Specific requirements for people elected to “local authorities”

If you’re an elected member of a city, district, or regional council, a community board, a community trust, and quite a few other organisations, then there are special rules for you under the Local Authorities (Members’ Interests) Act 1968.

We strongly recommend our guide on the Local Authorities (Members’ Interests) Act 1968. 

To apply for an approval or exemption: Application under section 3 of the Local Authorities (Members' Interests) Act 1968

 Before standing for election: Contracting: Information for candidates considering standing for elections

What is a “local authority”?

In the Local Authorities (Members’ Interest) Act 1968 (the Act), the definition of a local authority includes:

  • administering bodies under the Reserves Act 1977;
  • cemetery trustees;
  • community arts councils;
  • community boards;
  • community trusts under the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012;
  • licensing trusts under the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012;
  • local boards;
  • provincial patriotic councils; and
  • regional councils, city councils, and district councils.

For example, the Act covers anyone voted on to Auckland Museum Trust Board, Canterbury Museum Trust Board, Chatham Islands Council, Masterton Trust Lands Trust, Museum of Transport and Technology Board, New Zealand Council for Educational Research, New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute, and Ngarimu V.C. and 28th (Māori) Battalion Memorial Scholarship Fund Board.

It also covers anyone voted on to the Otago Museum Trust Board, Pacific Islands Polynesian Education Foundation Board of Trustees, Plumbers, Gasfitters, and Drainlayers Board, Queen Elizabeth the Second National Trust Board of Directors, Riccarton Bush Trustees, Taratahi Agricultural Training Centre (Wairarapa) Trust Board, and the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Board.

What the Act does

The Act helps protect the integrity of local authority decision-making by ensuring that people are not affected by personal motives when they participate in local authority decision-making and cannot use their position to obtain preferential access to contracts.

Under the Act, you cannot:

  • enter into contracts with your local authority worth more than $25,000 in a financial year; or
  • discuss or vote on matters before your authority in which you have a direct or indirect pecuniary interest, other than an interest in common with the public.

The role of the Auditor-General under the Act

We have the power to grant approvals and exemptions for the list above. 

To apply for an approval or exemption: Application under section 3 of the Local Authorities (Members' Interests) Act 1968

The Act is a small subset of the law about conflicts of interest generally and applies to local authority members when they are making decisions. We have a specific role only in relation to financial conflicts of interest that are regulated by the Act.

We have no formal decision-making role in relation to non-financial conflicts of interest. Only the courts can determine whether the law has been breached in any particular instance and what the consequence should be. However, we can inquire into matters of probity involving a member of an authority, which could include examining whether a member failed to declare a conflict of interest.