Efficiency Drive Reports 'About 44' Councils On Board, Fewer Than 20 Not

Local Government Minister Simon Watts says council amalgamation will deliver a more efficient system. The evidence offered was the count so far. About 44 councils have submitted Head Start proposals, and fewer than 20 have not. New Zealand has a fixed and knowable number of councils, all of them named, all of them reachable by phone. The case for tighter structures was made using the words “about” and “fewer than” in a single breath.

The figures are not wrong. Forty-four and something under twenty describe a sector mostly playing along, which is presumably the point being made. But a reform sold on sharper accounting arrived counted in approximations. It is a small thing. It is also precisely the thing the reform says it is fixing, which makes it slightly harder to ignore than most small things.

Whether amalgamation produces efficiency will be settled by rates bills, not by proposal counts. A council that has submitted a Head Start proposal has submitted a proposal. That is the entire fact currently in evidence. The savings are scheduled to arrive later, and will presumably be reported to the nearest forty-four.