Contributor
Josh Van Veen brings more than a decade of public sector and political experience to his analysis of government, councils, and public policy. He is a former Deputy Chief of Staff to Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown and parliamentary researcher to NZ First leader Winston Peters, and was recently a Visiting Scholar in Political Science at Victoria University of Wellington. His work focuses on local government accountability, public sector performance, and the growing burden of rates and regulation on households and businesses.
Warnings from Fitch Ratings and S&P Global that a planned cap on local council rate increases could weaken their creditworthiness have exposed the degree to which New Zealand's local government system depends on endless rates hikes to sustain ballooning debt levels.
