Viewpoint – Consultation ‘hot air’

I hope everyone’s had a good summer notwithstanding the occasional wild weather that’s buffeted Auckland.

Within council there have been some strong winds building up as well, with a number of significant changes suggested through the various plans out for consultation at the moment – including the 10 Year Long Term Plan which sets out the proposed rates, spending, projects etc for the next decade.

 I suspect, however, that ‘consultation fatigue’ may have set in. Keith Waterhouse once said, “A consultation process is what some authority sets in motion preparatory to doing what it intended to do all along”!

Some people are pretty cynical about what difference it makes but the unfortunate reality is that unless the public comes out strongly on one issue or another, their voice is all too easily dismissed.

One issue I’ve tried to encourage people to have their say on is the proposed Regional Fuel Tax, in particular how an 11.5 cents-a-litre tax might affect their household. The consultation document says the fuel tax would cost the average household $140 a year. That’s the average across Auckland but I’m pretty sure the cost in outer suburbs like the Hibiscus Coast, will be higher. I don’t know about you but when petrol starts climbing up over $2 a litre the effect on household travelling costs seems to jump exponentially.  Certainly one key point yet to be established is the distribution of future fuel tax proceeds (i.e where will the money go)?

In the last 18 months we’ve had a number of significant transport projects on the Coast – the new Silverdale Park and Ride, dynamic laning along Whangaparaoa Road (and boy what a difference that’s made in the evening), the ferry service increasing from 12 to 18 sailings a day in 2017.

Then, just recently, the $700 million Northern Motorway improvements began. These works will increase the number of lanes on the motorway and busway between Oteha Valley and Constellation Roads, making a huge difference for anyone travelling south from the Coast.

This is all positive and will come from conventional budgets, council and government. With a fuel tax, however, a fair and equitable dispersal of the proceeds needs to be established right at the outset. If there are concrete improvements clearly visible then people might view the proposal more favourably than if it just disappears into a few projects that don’t address the transport challenges of local communities.

People I’ve spoken to would dearly love an accelerated construction programme for Penlink and further improvements to Gulf Harbour ferry and the Hibiscus Coast bus services. While they generally concede that in the current financial situation they won’t get everything they want, they do expect to see specific gains for the Hibiscus Coast. That’s only fair – for us and other parts of Auckland. Otherwise the winds of change referred to in the glossy consultation pamphlets will be seen as little more than empty hot air…and be dismissed accordingly.