The decision to put the Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill (No 2) on hold in September 2016 demonstrates clearly the strength that local government has as a unified political voice within New Zealand's democracy. In a smilar way to what occured uin 1989 the Bill promoted the Local Government Commission as the protagonist for...

Dynamic is perhaps the most understated and least understood of all the terms used to describe New Zealand. Straddling an active plate boundary and surrounded by ocean, New Zealand has a spectacular and dynamic landscape formed by geological and meteorological events, but the management of the risk to people, property and infrastructure from natural hazard...

This article considers public consultation in the context of New Zealand local government. Although by international standards New Zealand possesses a rich culture of citizen engagement and public consultation (OECD, 2015), the quality of consultation presents itself as a problem to local government, as their efforts have often been perceived as unsatisfactory (Asquith, 2012; Barrett...

Editorial note: Local government in New Zealand exists within a fairly well-defined narrative. New Zealand is the most centralised nation within the OECD. Central government is by far the dominant partner in the central-local relationship and recent innovations in local government have tended towards further centralisation, such as the amalgamation into Auckland’s Super-City. While there...

The local government system in Western Australia has two unique characteristics. It is the only state in Australia where there has not been significant reform of the sector. In addition, it is the only state where legislation contains binding provisions for a poll of electors on local government amalgamations. It would be reasonable to conclude...