What is meant by Social Licence to Operate?
In regard to the WRC, social licence to operate means having the trust of the voters or ratepayers to govern on their behalf.
Currently in New Zealand we have democratic systems of local government which provide the councils with their “Social Licence to Operate” by way of elections where all ratepayers have the right to vote for candidates of their choice.
Elections and Candidates
Elections are held on a three yearly cycle and all ratepayers in the Region or District are entitled to vote for candidates of their choice.
Candidates can be selected by political parties, special interest groups or be independents. They promote their candidacy by advertising what they want to be able to provide for the ratepayers by way of what is commonly known as an election manifesto or campaign promises.
These promises are what drive most people’s decisions on which candidates they will vote for, that is who receive the voters social licence to operate.
Election outcomes
Elections are decided in most cases by way of majority vote, that is the candidates receiving the most votes win the available seats on the council boards.
Candidates in most cases are elected on the basis of their campaign promises to the voters or ratepayers. In other words what they have promised to do for the voters after they are elected.
Core Functions
The core functions of councils on behalf of the ratepayers are to set public policy goals, provide services and manage the infrastructure necessary to achieve these goals.
In carrying out these functions the councils should be focussed on being politically neutral, objective, non-partisan and managing council operating practices so as to ensure they retain the trust of the ratepayers.
In other words retain their “social licence to operate.”
Current Situation
Unfortunately the WRC have just yesterday voted against one of the pre-election promises their main body of candidates made before the recent election.
The Rates Control Team promised as part of their election manifesto that they would resign from membership of Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) and the council as a whole has gone back on that promise and voted to retain their membership of LGNZ.
The latest press release from the Taxpayers’ Union stated the following:
At today’s vote, the following councillors reversed their position and voted to continue to funnel six figure sums annually into the left-wing sock puppet lobby group LGNZ:
- Chair Warren Maher
- Gary McGuire
- Ben Dunbar-Smith
- Robert Cookson
- Mich’eal Downard
Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director Jordan Williams said:
“These councillors didn’t just change their minds, they broke a clear promise they made to voters at the ballot box. The self labeled ‘rates control team’ ran on what they called a ‘pledge’ to stop ratepayer funding going to the sock-puppet lobby group, Local Government New Zealand.”
“They campaigned, took endorsements, and won votes on a commitment to quit LGNZ. Just months later, they’ve completely backtracked.”
Where to from here?
Given that it is very early in their term of office it sends a concerning message out to the voters or ratepayers of the Waikato Region that the current Council is quite prepared to ignore their pre-election promises, a great way to lose their “Social Licence to Operate.”
In my opinion this is just the first step onto a slippery downhill slope and it will not take many more steps onto that same slippery slope to turn it into a very fast slide into disaster.
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The current Co-chairman of P.L.U.G (Primary Land Users Group), Andy Loader was elected to the board as the extractive industry’s representative in 2013 after a long and distinguished career in the industry. Responsible for the board’s communications, he has long been an advocate for the farming and primary industry challenging the powers at be to provide accurate and transparent representation of the industry and the issues it faces.