Council budget ready for consultation

A fiery meeting of the Budget Committee on December 6 saw Auckland Council’s draft 10-year budget (Long-Term Plan) approved for public consultation. A number of Councillors, including Cr John Watson, called the asset sales the Mayor is proposing ‘ill-advised asset stripping’. The assets discussed at the meeting were big ticket items such as the rest of the airport shares, and privatisation of the Ports of Auckland operations. However, the Mayor also intimated that “small regional assets” (the example he gave was Rodney) would be in line for sale. There was keen interest locally in whether the ...