Porirua City Mayor Anita Baker is pleased that regional amalgamation is among recommendations in the Future for Local Government report - He piki tūranga, he piki kotuku, released today.

Mayor Baker, who is also Chair of the Wellington Region Mayoral Forum, says her mayoral colleagues agree that working more closely will benefit the region.

"We are mainly small cities and we are geographically close as a region. We already cooperate across a number of functions. Amalgamation will ensure the right decisions are made for the region and enable cost effective delivery of services. The environment will be better off too, particularly our harbours and waterways which are shared.

Mayor Baker says strengthening local government by including mana whenua is an important part of designing a new local government model.

"We want to support local government that fits Aotearoa/New Zealand in the 21 st Century. We already work in partnership with Ngāti Toa and Porirua is better off for it. Having a te ao Māori perspective embedded in our structure will be better for all our people."

The funding and financing of local government is also addressed in the report.

"The current system is broken and clearly unsustainable".

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