Key points

This indicator measures residents’ rating of agreement that decisions made by their local council are in the best interests of the city. Elected members have a responsibility to reflect their communities’ values. The perception of residents’ confidence in council decision-making is a measure of community representation and reflects how close local government is to its community of interest.

Baseline data for Waikato regional communities was collected through the 2007 Waikato Community Outcomes Survey commissioned by MARCO and Choosing Futures Waikato. Respondents were asked: ‘We are interested in understanding your views on the role of your local Council. For each of the following statements can you please tell if you agree or disagree using the scale where 0 = Strongly Disagree and 10 is Strongly Agree.’

• The Agreement Index results regarding respondents' confidence in council decision-making varied within the Waikato Region. Respondents from South Waikato District showed the third highest level of confidence in council decision-making across all three statements out of all the territorial authorities in the region. The Agreement Index for "have enough say in what your Council does" was 51.0 points, for "understand how Council makes decisions" was 57.4 points and for "confidence Council desicions are best for District" was 57.4 points for South Waikato District respondents.

Respondents' confidence in council decision-making – Waikato territorial authority areas and New Zealand average 2007

Source: 2007 Waikato Community Outcomes Survey (International Research Consultants Ltd/MARCO); Big Cities Quality of Life Survey 2006
Note: The Agreement Index for New Zealand was calculated as a weighted average index from a five-point scale. Results for New Zealand come from a different source than the other results and may be influenced by methodological differences. For these reasons, comparisons with the New Zealand figures should be interpreted cautiously.

What agencies are doing

Information currently being collated.

What you can do to help

Information currently being collated.

More information

More detail on this indicator, including how and where this information is collected, is available here.

What we want to achieve

The community outcome we are seeking to achieve by increasing residents’ confidence in council decision making is:

• We take a practical and coordinated approach to planning and providing services, which works effectively across boundaries and sectors and responds to our communities’ needs.