Northland councils are against a single unitary authority for the region, put forward as an option in the Future for Local Government report released this week.

Northland Mayoral Forum chair Vince Cocurullo said such a model would not be the best option for the region’s 210,000 people spread across more than 12,000sq km.

“We’re not in favour of a unitary authority.”

The forum represents leaders of the north – Whangārei District Council Mayor Cocurullo, Far North District Council Mayor Moko Tepania, Kaipara District Council Mayor Craig Jepson and Northland Regional Council chair Tui Shortland.

Cocurullo said the region’s current model of four councils best served its people.

In contrast, local government specialist and former Massey University academic Dr Andy Asquith said a single unitary council for the north made sense.

That was on condition it also had community boards with a grunt, the now-adjunct research fellow at Perth’s Curtin University in Australia said.

The 132-page Future for Local Government report was released on Tuesday. It recommends major changes for local government, in what is described as the biggest sector update in almost 40 years. The report follows a review kicked off by then Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta in April 2021.

Future for Local Government review panel chair Jim Palmer said New Zealand’s 78 councils could potentially be reshaped roughly along the lines of regional RMA boundaries. That would mean about 15 councils nationally.

Northland councils have two years to put forward their take on how the shape of local government in the region might look. The Government would move to make changes during the following further year if no acceptable local solution was provided.

Cocurullo said there would be no local government shrinkage in the North.

There could instead be council boundary tweaking. This could include adding to the region with the former Rodney District Council area potentially shifting to be part of Kaipara District Council and therefore Northland, rather than staying with its current Auckland Council.

He said Northland councils, as they stand, were already combining some functions, doing much of what the report pushed for, and were heading in the direction of many of its 17 recommendations. Combined services included the inter-council Northland Transportation Alliance.

The forum was not in favour of the new Government department proposed to manage central and local government relationships, he said.

Cocurullo has given the report a C-plus pass.

“There are some things about it that are good, others that we don’t like as much,” Cocurullo said.

Cocurullo said the report had some positives.

It was good to see Government property in the North – including Department of Conservation land, schools and government department regional offices – would need to pay rates.

He said it was also good to see a billion dollars of Government money from taxpayers annually was mooted to be paid to councils to support development.

Cocurullo said that would however not be enough nationally and questioned how that would be apportioned and delivered.

“That might sound a lot but it’s not when considering the whole country and ongoing underinvestment, in for example, Northland’s state highways over many years.

Meanwhile, Asquith, who gave the report a B plus, said it should be embraced.

“This is a chance to fundamentally reshape local government in Northland for the better.”

Amalgamation would be the single word in the document councils would most dislike, he said.

The only way councils would have any opportunity to resist amalgamation was to demonstrate they could up their game.

The review report proposed legislation change to enable greater Māori local government participation.

Runanga-Ā-Iwi-Ō-Ngāpuhi chair Wane Wharerau, who heads New Zealand’s largest iwi, praised the document.

“The [review] panel has clearly done its homework and their recommendations, particularly around growing authentic Te Tiriti-based partnerships, are to be commended,” he said.

“Albeit focused on local government reform, the panel’s recommendations are music to our ears.”

He said the recommendations explicitly recognised local government as a partner to Te Tiriti and the requirement for councils to develop partnership frameworks down to the hapū level, as well as a requirement for councils to develop Te Tiriti and te ao Māori capacity.

■ Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air