Government

=New Zealand Government-= New Zealand has a Parliament that is elected to deal with issues relevant to New Zealand and the people. The local government enables local democratic decision making. Local governments make decisions about local issues and services. There are: 12 regional councils, 16 city councils(with population more than 50,000) and 57 district councils. The city and district council are referred to as "territorial authorities" and there are 73 in total. 5 of the territorial authorities have powers of a regional council sometimes refered to as "unitary authorities". New Zealland has more than 1,000 elected councillors and mayors and around 800 community board memebers. The Minister of Local Government in New Zealand is Rodney Hide. (Above: Rodney Hide)