Worth talking about but of dubious benefit, is Environment Southland chief executive Ciaran Keogh's opinion on a proposal that the two southern regional councils should consider amalgamating.
Otago Regional councillor Michael Deaker says Southland and Otago are "essentially" one region and the two regional councils face many identical issues.
However, Mr Keogh said he was "dubious about the benefits" of an amalgamation, which seemed to be a 1980s concept rather than a 2010 to 2020 one.
"It's worth talking about . . . but amalgamation is about getting bigger, and that's not the answer. It should be about getting smarter."
Southland had a strong rural population, he said.
It would not want to find itself in a situation such as Canterbury's, where the urban community dominated the rural one.
Chairman Stuart Collie said Environment Southland was operating well and was often seen as an example.
Amalgamation was not something the council had talked about, he said.
"The idea of wanting to amalgamate with an entity representing twice our population . . . I feel we'd have something to lose."
Amalgamation reduced representation and it would be easy to disenfranchise lesser population areas.
The council had dealt with commonalities by holding joint forums and shared discussions and forming relationships with the Clutha District and Queenstown Lakes District.
But that did not mean amalgamation was the answer.
People were thinking about the Auckland situation but should wait to see how that went, he said.
