Future for Local Government Review
Current Status
The independent panel's report was published on 20 June 2023. More information is available below, including a joint media release by North Canterbury's Mayors with their initial response to the Final Report.
- 20 June 2023 - Final report, Future For Local Government Review Panel download here
- 20 June 2023 - Summary infographic of final report recommendations download here
- 21 June 2023 - Media Release North Canterbury Mayors welcome Future for Local Government Report
About the Review
In April 2021, the Government announced an independent review of Local government. The Review's aims were to identify how our system of local democracy and governance needs to evolve over the next 30 years to improve the wellbeing of New Zealand communities, the environment, and actively embody Te Tiriti.
The Review was led by an independent panel. The panel published a draft report in October 2022 He mata whāriki, he matawhānui, which posed key questions and 29 draft recommendations to provoke discussion about how New Zealand’s local government system could be transformed to maximise community wellbeing.
In early 2022, Local Government New Zealand (Ko Tātou) ran workshops and engaged in kōrero with councils gathering a broad range of perspectives. As a result, LGNZ developed the 'Vision for the Future' paper for the Review Panel. It outlined the barriers that so far have stopped councils from achieving their vision and provides a series of recommendations for the Panel’s consideration about how these challenges might be addressed to make the sector’s vision a reality. Read the paper here: Vision for the Future.
Submissions and feedback for the draft report closed on 28 February 2023. The final Report was published on 20 June 2023. The final report, He piki tūranga, he piki kōtuku, proposes 17 recommendations that aim to enable local government to better serve communities across Aotearoa New Zealand.
More Information
The Draft Report
- Independent Panel's Draft Report download here
- Local Government New Zealand (Ko Tātou) have developed a summary of the draft report
- About the Review & Independent Panel - visit the Review webpage https://www.futureforlocalgovernment.govt.nz/about/
Video (Duration: 3 mins) Future for Local Government Review overview and aims
