Explainer - Radical overhaul is needed - that is the conclusion reached by a panel which spent two years reviewing the state of local government. RNZ has all you need to know.

This is a summary of the Future for Local Government report - He piki tūranga, he piki kōtuku.

Recommendations that stood out to me were reducing the voting age for local elections to 16, implementing ranked voting (STV), and increasing the term limits to four years.

Also, not mentioned in RNZ’s summary is the recommendation that the number of local councils is reduced from 80 to about 15.

  • @RaoulDukeOPMEnglish
    2•1 year ago

    Yeah, that’s the counter-argument. I’m sure there would be complaints but inclined to think the public would be OK with it. As you said, it already happens with some local elections and we did it for the flag referendum, so people have some experience with it. And I think MMP is much more complex to understand, but we managed. If they do end up making all local elections STV, that won’t really be an issue at the national level anyway.

    • @DaveMAEnglish
      2•1 year ago

      MMP might be more complex, but you don’t really have to understand it to vote for what you want. I’d argue the same for STV. I think you’re right, having STV at a local level everywhere is a good introduction for people.