Council mega-merger for Wellington still on the cards, play your hand carefully

A mega-merger between Wellington councils is being considered for a non-binding referendum that would combine the services and functions for the five authorities.

“Remember that big council doesn’t mean good council. What we got in Auckland was a cautionary tale; more bureaucracy and empire-building.” said Sam Warren, Local Government Campaigns manager for the Taxpayers’ Union.

“Closer collaboration between neighbouring councils to share costs and service delivery, in order to reduce the burden on ratepayer per capita, is always to be encouraged. Economies of scale is no promise—would this be the exception?”

“Work done by the Infrastructure Commission points towards diminishing returns once a population meets a certain threshold, suggesting that efficiencies from amalgamation are likely captured at relatively modest scales."

“The five councils can barely function by themselves; do we just trust them to ‘make it work’ when they’re inflated even more?”

“If a referendum is to take place, it’s essential that locals are front and centre—the risks and drawbacks are too expensive to get this wrong.”