Apparently this Kiwiblog bloke has been able to find the following political costs:

I have been voting to stop DCC funding of self-serving Local Government New Zealand for over a decade and have always refused to go to their conferences.
Recently both Auckland and Christchurch have stopped funding LGNZ.
Dunedin should do the same.
Cr. Michael Laws publicly calls them ‘troughers’ for good reason in my view.

August 28, 2024 3:00pm by David Farrar

A tale of two conferences

A number of readers attended both the recent National Party Annual Conference and the Local Government annual conference. They were struck by the differences between the two. A key factor being that those who attend the National conference pay the cost themselves and those who attend the LG conference have ratepayers pay the cost.

Amazing the difference it makes, depending on who has to pay!