How does local government work?
Jul 31, 2025
How does local government work?
After “who should I vote for, I’ve never heard of any of these people??” one of the questions I’m asked most often is “how does local government even work”? So this is a (very!) quick explainer on the difference between local and central government. There are lots of sites you can read, and videos you can watch on this too. I’ll list some at the end of this message.
In Aotearoa, we have two tiers of government. When I talk about local government below, I’m going to stick with Auckland predominantly, as that’s where I am.
Local Government (Auckland) | Central Government |
Looks after interests and needs specific to our city | Makes decisions affecting New Zealand as a whole |
Rates | Taxes |
Politically aligned – less obvious logos | Politically aligned – big obvious logos |
You vote for 1 mayor for the whole city. 1-2 councillors for your ward, and then 3-8 board members for your local board area (usually a group of about 10-12 suburbs make up a local board area) | You vote for 1 MP who represents your electorate, (sometimes made up of a group of suburbs, sometimes as a whole town) and one party whose policies you like. |
While central government and local government have two separate jobs to do, they can work together to get things done. Sometimes LG is dependent on CG. | |
Elected to represent your ward’s interests in a citywide bun fight for resources | Elected to represent your electorate’s interests in a national bun fight for resources |
Sometimes an electorate and a ward is almost the same area. Sometimes there are 2 local board in a ward. Sometimes a ward and a local board area are the same. | |
Provides local services like water, rubbish collection, parks, animal management, roads, public transport and libraries. | Runs the big things like, welfare, schools, health, energy, housing, national road and rail systems, defence, foreign policy. |
Hyper local. It’s easy to know your local board and or councillor personally. They might represent a party, but for the most part, are representing your local needs. | More general. You might not meet your MP. They are representing your electorate interests, but also the interests of the party and the nation. |
Makes bylaws (special laws for certain areas) and rules that only apply to the city | Makes laws for all of New Zealand |
Makes decisions about building consents and if they adhere to the law or not. | Makes the Building Act (the law) that informs the rules for building consents |
Everyone over 18 can have a say – you don’t need to own a house or pay rates or have a job. You do need an address. | |
A word on the politics of local govt.
When someone says they want to keep the politics out, they are almost never independent.
What is often being suggested is that they want to keep those politics out and get their politics in. This is because pretty much every choice we make (even if we don’t chose!), is political in nature. If you’re a human, politics refers to the decisions made by others that will negatively or positively impact your entire life. If you’re not human, you’re any living being, it’s about how humans will drastically impact your life. The process is called ‘civics’ and ‘democracy’.
The less you know about it the more it benefits a small group of people.
What do politics have to do with me? explains it better than I ever could in just under a minute.
The point of spelling this out, is to remind you that the job of your elected representative is to represent YOUR interests.
At a table filled with other people representing the interests of the people who elected them.
There is meant to be negotiation to get a fair outcome that represents most people.
This is how democracy works.
In general, most people are either left or right leaning, and like sex at birth, it’s about 50/50 aside.
Source: Information is Beautiful
In Auckland, Labour tends to openly run candidates, and the greens are starting to. The left often use groups called ‘tickets’ made up of the logo parties and like-minded people and work together for generally liberal things. These tickets are clearly branded. The National party rarely (never?) put people up as clearly branded Nats, and the right (including Act NZ first etc) usually maintain that they ‘don’t do local politics’. They run predominantly as independents, but also use tickets to group together right leaning and generally conservative ideals.
The colouring on the billboards (hoardings) can help (hues of red, green, blue or teal) to identify where someone leans, but not always. The blurbs and information on collateral are usually under a code, much like jobs and real estate listings. You are best to look for specific R/L indicators, like rates - keeping them down or using them wisely? Whether climate change is acknowledged openly, or not. Try to investigate things that are of particular interest to you.
A word on less obvious logos.
When ‘the booklet’ is all you have to go on (it isn’t, but it’s conveniently delivered to your door), and everyone says the same thing, how can you differentiate? This is something I had trouble with too. With local politicians and in my work as an elected member, I’ve observed some things regularly:
On every local board, there is usually one person who doesn’t actually do the job. They just take the money and no one is really the wiser. This is irrespective of what political alignment they have.
On every local board, there is usually 1 or 2 people who go over the top to serve with excellence and do way more than their suggested time. This is irrespective of what political alignment they have. They get paid no more or less than anyone else.
There are usually some political stooges in the mix. People who are only there because of a political alignment and to ‘fill a hole’ to progress the ideals of a party. There is no indicator of this, they can be any party, any age, any gender and any ethnicity.
There are usually some community issue representatives that have no understanding of politics specifically. They have one thing that is a bug bear, it is usually big and representative. This can be a great force for good, it can be limiting.
Overall, it’s not well paid. The harder an elected member works, the less they get paid.
A board is made up of these people, who need to work together when presented with the same information from council workers, to make the best decisions for the people of their area. Our Auckland Council elected members are made up of about the same mix, but is a board for all of Auckland.
Mostly you want to identify the ones that are in it for themselves or don’t go to work. And/or the ones who seem to resonate with what you think is important. Because once they are in, they are in for 3 years.
You can find out more here
The difference between local and central government | Vote Auckland
Watch a video on why we have a council https://youtu.be/ULQXChfYXDI
Watch a video on what the council does https://youtu.be/iuMj6_93NCA