I have always believed that once you elect people to represent you on whatever political entity, you ought to accept the decisions they make on your behalf. After all, presuming they are diligently acquiring the facts surrounding an issue, they will inevitably know more than you to effect the conclusions they come to, even if it doesn’t necessarily fit your own careful consideration of the topic.
The eighteenth century political theorist and philosopher Edmund Burke put this hypothesis much more succinctly when he wrote: Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgement, and he betrays instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.
And yet despite this I fear the decision made by the three Wairarapa District Councils to amalgamate and form a unitary authority thereby abandoning the services of the very generous Greater Wellington Regional Council is a risky one and if enacted, has the propensity to seriously betray their judgement.
I have spoken to a number of councillors and council officers from the three councils and I know they genuinely believe, having diligently acquired more facts than I have access to, that they can somehow absorb the $11 million shortfall without increasing rates or reducing services.
They say they have spoken at length to other local authorities who have taken on regional council roles. Gisborne City, Nelson City, Tasman District and Marlborough District all operate unitary authorities, apparently successfully, and their collective advice to the Wairarapa Governance Review Working Party committee has been positive.
Our diligent representatives believe that the Wellington regional council is over-staffed, over- regulated and over there.
Wellington has got closer to the Wairarapa in recent years with modern transport options and a hill road that is being regularly shortened. It’s a doddle now to travel to the absolutely positive capital, rated by The Lonely Planet Best in Travel 2011 as fourth on its list of the top ten cities in the world to visit. It claimed Wellington was “the coolest little capital in the world.”
Last weekend’s Rugby Seven’s tournament surely testified to this and to link up with the lively metropolis would surely be to our distinct advantage. For years Wairarapa has been a bit of a backwater and has had static growth. We are often left out of nationally quoted statistics - real estate prices for instance - and despite having a number of substantial towns within its environs only Masterton is recognised on the TV weather maps.
To join up with the Supercity may be just the conduit we’ve been looking for to make our mark in the world.
And so I’m surprised there hasn’t been more enthusiasm shown by locals to embrace this recourse. After all we flock to Wellington for our entertainment and from my observations we regularly join the crowds at Lower Hutt’s Queensgate to shop. We are eternally grateful for Wellington’s medical facilities when we are seriously sick and the recent merger of the three district health boards, Wairarapa, Hutt and Capital and Coast appears to have been met with total acceptance.
Last week, attendees at a well-attended public meeting at the superb Carterton Events Centre unanimously endorsed a resolution to slow the decision-making process down. With the government now admitting that it is unable to introduce legislation in time for this year’s local body elections this seemed like a sensible option.
But then you could well ask: why do anything at all? What is currently in place seems to be working well apart from regular rate increases. Sadly there is nothing in the alternatives proposed that might give comfort to this unsustainable situation.
Writing in this week’s Listener, Wellington economist Dr. Oliver Hartwich says that arguably the best local government system in the world is Switzerland’s. They have 2495 municipalities for 8 million people.
A similar ratio for the Wellington region would yield 155 councils. Perhaps were not over-governed after all.
