Government Passes Puppy Dogs and Ice-cream Bill

The Local Government (Community Well-Being) Ammendment Bill should be renamed the Puppy Dogs and Icecream Bill, according to ACT Leader David Seymour

"The Government is proactively removing the requirement for councils to deliver qualty services defined as 'effective' and 'efficient.' It reflects the Government's underlying belief that if the intentions are good the results will follow, but the real world doesn't work that way."

The requirement "to meet the current and future needs of communities for good-quality local infrastructure, local public services, and performance of regulatory functions in a way that is most cost-effective for households and businesses." is being replaced with a non-requirement to "to promote the social, economic, environmental, and cultural well-being of communities in the present and for the future."

"These changes are fundamental. They change the early sections of the Local Government Act, those sections that define the purpose of Local Government and set the tone for the Local Government Act and the behaviour of councils up and down New Zealand.

"Councils are poorly focused enough already. This bill will make them completely unfocused. The nuttiest community activists will have free reign to waste ratepayer money on their various well meaning but pointless projects. Meanwhile, the real problems of housing supply, transport infrastructure, and inadeqate water and wastewater infrastructure will remain unsolved while local councils chase puppy dogs and ice creams.

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