Explanatory note
This note is not part of the regulations, but is intended to indicate their general effect.
These regulations are the Local Government (Auckland Transitional Provisions) Rating Regulations 2011. The regulations come into force on the 28th day after the date of their notification in the Gazette and are revoked on the close of 30 June 2012.
The regulations modify, during the period that the regulations are in force, 2 provisions of the Local Government (Auckland Transitional Provisions) Act 2010 (the principal Act) to overcome problems relating to the setting and assessing of rates by the Auckland Council for the 2011/2012 financial year.
Regulation 5 modifies section 33 of the principal Act. This section requires the Auckland Council to set a transition rate for each rating unit within Auckland for the 2011/2012 financial year based on rates set by the local authorities that were previously responsible for local government in the Auckland region. The modifications to this section are twofold. The first is to authorise the Auckland Council to set the rate on a slightly different basis. This is in order to account for—
possible anomalies in the determination of the rate arising from the changes in the rate of goods and services tax on 1 October 2010; and
the unintended consequence of excluding from the determination of the rate the regional council rates on properties within Auckland that were previously subject to rates set by the Waikato Regional Council.
The second is to modify the definition of the terms unchanged rating unit and changed rating unit. Currently, these terms are defined with reference to the definition of unchanged rating unit in section 40 of the principal Act. However, that definition relies on a further definition that is meaningless in the context of section 33. Accordingly, regulation 5(5) inserts self-contained definitions into section 33 that retain the essence of the section 40 definition.
Regulation 6 modifies section 34 of the principal Act. This section requires the Auckland Council to set and assess a wastewater rate for each rating unit within Auckland for the 2011/2012 financial year (excluding rating units that pay for wastewater services by direct charging or receive those services from some body other than Watercare Services Limited).
The modifications to this section are also twofold. The first is to, again, authorise the Auckland Council to set the rate on a slightly different basis in order to account for possible anomalies in the determination of the rate arising from the changes in the rate of goods and services tax on 1 October 2010.
The second modification is to clarify the drafting in current subsection (2) by setting out in full how the uniform percentage variation is assessed, rather than cross-referring to the process under section 33 of the principal Act. For this purpose, self-contained definitions of the terms unchanged rating unit and changed rating unit are also inserted into this section.