A major move ignores public opinion

Phil Goff

Auckland Governance

As this column was written before this year’s budget was announced, I can only guess whether the government had honoured the pledges it had made in order to be elected.

What I hoped was that it would be a budget for jobs.

We need the government to have a plan to keep people and businesses working, and this must be accorded priority.

The Household Labour Force Survey for the first three months of the year showed that 24,000 jobs were lost. That was 8000 a month, 2000 a week and nearly 300 a day.

New Zealanders are worried whether their jobs, their livelihood and their homes are secure.

With the government failing to achieve the objectives of the Jobs Summit, it is important that this budget promotes employment and builds a strong foundation for New Zealand to take advantage of the upturn when it comes.

I want to focus on the government’s plans, and how it is advancing them, for a new governance structure for Auckland.

I support a cross-Auckland council to carry out important regional functions, but just as importantly, I want to see the local kept in local government, rather than all power across the region being centralised into one powerful but remote body.

Critically, with the changes the most important in Auckland’s history, it is important to get the decisions right and to give Aucklanders a real say over the future of their city.

It is Aucklanders who, through their rates, will be paying for the cost of the restructuring and live under the structure, which is created. It is only reasonable that they should be involved in the decision-making process.

However, under legislation rammed through parliament without consultation, their right of expression under the Local Government Act has been taken away.

By a margin of more than two to one, opinion polls show Aucklanders do not believe they have been adequately consulted.

The way in which decisions have been made has left an impression that the proposed changes are being made by an elite in the interests of an elite, without regard for the wishes and needs of ordinary Aucklanders.

The concept of electing many councillors across the whole of the city, with more than 850,000 electors, means that those councillors will be inaccessible and unaccountable.

As in the past, they will tend to come only from wealthy parts of the city, creating unfair and uneven representation on the council.

It will be difficult and expensive to campaign across the whole city, so successful candidates will tend to be those with a lot of money or else celebrities.

The second tier of local government is proposed to be 20 to 30 community boards.

These will have few real functions, limited money and not much relevance.

What we need instead are local councils with real powers and funding to determine local issues, below the level of the cross-city council.

This would keep local government local, accessible and accountable.

Aucklanders need to be heard on these issues rather than leaving central government under prime minister John Key and local government minister Rodney Hide to ride roughshod over their interests.

Only a strong voice of protest by Aucklanders will see changes made in line with what they want. That is why Labour so strongly opposed and sought to delay the legislation, which National recently rushed through parliament without even taking it to a select committee.

It is important when further legislation goes before parliament that all of us speak out for our rights.

Otherwise, we will lose them.

Phil Goff is leader of the Labour Party and opposition in parliament.