Wellington Water workers carry out repairs at the corner of Johnson Street and Customhouse Quay in September. Photo: RNZ / Krystal Gibbens
New Zealand is being warned it is heading toward a tragedy if more is not invested in council infrastructure, and that people need to get used to double-digit rates increases.
Local Government New Zealand and the lead group of infrastructure management professionals, now known as Āpōpō, today outlined their concerns, warning of looming infrastructure costs of hundreds of billions of dollars.
Āpōpō president Gary Porteous said the country was staring down the barrel of a tragedy if it did not come up with a long-term plan to invest in its infrastructure assets.
"Wellington is a good example with the pipe network. There has been a lot of issues with the pipe network in the last two years. That is becoming quite a challenge. The potholes, it is not just the potholes, it is the state of the roads and the general condition that have become a real challenge. And there are a lot of road works out there this summer addressing those issues."
A burst pipe in Aro Valley in Wellington. File photo. Photo: RNZ / Dom Thomas
Local Government New Zealand president Sam Broughton said the costs the country was facing were huge.
"Over $100 billion was identified just for water; those aren't my numbers, those are the government's numbers. Once we start to add transport into that, and we start to think about ports and airport strategies long term that the country needs, there is going to be hundreds of billions of dollars required that need to be paid for, and yes there will need to be a large contribution made by New Zealanders."
Broughton said the councils which were looking at double-digit rates increases, including Hamilton, Hutt City and Christchurch, were just facing reality.
"The councils who are talking about large rates increases, that's a mature approach to the problem that we've got. And continuing to not spend on infrastructure that is failing is only passing the problem on to our children. We need to have this discussion now, and I'm proud that many councils around the country are front-footing that discussion with their communities."
Broughton said Local Government NZ wanted to speak to the government about ways to open up new money sources.
"There might need to be ways around local tax revenue: petrol taxes, congestion charging or tourism levies. Some of those things need to be discussed too. As do government contributions towards rates themselves, government doesn't pay rates on a lot of their land and assets within districts. So those things we will be talking to government about."
He would also like the government to introduce a four-year term for councils, which he said would make a dramatic difference in productivity.
"It means we don't just jump from elected members who say we're going to fix this and then they put out how much it is going to cost, and then the community say - no we don't want you any more, and they re-elect someone else and six years later we have a bigger problem than we did to begin with."
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown said he was not currently considering a change to the council term.
His focus was on ensuring councils could access long-term funding and financing to deliver infrastructure, he said.
Brown said he wanted to ensure councils focused on their core business, and the efficient delivery of local services and infrastructure.
