Government driven local body and resource management act reforms will open the door to central government looting Port of Tauranga shareholdings, says regional councillor Doug Owens.

Regional councillor Doug Owens.

The port is 50 per cent owned by the community through Quayside Holdings Ltd, a regional council administered holding company.

'The divide and rule nature of the Government's Local Body Reform legislation is pitting one council against another, community against community and this is simply the wrong approach,” says Doug.

He's seeking community support to defend the current ownership of the Port against any raid by Treasury to tap the asset for politically inspired purposes, dressed up as reforms.

'Nationally, these strategic economic assets must be retained by the communities that built them,” says Doug.

He says the government is also undermining the regional council's environmental protections through changes to the Resource Management Act.

'The RMA needs to be amended and strengthened rather than gutted, as proposed by the Prime Minister,” says Doug.

'The proposed dumbing down of the Regional Council through changes to the RMA, forced amalgamation and corporatized unitary councils are a threat to the environment and the leadership of our communities.

'This clumsy and expensive process of forced amalgamation will not unite the BOP, which will be an opportunity lost.”

The recent announcement by Maersk and Fontera to establish The Port of Tauranga as the New Zealand hub port consolidates the clear vision of the port's owners and sound local management that has delivered continued growth for it over the last 50 years, says Doug.

But the proposed central government reforms of local bodies and the RMA represent storms clouds on the horizon.

'I am joining with other regional and local councillors and concerned residents of the Bay of Plenty and New Zealand, to pro-pose incremental positive reforms”.

'We should strengthen our local democracies while removing duplication and the wasting of resources by adopting a co-operative approach to common services, such as IT and the use of public capital,” says Doug.

'We must offer alternative approaches that, over time, will build up and strengthen all of our communities”.