Membership

Membership of Local Government New Zealand is divided into Zones and Sectors. In this section you will find information about these groups, including contact details for Chairs and Administrators.

 

Zones

There are six Zones (see map) and they meet once every three months. The purposes of Zones are to:

 

  • be an electoral college for the appointment of National Council representatives
  • be working fora of Local Government New Zealand on a geographic basis
  • provide an opportunity for two-way communication between these geographic areas and Local Government New Zealand
  • provide networking and information-sharing opportunities.

The Zone representatives are elected every three years, after the triennial elections, and hold office until the next triennial elections.

Each Zone elects or appoints a chair, and in some cases an executive committee, both for a three year term; the chair runs the meetings with the support and input of the executive committee.

Responsibility for the Zone meetings is shared jointly by the Zone and Local Government New Zealand, and a formal protocol is in place which sets out how this works.

The dates for Zone meetings can be found in the Local Government New Zealand Events Calendar.

 

Sectors

There are four 'sector groups' in local government, each sector group having one representative on the National Council:

 

  • Metropolitan Group (populations exceeding 90,000)
  • Provincial Group (populations between 20,000 and 90,000)
  • Rural Group (populations below 20,000)
  • Regional Group (regional councils and unitary authorities)

Some exceptions exist through specific requests from councils.

Each Sector group has developed their own set of priority issues which are addressed, with assistance from Local Government New Zealand, with the objective of simultaneously pursuing the particular interests of each sector and the general interests of local government.

Sector groups also exist to act as an electoral college for the appointment of National Council representatives. Sector representatives are elected each triennium following the local elections.

All sectors hold an Annual General Meeting during the Local Government New Zealand Conference, and regularly meet as follows:

  • The Metro Sector meets four times per year, usually but not always in Auckland.
  • The Provincial Sector do not meet at set times during the year, they are usually, but not always, invited to the Rural Sector meetings.
  • The Rural Sector meets twice annually, usually but not always in Wellington.
  • The Regional group has formed the Regional Affairs Committee (RAC), including the Unitary councils, which meets four times a year, usually but not always in Wellington.

The dates for Sector meetings can be found in the Local Government New Zealand Events Calendar.


Key Issues Report

Local Government New Zealand completes a key issues report prior to each Zone round. This report is distributed to all zone secretaries for distribution and inclusion in the zone business papers.

 


Last updated: February 2010