The 1989 New Zealand local government reform was the most significant reform of

local government in New Zealand New Zealand has a unitary system of government in which the authority of the central government defines sub-national entities. Local government in New Zealand has only the powers conferred upon it by the New Zealand Parliament. In general, loca ...

in over a century. Some 850 local bodies were amalgamated into 86 local authorities, made up of

regional In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

and territorial levels.

Background

The last major local government reform was carried out through the abolition of

provincial government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonomy, ...

. With effect of 1 January 1877, local government was vested in elected borough and county councils. The Counties Bill of 1876 created 63 counties out of the rural parts of the former provinces. Over the years, many new bodies were set up. Some of these bodies were multi-purpose, whilst others (for example harbour boards) were single-purpose. The

Local Government Act 1974 The Local Government Act 1974 of New Zealand consolidated the previous law relating to local government that applied to territorial local authorities, regional and district council bodies in New Zealand. The Act made provision for the establi ...

consolidated the previous law relating to local government that applied to territorial local authorities, regional and district council bodies. It enabled the establishment of regional councils, but these were not established until the 1989 reform.

History

The Labour Party had the reform of local government as one of its policies for the but without much detail; the proposals were developed during the first term of the Fourth Labour Government following the party's win in 1984.

Michael Bassett Michael Edward Rainton Bassett (born 28 August 1938) is a former Labour Party member of the New Zealand House of Representatives and cabinet minister in the reformist fourth Labour government. He is also a noted New Zealand historian, and ha ...

was Minister of Local Government and he appointed a Local Government Commission, which was chaired by

Brian Elwood Sir Brian George Conway Elwood (born 5 April 1933) is a former New Zealand lawyer, politician, and public servant. He served as mayor of Palmerston North from 1971 to 1985, and was the Chief Ombudsman of New Zealand from December 1994 to June 2 ...

from 1 April 1985 to 1 November 1992. The government had given the commission a guarantee that their findings would be regarded as binding. The resulting local government reform was undertaken along the lines of neo-liberal economic theory, and was done in conjunction with the economic reform that have become known as

Rogernomics In February 1985, journalists at the '' New Zealand Listener'' coined the term Rogernomics, a portmanteau of "Roger" and "economics" (by analogy with "Reaganomics"), to describe the neoliberal economic policies followed by Roger Douglas. Dougl ...

. Some 850 entities were amalgamated into 86 local authorities, made up of regional and territorial levels. Of the 850 entities, 249 were municipalities; the remainder were harbour boards, catchment boards, and drainage boards.

Brian Rudman Brian C. Rudman is a columnist and regular editorial contributor to ''The New Zealand Herald'', New Zealand's largest daily newspaper. He has his own column, 'Rudman's City', where he mainly focuses on issues relating to Auckland (New Zealand's l ...

, a journalist and editorial writer for ''

The New Zealand Herald ''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation of all newspaper ...

'', called the reforms "revolutionary".

Results of the reform

Regional authorities

New Zealand was divided into 14 regions, of which 13 were regional authorities, and the remaining one, Gisborne, was a

unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...

. Unitary authorities in New Zealand are district (or city) authorities that also fulfil the function of a regional authority.

Territorial authorities

At a territorial level, district and city authorities were created. The area of a district may belong to more than one regional authority.

References

{{Reflist Territorial authorities of New Zealand Local government reforms