EDITORIAL: Give us our rightful vote

Ewan McDonald | 25th February 2010

Today, The Aucklander spoke before the The Auckland Governance Legislation Committee on the Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill.

This is our submission:

My name is Ewan McDonald. I'm the Editor in Chief of The Aucklander group of community newspapers, and I'm joined in this appearance by Edward Rooney, our Chief Reporter.

For your information, The Aucklander has been judged as the Best Community or Suburban Newspaper at the Qantas Media Awards and also at the NZ Community Newspaper Association awards for the past two years.

I have been a journalist for 39 years, Edward for 25 years. In that length of time neither of us has heard of a newspaper making a submission to a Parliamentary select committee.

We understand there are two making submissions to this committee - surely an indication of the depth of feeling in the Auckland community about this process.

We are taking this step on behalf of our readers; everyday Aucklanders who have written, emailed, phoned us to express their concern, anger, opposition  and disappointment in a government that would tear up their democratic rights and representation, and tear down their communities.

The process is a major issue in this debate.

In less than a week the Prime Minister and his Minister Against Local Government presented a new scheme that clear-felled all the major considerations of the Commissioners' report. The minister said that was set in stone. Our readers felt stunned and betrayed.

Any skerrick of trust remaining was destroyed on the first page of the first of three bills creating the new Auckland Regional Authority when the minister revoked the Local Government Act 2002.

That Act stated the purpose of local government "is to enable democratic local decision-making and action by, and on behalf of, communities; to promote the social, economic, environmental, and cultural well-being of communities, in the present and for the future".

It provided explicitly for the accountability of local authorities to their communities and for residents to be consulted and to vote on any change to their boundaries, council membership or voting system.

That is why the first point in our submission seeks to reinstate the primacy of the Local Government Act, which every other community in New Zealand - apart from Aucklanders - have to protect them.

It has its roots in Magna Carta. Well, it did - we need to fish it out of the rubbish bin that Mr Hide threw it into.

We list 17 further clauses in which this bill is ill-written or flawed or removes the democratic rights of Aucklanders. These include passing the buck on the powers and responsibilities of local boards to the unelected, unaccountable, secretive Auckland Transition Agency.

It prevents the public of Auckland from choosing the electoral system they want - everyone else in New Zealand can.

The monopoly powers granted to Watercare are particularly obnoxious.

A hallmark of the process is that rights and responsibilities - and major assets that Aucklanders have bought and paid for, or are in many cases still paying for - that should be in the hands of the council and our local boards have been handed over to the directors of Council-Controlled Organisations ... in other words, unelected, unaccountable, secretive businessmen appointed by the Minister, beyond public scrutiny.

Those are the substance of our submissions. However, since we wrote it, we have been made aware of a number of other issues and flaws. These include repealing of the Centennial Park / Waitakere Ranges protection and the rollover of contracts for present council staff.

There is also the issue of some people having dual voting rights as property-owners in various areas of Auckland and residents in another.

We agree with other submitters that Auckland Transport should not be able to raise bylaws; these should only be raised by elected people; and that disputes between CCOs should be settled by the Council and not taken to the District Court.

We have learned that the Government has admitted, in email, that the Waitakere Ranges repeal is "an error that will be fixed" and so is the rollover of contracts. We wonder how many other clauses of this rushed, flawed, ill-written bill are "errors that will be fixed".

We are further advised, from within the leading taxation law firm in this country, that as of this minute, that there is no determination as to the taxable operating status of the CCO's.

In other words, the zoo, the libraries, the swimming pools and war memorial halls across Auckland could be operating under a tax regime that they cannot survive.

As journalists, we are now compiling evidence of outgoing councils conducting fire sales. In one example, a piece of land worth $10 million has suddenly become available for tender.

Councillors who are standing down at this election are miraculously finding sources of money to "pork-barrel" pet projects across the region.

These items are turning up on the confidential agendas of councils across the region so we are not allowed to report them. We are in the process of filing requests under the Official Information Act, but that it is shutting the door after the horse has bolted.

Decisions are being made behind closed doors with the public and press excluded. We are aware of a number of requests currently at, or going before the Transition Agency, where they will be rubber-stamped.

This is a clear effect of this flawed, rushed and undisciplined process, compounded by a lack of consultation with, and respect for, the rights of Aucklanders since that very first paragraph.

We also have to question the very basis of this dangerous, unproven theory. We will use one example, but there are many others around the world.

Ten years ago, the Canadian government forced six municipalities to amalgamate into the megacity of Toronto.

The merger was not demanded by the people. Separate referenda in the municipalities sent a strong message of disapproval of more than two to one. This is consistent with experience elsewhere.

The government claimed, they wanted to make government in the area more efficient. This was supported by study by a prestigious accounting firm predicting predicted annual savings of $300 million Canadian dollars.

As it worked out, costs went up and Toronto government became less efficient.

In 2006, city of Toronto operating costs were $1.25 billion above what would have been spent if the $300 million in savings had been achieved and simply risen at the rate of population growth and inflation.

Municipal amalgamations can produce economies of scale. They do - voters have less control over what goes on and vested interests find larger governments more accessible and thus more susceptible to their influence.

It is salutary to compare Toronto with Vancouver - another Canadian metropolis which enjoyed a merger about the same time in which the public was consulted and involved and, heavens above, even had a vote on. It is now rated the #1 most livable, sustainable city in the world.

We ask the select committee to advise Parliament to reinstate the Local Government Act 2002 and start the debate on the governance of Auckland again. We ask that on behalf of a quarter of million readers from Orewa to Pukekohe.

It is interesting that in the 10 months that we have been conducting our editorial campaign, we have not received one letter or email in support of the plan. We have received thousands against. So I think it is fitting to end with these words from one of our readers, one of Auckland's ratepayers, and one of your voters:

"We are going to be raped and pillaged and I feel that John Key and Rodney Hide and the National government are doing the raping and pillaging of our district, our assets, and everything our forebears worked their butts off for.

"My Uncle died on Christmas Day 1944 in a war on the other side of the world for freedom and democracy.

"The Government has have taken away and ignored our rights, and there is no democracy.

"How has this been done?

"Who will stand up for us?

"Who will listen to us?"

In one sentence, members of the committee, show us the ballot. Give Aucklanders a vote.

Thank you for your time.