Good old #8 wire: Innovation and local government – Kiwi style

The terms ‘public management’ and ‘innovation’ are deemed to go hand in hand with New Zealand. The reforming Labour Government of 1984 is widely viewed to have been at the forefront of public service reform – and... [ view full abstract ]

The terms ‘public management’ and ‘innovation’ are deemed to go hand in hand with New Zealand. The reforming Labour Government of 1984 is widely viewed to have been at the forefront of public service reform – and indeed New Zealand is often referred to as the global public management laboratory. However, whilst this may have been true with respect to national government institutions, scant attention has been paid to the institutions of local government in NZ.
Here, the parallels between local government in both England in the 1980’s and New Zealand in the period post 2008 are uncanny. Both countries are unitary states – where Parliamentary sovereignty is supreme. Local government exists as a result of legislation passed by the respective national Parliaments. Hence, what Parliament gives in terms of power/responsibility, it can also remove. Despite this apparent picture of absolute Parliamentary power – in respect to the scope, scale and actions of local government – this is only partly reflected in the realities of life in local government. Whereas the UK in the 1980 witnessed the rise of the ‘new urban left’, and to a lesser extent the ‘new urban right’ – groups of local councils who sought to circumvent national Parliamentary legislation, in post 2008 NZ, local authorities have sought to innovate and implement policies often frowned upon by national government.
Nowhere is this innovative stream better exemplified than in Auckland – NZs biggest local authority and home to 1.4m people Kiwis – 1/3 of the national population. Auckland Council was created in 2010 from the amalgamation of 8 previous local authorities – and has had an intriguing and interesting life to date. It’s official origins lie in the creation of a Royal Commission in 2007 by a Labour Government which reported in 2009, by which time there had been a change of Government to a National (Conservative) one with a very different view of both local government and the public sector in general.
The resulting enabling legislation (which bore only a passing resemblance to the Royal Commission’s recommendations) created the new organisation which came into effect on November 2010. However, the good people of Auckland had the temerity to elect a centre-left mayor – and the fun began. What we have witnessed over the last 5 years is a complex game of political ‘cat and mouse’. Given the hostility of central government to an Auckland Council led by a centre-left mayor, the council has embarked upon a policy agenda which at every turn has been vehemently opposed by central government. This has led to a number of striking outcomes which will be explored in the paper:
• It has demonstrated the creativity/ingenuity of local government
• Has exposed the lack of understanding/appreciation in central government of the skills available to local government
• Provided NZ with 2 major policy U-turns by central government in relation to Auckland
• Lifted the game in terms of public policy/management in NZ because of the bar Auckland has to clear.