News release

Cr Daran Ponter

Greater Wellington Regional Council

28 November 2012

Government buries the two-tier option for Wellington local government

Greater Wellington Regional Councilllor Daran Ponter says that the Government’s refusal to support a two-tier model for Wellington local government has significantly damaged proposals being advanced by Fran Wilde for a Wellington Region Super City.

The Government yesterday introduced a Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) for the Local Government Amendment Bill. It includes changes to enable the Local Government Commission to approve an Auckland style Super City only, in Wellington and elsewhere.

“What’s in the Supplementary Order Paper is in stark contrast to the model put forward by the Wellington Review Panel”, says Daran Ponter.

“The Act will not allow for the type of two-tier structure advanced by the Independent Review Panel. The SOP only provides for the Auckland model only – not a situation which Wellingtonians’ will embrace” Says Daran Ponter.

“The majority of Wellingtonians have already rejected a Wellington super city idea. It is now time for local government to reopen the debate on how councils can better collaborate and pool their expertise and resources” says Daran Ponter. We already have good examples of collaboration across the region – we simply need to work harder at it” says Daran Ponter

“We need solutions that are suitable for the Wellington Region. We have time to do this properly. There is absolutely no signal from the Government that it will impose local government reform in Wellington – they are leaving it to people of the Wellington Region to decide and we need to listen to what they want”. says Daran Ponter..

ends

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Arguably Reassuring: Inspector-General Finds GCSB "Arguably" Legal

Of the 88 individuals:

• 15 cases involving 22 individuals did not have any information intercepted by GCSB.

• another four cases involving five individuals were the subjects of a New Zealand Security Intelligence Service warrant and the GCSB assisted in the execution of the warrants. The Inspector-General is of the view that there were arguably no breaches and the law is unclear.

• the Bureau only provided technical assistance which did not involve interception of communications, involving three of the individuals, so no breach occurred.

• the remaining cases involved the collection of metadata, and the Inspector-General formed the view that there had arguably been no breach, noting once again that the law is unclear.
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