The Einstein test is now upon us . . .

Sometimes when I go to write these columns, I try to find a stunning quote from someone intelligent to grab your attention at the start. So who better that Albert Einstein – clever bloke with a rubbish hairdresser (easy for me to say).

Einstein said ‘‘The measure of intelligence is the ability to change’’.

Which beggars the question, why do so many people resist change so strongly?

I mean, I get it, there has been a hell of a lot of change going on in the last couple of years, so I understand why people are fatigued by it all, but that doesn’t mean that the change is going to stop.

Warning; I’m going to start talking local government stuff now, but please hang in there because the changes I am going to talk about are going to affect you.

Still there? Thank you. OK, let’s start with Three Waters. Another bold, attention-seeking statement coming up.

The way Three Waters is going to be run in New Zealand is going to change radically over the next three years no matter what happens in the election next year.

That’s because no major political party agrees that the status quo in the Three Waters space can remain.

The combination of neglect, climate change and different environmental expectations have created a mountain of infrastructure cost that cannot be climbed using the same system we have had forever.

The signs dotted around the landscape don’t say ‘‘repeal and replace’’ for no good reason.

The devil will be in the detail of what that word ‘‘replace’’ means if there is a change of government, but it won’t be replaced with what we have now – that’s guaranteed.

Then we have the RMA reforms.

Everyone agrees that the RMA is a dog that needs put down. But replacing an Act of the size and complexity of the RMA is no easy feat.

The replacement proposed Acts (there are three) have garnered a fraction of the public attention that the Three Waters reforms have. There are real concerns around the dilution of local input into local placemaking that the Natural and Built Environments Bill will create if passed.

This new law will consolidate the current 100-plus RMA plans into 14 regional plans that will be developed not by your local authority as now but by planning committees comprised of representatives of each territorial authority, the regional council, the Minister of Conservation, and tangata whenua.

The outcome of these regional plans may well be better than the dog’s breakfast we have now. Only time will tell. But the change that this brings at a local government level will be huge.

These two massive reforms and the fact that the way local government is organised in New Zealand hasn’t been looked at in over 30 years have led to the sector-led Future for Local Government review.

The panel leading this ko¯ rero released its draft report late last month.

It has been labelled by its authors a ‘‘provocation’’, and I think that is a very apt title because those many people who instinctively mistrust change will be properly provoked by it.

But change we must, and my personal view is though that this review offers huge opportunity.

The local government system put in place over 30 years ago is failing in many ways.

The way Three Waters is going to be run in New Zealand is going to change radically over the next three years no matter what happens in the election next year.

It is failing to engage the public (over 50% of eligible people in Central Otago didn’t bother voting at the last election), it is failing to represent the diversity of our communities, the rating model fails to deliver sustainable or fair results, and it is failing to do the basics well or adequately in many cases.

So, the Future for Local Government Panel has issued its draft report, its provocation, as a way of guiding the conversation toward a better future.

The questions and recommendations within the draft report come under five categories where the panel believes significant shifts are required:

Strengthening local democracy Authentic relationships with hapu¯ , iwi and Ma¯ ori A focus on wellbeing Genuine partnership between central and local government More equitable funding If you have read this column to the end, then you obviously have the ability to consider change.

I really encourage you to go online and have a read of the provocation put forward by the Review Panel, have a think about what it says and could mean for the future, and to put in your own submission.

These close February 28 next year.