Mayor angry over redundancies

Southland District Mayor Frana Cardno is shocked and dismayed at the impending and possibly ongoing redundancies being announced in Government departments in the south.

The Department of Conservation last week announced 18 people would be made redundant from its Southland conservancy in the first part of a two-part restructuring. More than 60 people are also losing their jobs at the Invercargill Inland Revenue department.

"DOC is a key partner for us in Southland as they are the biggest manager in the District - about 50% of Southland District and including 83% of Stewart Island. We work closely with the staff on many projects and groups, including the Milford Community Trust and Southern Rural Fire Authority," Mrs Cardno said.

"Our relationship is generally very positive, constructive and collaborative and if that relationship is diminished by staffing being cut, it could lead to an increasing burden on Council and our communities," she said.

The move to centralise government agencies in bigger cities is not right and it hits Southland's economy, population and social structure hard. Modern infrastructure enables any function to be performed efficiently and effectively in a decentralised manner.

"Local experience and knowledge on environmental issues is so important and those partnerships take time and effort. It is so much more challenging to do that from a distance."

Fiordland National Park alone brings in more than $280 million to the national economy each year and it is essential the park is managed professionally by DOC staff living in the region.

Mrs Cardno backed Wanganui Mayor Annette Main's call for some commitment from Government to support regional New Zealand.

"By allowing these redundancies, the Government is pushing people away from the provinces into the cities, which is wrong," she said.