Carterton has chosen former mayor and former Defence Minister Ron Mark to lead the Wairarapa community. He told Q+A yesterday that provincial New Zealand was pushing back against government policies such as Three Waters that remove decisions from local hands.
"I see an ideological drive to centralise and put everything under the control of the government, and small districts like Carterton will no have ability to talk to at all," Mark said.
"This collectivism and I dare to say it's a very socialist view of life, is not shared over here quite frankly."
He rejects the "hype" around Three Waters arguing that for 150 years, New Zealand councils have managed water with only one major incident.
Mark referred to the 2016 contaminated water incident in Havelock North that was connected to the death of four people, hospitalised 45 and poisoned at least 5000 residents.
The former NZ First MP says reforming how local governments are financed would allow councils to do the work.
"Yes we've got some infrastructural problems going forward but if the government would change the Act and allow us to manage finances differently and gather revenue differently - an argument that local government has been putting forward for 20 years at least - then we might be able to change an outdated model and do it better."
He says Carterton used to process consents in four days, and moving to a centralised model would slow things down.
"I think the more the government attacks us and strips away our powers and overloads us with extra regulatory responsible, it just swamps small councils like this."
He promised central government "could expect some strong pushback from provincial New Zealand".
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