Have your say on local government reforms!

The Ardern Government is proposing reforms to councils that will see co-governance forced upon communities across New Zealand.

Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta's hand-picked panel could only report back with the 'right' recommendations to the Review into the Future for Local Government as they had to follow her set terms of reference.

There is little surprise the draft recommendations just happened to sound like a list of the Ardern Government's propaganda. These are radical changes. If implemented they would pass control of local authorities to Māori, and councils would become the right arm of central government.

The panel's chairman Jim Palmer stated, after describing their draft report as proposed recommendations before a final report is prepared and presented to Minister Mahuta in June, that the panel would love all the proposed recommendations to be supported and that "... the Minister has actually made it very clear to use that she would love future governments of whichever colour they are to take the recommendations of this report forward..."

This means Nanaia Mahuta already knows the so-called proposed recommendations and they align exactly with her wishes and goals.

Is it not corruption for a government to claim a panel is independent when in fact it has been designed and shepherded simply to do that government's bidding?

Realistically submissions to the panel are not going to make any difference. The great majority of the 88,000 received submissions regarding Three Waters were strongly against it. Mahuta, however, dismissed this fact and bulldozed on. She even doubled down making 3 Waters 5 Waters by adding geo-thermal and coastal waters, which she omitted in the consultation process.

The outrageous attempt in sneaking in an entrenchment clause could thankfully be stopped after courageous laywers spoke up and a massive public pushback followed.

Nanaia Mahuta has set a course on co-governance and the Future for Local Government Report is a giant step forward in achieving He Puapua.

Is it still worth making a submission? Yes, as your silence will be taken as agreement. It is important to continue to speak up; submissions close on February 28.

Ardern's lot will not stop here. The solution is a political one. This can only be stopped by removing the Labour Party from government.

That opportunity presents itself this year. Don't be blinded by colour or fooled by pretended kindness, fancy slogans and fairytale promises. Be true to your own values and principals, vote accordingly.

As the mainstream media generally does a very poor job covering matters impacting on our democracy in any depth, please share this information with friends and family.

I wish for us all that 2023 is the year we saved New Zealand.

Katie Allan is member of the Oreti Community Board - Southland District Council - and lives and works in rural Southland.