PM GIVES DIRECTIVE

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has given local councils a directive to “do exactly what we’re doing here in central government, which is to control their spending to deliver on the basics brilliantly to focus on the must-do, not the nice-to-do”.

Local Government Minister Simeon Brown added to that message by saying councils should be doing a “line by line look through their expenditure to keep costs under control”.

Councils should be doing exactly that, but we know they aren’t. Instead of cutting costs, the WDC has increased spending on “nice-to-do” things like  $565,000 to host a Warriors game!  (See LETTERBOX, issue 18.)