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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 and
territorial A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or an ...
levels.


Background

The last major local government reform was carried out through the abolition of provincial government. 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 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 The Fourth Labour Government of New Zealand governed New Zealand from 26 July 1984 to 2 November 1990. It was the first Labour government to win a second consecutive term since the First Labour Government of 1935 to 1949. The policy agenda of ...
following the party's win in 1984. Michael Bassett was Minister of Local Government and he appointed a Local Government Commission, which was chaired by Brian Elwood 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. 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, 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 governme ...
. 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