Consistent bounadaries if bill becomes law

Consistent bounadaries if bill becomes law

Ōtaki is the reason I’m doing this; it will be a win for our town.

Every MP gets to suggest one idea for a new policy or new law, and then these ideas get drawn out of an old biscuit tin (literally) to see which go forward.

Last Thursday my bill to support Ōtaki was drawn out and now has the chance to become law.

I’ve been frustrated for six years that towns like Ōtaki can slip through the cracks when it comes to support from government agencies. The problem is that every agency picks their own regional boundaries. They overlap, creating a web of confusion and inefficiency, and families in our town suffer.

One Ōtaki-based leukaemia patient told me he gets excellent care at Wellington Hospital, but because of the boundaries, if he needs an ambulance to hospital it will only take him to Palmerston North. 

Ōtaki and Te Horo schools are part of the Kāpiti education area, but when the principals’ group meet with agencies like Oranga Tamariki, they meet the wrong people – Ōtaki schools are supported out of Levin, not Paraparaumu.

Boundaries for courts, Corrections and police are inconsistent. Ōtaki police are supported from Levin, but in a civil defence emergency Ōtaki is part of Kāpiti.

But when the Kāpiti emergency group meet, the Kapiti police there don’t cover Ōtaki.

If you need social housing you would go to Porirua to see Kāinga Ora, but they would tell you to first go to MSD. The building next door? No. The office in Paraparaumu? No. You need to go to the Levin office first.

And of course different council and regional councils means there is effectively no public transport to get between Levin and Ōtaki.

None of this makes sense.

If every agency used the same boundaries, and they aligned with the council boundaries (as a general rule with the odd exception around New Zealand), then if you live in Ōtaki, you’d always be part of Kāpiti no matter what support you need, and all your support would come from the same place.

You could go to one hub and get the same support as everyone else. Staff there would consistently work with each other and not overlapping areas so they could give you better support, too.

That’s the problem my idea for a new law will solve. Every agency will have five years to move to the same boundaries.

I’m doing this entirely because of the families I’ve met and helped in Ōtaki, and I’m proud to be supporting our region first and foremost.