The Green Party is accusing the Government of weakening local democracy after Parliament passed sweeping changes to the rules governing councils, including restrictions on the voting rights of unelected members serving on council committees.
Green Party Local Government spokesperson Mike Davidson says the Local Government (System Improvements) Amendment Bill represents another transfer of decision-making power away from local communities and towards central government.
The legislation passed its third reading on September 15 after progressing through its final stages in Parliament. The Government says its purpose is to refocus councils on core services, reduce pressure on rates, strengthen accountability and transparency, and improve council performance.
But the Greens argue the changes go much further and will restrict the ability of councils to decide how they respond to the social, cultural, environmental and economic needs of their own communities.
GOVERNMENT REFOCUSES WHAT COUNCILS ARE FOR
One of the most significant changes is the Government’s move to refocus the statutory purpose of local government.
The four wellbeings — social, economic, environmental and cultural — were restored to the Local Government Act in 2019, explicitly giving councils a role in promoting those outcomes within their communities.
The new legislation is part of the Government’s broader attempt to place greater emphasis on core council services, financial discipline, infrastructure and measurable performance.
Davidson argues that approach risks treating councils as little more than infrastructure and service-delivery organisations when their responsibilities extend across some of the biggest issues facing communities.
Those include housing, community development, environmental protection, climate resilience, transport, public spaces and relationships with mana whenua.
WHO GETS TO VOTE?
Another major flashpoint is the role of unelected members appointed to council committees.
Councils around Aotearoa appoint people with specialist knowledge, community experience or mana whenua representation to committees where elected councillors may not hold the same expertise.
The Government has now clarified that non-elected members generally will not have voting rights, although specified exceptions can apply. Local Government Minister Simon Watts says the change strengthens local democracy and accountability by ensuring voting power primarily rests with people elected by the public.
The Greens see the issue differently.
Davidson says removing those voting rights risks turning community expertise into advice that councillors are free to hear but not necessarily share decision-making power with.
That debate has particular significance for Māori.
Mana whenua representatives can bring generations of knowledge about whenua, wai, whakapapa, environmental management and the communities affected by council decisions.
If those representatives can attend meetings, contribute to debate and provide advice but cannot vote, the argument shifts from whether Māori are represented to whether that representation carries meaningful decision-making authority.
MINISTERIAL POWER QUESTIONED
The Greens are also challenging provisions allowing exceptions to the restrictions on voting rights, arguing the Minister will hold too much influence over when different arrangements are permitted.
Davidson says that creates questions about transparency and the potential for political considerations to influence arrangements that have traditionally been determined locally.
The Government’s position is that the reforms strengthen democratic accountability by putting elected representatives back at the centre of council decision-making.
That creates a fundamental political divide over what local democracy actually means.
For the Government, democratic legitimacy primarily flows from the ballot box.
For its critics, councils should also be able to design governance arrangements reflecting the communities they represent, including bringing expertise and mana whenua participation directly into decision-making.
LOCALISM UNDER THE MICROSCOPE
The Greens say there is also a contradiction between the reforms and the coalition’s broader language around localism.
Davidson argues central government cannot campaign on giving communities greater control while simultaneously restricting how elected councils organise their committees and determine who participates in decisions.
The Government counters that ratepayers need clearer accountability for decisions involving public money and that elected councillors should ultimately be responsible for those decisions.
That tension is unlikely to disappear with the passage of the legislation.
Councils are already confronting enormous pressures around infrastructure, housing growth, water, transport, rates and climate resilience. The Office of the Auditor-General has previously identified the Government’s local government reforms, including changes to councils’ purpose and financial management, as having significant implications for councils’ roles and responsibilities.
A BIGGER QUESTION FOR MĀORI
For Māori, the argument goes beyond the mechanics of council committees.
It sits inside a much wider debate over what meaningful participation looks like when decisions are being made about whenua, wai, infrastructure, housing and environmental protection.
There is a considerable difference between being consulted, being invited into the room and actually having authority within the decision-making process.
The Government says its reforms strengthen democratic accountability.
The Greens say they concentrate power and diminish the ability of communities to determine how their own councils operate.
Davidson, a former Christchurch city councillor who now holds the Greens’ Local Government portfolio, says his party would instead work with councils and strengthen their ability to deliver community wellbeing.
With local government already emerging as a significant Election 2026 battleground, the argument is becoming much bigger than the wording of one piece of legislation.
It is increasingly about a basic question of democracy: how much freedom should locally elected councils have to decide what their communities need — and when should Wellington have the final say?
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