can mr smith tell me where all the money for upgrading water supplies has gone to? A generous pot of money was set up to help small communities pay for the mandatory upgrading of their supplies, as a result of the revised drinking water standards, as it was realised at the time that these upgrades would be unaffordable to most small communities. many of these small communties will face a targeted water rates rise of several hundred % to pay off the huge loans required to upgrade their water supplies. either that ot the council will be forced to non-comply. This pot of money has been cut, suspended and made more dificult to get out by the national government over the past few years. Everybody drinking from small rural water supplies should thank Mr Smith for the fact that they will either now have no upgrade or have a massive (and i mean massive and 'unsustainable') increase in water rates to comply. It's HIS government that has made one of the key issues facing all councils at the moment a rates rise issue.

Its all very well 'taking aim' Nick but do something about it.TDC are spending millions on their Ivory Tower at the very moment. Who pays for that?

As Nick and his mates are incapable of managing the economy I guess he's scuttled home to see if he can do some more damage. Yes, rates are unsustainable but they're managed the same way as central government - jobs for the boys, noses in the trough, projects going where the power is and the necessary things being ignored. As for ACC - it's a great scheme, a shame the true figures weren't properly released and this government misrepresented them by using projections rather than actual figures but that's what we've come to expect from these people.

"everyone in local government, from mayors and chief executives downwards, must focus on getting better value for ratepayers" This is Nick speak for drive the price of everything down, which means the wages paid to everyone becomes less. "If they do these jobs well, they can be a turbocharger for New Zealand Incorporated" Everyuthing Nick speaks of comes down to not only the dollar but higher profits from his private enterprise mates. "While the $8b of debt might seem low compared to $100b in council assets, "very little of these assets are income-generating, and fewer still could be cashed up" So it is okay to judge the performance of Local and central Government employees against those of the private enterprise when it comes to cutting staff numbers, but when the performance of the Public area is superior to the provate, it is reasoned away. If it was up to Nick, educating you children, or usinfg the Public Health System will come with a cost to generate a profit, because all he ever raves is private is superior to public. Why then did Donkey set up another government department to oversee the Christchurch rebuild? Councils advertise what they are planning to spend and on what. People comment. The likes of Dan M whinge when they find they are in the minority and what they oppose are actually granted. So much negativity and Nick is the King of that. Typical nelson mail bulsh.

I utterly disagree - ACC is a crock. I have health insurance, travel insurance and am forced to pay money into a rort of an insurance scheme called ACC that I will never get any benefit from.

While ACC does have some uses, it is a blight on many of us who are forced to subsidise it.

Mr Smith need look no further than Hamilton, Christchurch ,Dunedin and Kapiti to see how some dysfunctional local body authorities are and how they operate behind closed doors and make extravagent financial decisions which are funded out of the pockets of ratepayers.

I doubt anything that Nick Smith will do will make the price of rates come down. Rort, Rort, Rort ... Rates are just another tax in disguise. And isn't most of the rates increases due to costs that central government (thats you nick) have passed onto local government?

I suppose that means closing more libaries, pools and parks then Nick?

What a crock..ACC was and is in good financial straits , Smith and his " privatise everything" mates have totally mis represented the state of it so they could 'sell' the privatisation of ACC to Kiwis. Once Insurance companies have their grubby fingers on OUR ACC we can kiss goodbye to what is regarded the world over as the brilliant ' no fault' system that is ACC

Why is the city allowed to compete with its ratepayers? If it provided the essential services and contacted the rest out to its ratepayers, it would save millions. No depreciation, layers of management, directorships to name a few, all work would be contacted on a competitive basis. Where will the resistance come from? Clearly all those with a vested interest in the status quo. Unaccountable bureaucrats, councillors having directorships for which few have the knowledge, skills or talent. Paying people for responsibility rather than performance encourages empire building. All heads of departments should be employed by the council on renewable, reviewable, performance based contract. Incidentally, it is nowhere near as difficult as they would have you believe.