community workshops and public webinars, launched our digital tool, and held hui with iwi and hapū around Aotearoa.
During this engagement, we’ve had one main goal: to better understand how local government can create truly thriving places and communities and embody the Treaty of Waitangi.
Now that we’re getting ever closer to the release of the draft report, we’re excited to share the journey of the Review so far, some of the questions we’ve been asked, and what’s on the horizon.
Take a look at this video to see what we’ve been up to:
United Nations Youth Declaration
At the end of July, we had the opportunity to speak with United Nations Youth New Zealand, a youth-for-youth organisation whose mission is to inspire global citizens. The group hosts regular educational, civics-based events to equip rangatahi with the knowledge, confidence and skillsets to spark change within their communities.
Back in April, UN Youth NZ held their annual Youth Declaration conference. Participants aged 13-18 from all over Aotearoa come together to write the Youth Declaration, a document which represents a youth perspective on public policy.
The Youth Declaration is passed on to decision-makers to help them decide the future of Aotearoa. We were lucky enough to be presented with the document by some of the members of the group, followed by the chance to ask questions.
We discussed how to engage young people in our conversations, and how to build safe and inclusive spaces. We also discussed the idea of lowering the voting age to 16, and some of the things that would be required to strengthen local democracy.
For more information about UN Youth NZ, have a look at their website: www.unyouth.org.nz
Looking to the future at the LGNZ conference
We’d like to express our thanks to the organisers and attendees of the Local Government New Zealand conference held in Palmerston North last month. We spent an excellent few days with the sector, looking towards the future and imagining the potential for local government in 2050.
On the second day of the conference we gave a plenary address and held a two-hour workshop to explore some of the key themes that will likely be present in the draft report. You can read the full keynote speech here.
What you've told us
Our priority questions survey collected responses from a wide range of interested parties from October 2021 to June 2022. As our thinking evolved, we also opened a survey to collect feedback about the key shifts we proposed.
We have been reading, considering and incorporating the responses to these surveys in the development of our draft report. The responses to each of these surveys have been summarised into two reports. You can read the summaries here.
Thank you to everyone who took the opportunity to get involved in this mahi through these surveys. Both surveys are now closed, however there will be further opportunity to share your thoughts with us through an online submissions process following the release of the draft report in October.
Final engagements with iwi ahead of the draft report
We were invited to meet with two of the largest iwi in Aotearoa, Ngāi Tahu and Ngāpuhi, over the past few weeks. Both of these hui were held kanohi ki te kanohi (face to face) which was a welcomed change from the online meetings that have been necessary over the past year.
As you know, our review is tasked with looking 30 years into the future. To do this, it is important for us to reflect on the ways the relationships between councils, iwi, hapū and Māori have evolved in the past. We know there is great determination to build stronger partnerships that will ensure our communities prosper and thrive, and that these relationships will continue to strengthen over time.
It was a great pleasure to be invited by Te Rūnanga-Ā-Iwi Ō Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Rarua to hear their perspective on Te Tiriti o Waitangi and He Whakaputanga. We began our day on the Treaty grounds with a mihi whakatau, followed by interesting kōrero that acknowledged Waitangi as the birthplace of both central and local government in Aotearoa.
Our visit prompted us to consider the whakataukī, kia whakatōmuri te haere whakamua, which speaks to the perspectives of time, where the past, present and future are intertwined, and we carry what we have learned from the past into the future.
We were hosted by Sam Napia, who showed us around the Treaty grounds and museum. This photo was taken during a conversation about Te Tiriti o Waitangi, while we gathered around a replica of the official document.
At the end of July, we spent a day in Ōtautahi (Christchurch), where we met with Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu and Papatipu Rūnanga.
The Canterbury Regional Council (Ngāi Tahu Representation) Bill, which was recently passed, gives Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu guaranteed representation on council. This demonstrates the drive to grow and evolve the relationship between local government and iwi. We explored the potential this presents for the relationship between kāwanatanga and tino rangatiratanga within the Ngāi Tahu takiwā (area).
We wish to extend our gratitude to those who extended such a warm welcome to us. These hui were a truly grounding experience and we appreciate your time and input as we reimagine local governance for Aotearoa.
We are considering all that we have heard over the course of the Review to write our draft report and recommendations. The draft report will be available from 28 October 2022. This date will also mark the beginning of our submissions phase. More information about the submissions process will be provided ahead of the report’s release.
For more information about our mahi, please get in touch with us at futureforlg@dia.govt.nz.
Ngā manaakitanga,
Jim Palmer (Chair), Gael Surgenor, Brendan Boyle, Antoine Coffin and Penny Hulse
