--- name: nz-local-government-data description: "Discover and preview official New Zealand local government finance, performance, and statistics datasets from Stats NZ/data.govt.nz, DIA local council downloads, DIA council performance metrics, and OAG local-government insight sources. Use when the task involves council profiles, rates revenue, local authority statistics, comparing councils, finding machine-readable local-government datasets, or identifying official source gaps. Read-only, no login or API key required." license: MIT compatibility: "Requires Python 3.10+ and network access for live data" metadata: thecolab.category: "public-data" thecolab.source_owner: "Stats NZ, Department of Internal Affairs, and Office of the Auditor-General" thecolab.source_type: "mixed" thecolab.auth: "none" thecolab.access_mode: "public-download" thecolab.data_class: "public" thecolab.writes: "false" thecolab.browser: "false" thecolab.risk: "low" thecolab.cache_ttl: "24h" thecolab.schema_version: "1" thecolab.skill_type: "public-download" thecolab.pack: "nz-public-data" thecolab.source_url: "https://catalogue.data.govt.nz/api/3/action/" thecolab.allowed_domains: "catalogue.data.govt.nz,oag.parliament.nz,www.localcouncils.govt.nz,www.mcert.govt.nz" thecolab.last_verified: "2026-07-19" thecolab.health: "healthy" thecolab.maintainer: "@adam91holt" --- # NZ Local Government Data ## Goal Find and preview official New Zealand local government datasets without login, mutation, API keys, browser automation, or invented structure for PDF-only sources. The skill focuses on discovery-first access to: - Stats NZ / data.govt.nz local-government and local-authority statistics catalogue resources - DIA Local Councils downloadable data index resources - DIA local government performance metrics / council profile data release - OAG local-government insights as official context, not as invented structured rows ## Use this when - A user asks where official NZ council finance, performance, rates, population, or comparison data lives - A user needs a council list with identifiers/types from DIA council profile data - A user wants a small preview of DIA council performance metrics such as rates revenue or population - A user wants to discover Stats NZ/data.govt.nz local authority statistics datasets and resources - A user asks how councils compare on a simple metric and official DIA profile data has a matching column - A workflow needs JSON source URLs, formats, cadence notes, and licence caveats for local-government datasets ## Do not use this for - Private, unpublished, authenticated, scraped-login, or embargoed council data - Paying rates, lodging consents, submitting forms, or mutating council systems - Claiming complete council-spending transparency or line-item expenditure coverage - Converting PDFs into structured data unless the official source supplies machine-readable rows - Legal, audit, or financial advice; cite source caveats and point users to official records ## Preferred workflow 1. Run `scripts/cli.py datasets --json` to discover source catalogues and key official resources. 2. Run `scripts/cli.py downloads --json` to enumerate DIA Local Councils CSV/XLSX/PDF downloads. 3. Run `scripts/cli.py performance-metrics --json` for a small DIA council profile data preview. 4. Run `scripts/cli.py councils --json` when you need council names, DIA profile group codes, and source identifiers. 5. Run `scripts/cli.py local-authority-stats --query --json` for Stats NZ/data.govt.nz local-authority dataset discovery. 6. Use `compare` only for simple comparisons against columns present in the DIA performance workbook. 7. Always include source URLs, date/cadence notes, format/licence caveats, and any fetch errors in user-facing summaries. ## CLI Run with: ```bash python3 skills/nz-local-government-data/scripts/cli.py [flags] ``` ## Commands - `datasets [--limit N] [--json]` - list official source catalogues plus discovered data.govt.nz datasets and DIA resource previews - `downloads [--format CSV|XLSX|PDF] [--limit N] [--json]` - enumerate downloadable resources from the DIA Local Councils index - `performance-metrics [--council TEXT] [--limit N] [--json]` - preview the DIA council profiles XLSX data release - `councils [--query TEXT] [--json]` - list councils and DIA profile group codes/types from the performance data release - `local-authority-stats [--council NAME] [--query TEXT] [--limit N] [--preview N] [--json]` - discover Stats NZ/data.govt.nz local-authority datasets and preview the first machine-readable resource when possible - `compare --metric METRIC --councils A,B [--json]` - compare a simple DIA profile metric across council name fragments Examples: ```bash python3 skills/nz-local-government-data/scripts/cli.py datasets --json python3 skills/nz-local-government-data/scripts/cli.py downloads --format CSV --json python3 skills/nz-local-government-data/scripts/cli.py councils --query Auckland --json python3 skills/nz-local-government-data/scripts/cli.py performance-metrics --council Wellington --json python3 skills/nz-local-government-data/scripts/cli.py local-authority-stats --council Auckland --json python3 skills/nz-local-government-data/scripts/cli.py compare --metric rates --councils Auckland,Wellington --json ``` ## Resources - CLI entrypoint: `scripts/cli.py` - Smoke test: `scripts/smoke_test.py` - Source notes: `references/source-notes.md` ## Notes - The CLI is read-only and uses Python standard library modules only (`urllib`, `html.parser`, `csv`, `zipfile`, `xml.etree.ElementTree`, `argparse`, and `json`). - The DIA performance metrics workbook is parsed directly from XLSX XML using stdlib code so no Excel dependency is required. - The legacy `localcouncils.govt.nz` HTTPS endpoint may fail with TLS/SNI errors; the CLI records this and falls back to the public HTTP endpoint. - The issue's Stats NZ group URL is retained in outputs, but live CKAN discovery uses the current data.govt.nz `Local and regional government` group plus local-authority search terms when the older group slug is unavailable. - OAG insight pages are listed as official context; automated HTTP may receive 403, and the skill does not invent structured rows from narrative report pages.