United Future MP Peter Dunne has called upon Wellington to become a ‘super city’, a recommendation similar to the one put forward to Auckland by the Royal Commission.
“If there are reasons for Auckland to do this, then the reasons behind a Wellington ‘super city’ are even more compelling,” Mr. Dunne said.
Dunne suggested that Wellington’s population of 472,000 was reason enough to amalgamate the capital’s nine local councils into one city council.
“It’s local government overkill,” Dunne explained.
The Wellington Regional Chamber of Commerce agreed that the time had come for a more centralised capital.
“We think there is merit in the core recommendation of establishing a unitary authority under the control of a directly elected mayor” said Chamber of Commerce CEO Charles Finny.
“We also think this is a model that should be applied to other parts of the country, including Wellington. We see particular merit in applying the amalgamation model or some variation of it to Wellington.”
Wellington City Deputy Mayor and Victoria University Pro-Vice Chancellor Ian McKinnon says the Wellington City Council (WCC) is currently preparing an assessment of the city and region’s make up in anticipation of a review of local councils by the National-led government.
“The review being undertaken by Wellington City would then simply be asking,‘What would be the best governance structure for this region?’—from the statusquo to complete amalgamation or somewhere in between,” McKinnon said.
“The important thing is to have [our] thoughts reasonably in order to be able to submit immediately to a ‘Wellington Commission’, should the Government set one up, rather than being caught out.”
No formal timeline had been given for the WCC’s assessment.