Beyond Consultation

Ep 7 - What's the Future of Local Government? with Mike Reid

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Introducing Mike Reid

Mike began his career in local government in 1985 with a community advisor role in Christchurch City Council, not anticipating HOW interesting it would be.

Fast forward 35 years, and Mike is New Zealand's leading expert on everything local government.

Mike obviously has a big brain, and you can hear that in this episode. He's quoting studies and reports as if he read them all this morning in preparation for the interview. Mike’s most recent project has been leading the Localism Project with Local Government New Zealand.

You can connect with Mike on LinkedIn or contact him via email.

In today’s episode you’ll learn about:
  • The positive changes in council diversity over the last few decades (which may surprise you).
  • The importance of one little word - “by” - in the Local Government Act that sometimes gets forgotten.
  • What’s happening with the Localism Project which Mike has been leading. Localism is about locals having power and resources to do good things in their community. But in NZ we have the most centralised government finances of any country in the OECD! Mike explains why that's a problem and a pathway for making change.
  • Plus there’s a story about how rats are bringing a new element of competition to a community in Wellington!
    • Resources mentioned on the show
    • Localism NZ website
    • Article about sisters Pip and Melanie Maynard - highlighting the increase in diversified representation in local government.
    • Local Government Act 2002 (Rewrite of the 1974 Act)
    • 2020 Report - Survey of Local Government Candidates
    • 2018 Report - Saving local democracy: An agenda for the new government
    • UK Localism Act 2011
    • 2012 Report - No Stone Unturned: In pursuit of growth. An Independent report by Lord Heseltine with recommendations on how to increase UK economic growth.
    • Further reports and papers written by Mike
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