My Account
Bill Townson
In recent issues of Mahurangi Matters we have heard opinions from a raft of so-called ‘experts’ in academia, business and politics on North Rodney’s desire to break away from the Supercity.
But how many of these ‘experts’ have their own vested interests? How many really understand things rural? How many have ever bothered to ask our community what they want? Who, apart from vested interests, actually wants another 8000 houses plonked down in our lovely rural town? Did anyone actually ask you? Did they take any notice of your submissions? Is this what you want?
The ‘experts’ say we’ll be too small to ‘go it alone’ but have never given any hard facts to back up such a statement. They say we get more than we give, but where’s the evidence? Certainly NAG’s official information requests have not produced any numbers to support that position so how can anyone know?
The proponents of ‘big is better’ have no answer to the fact that there are many small councils around the country that are doing very nicely. Ashburton, Matamata-Piako, Otorohanga, Thames Coromandel District (TCDC) to name just a few. All are arguably light years better performers than our precious Supercity will ever be. Judging by its recent damning report card (see story p14), Auckland Council has a very long climb up the improvement ladder. Meantime, the debt just keeps climbing (it’s now 10 times the rate per ratepayer of nearby TCDC!).
Our politicians say we’re better ‘in the tent than out’ but they don’t say why (better for whom we ask?). Others point to the Mangawhai debacle as evidence that a small council doesn’t work. That particular fiasco had nothing to do with the size of the council and everything to do with bad management and, ultimately, a government department that didn’t do its job.
The panel of so-called ‘experts’ say we’ll never be able to fund growth! Well, we at least have the opportunity to fund growth from growth but take one guess at who will be paying for the multi-billion dollar upgrade of urban Auckland’s dilapidated infrastructure to say nothing of their leaky homes and businesses.
Now that we’ve seen the shape of the proposed changes to the Local Government Act, it is obvious the Government wants to strip away the community driven reorganisation law. The proposed new process shifts the reorganisation focus back onto the Local Authority and gives a lot more power to the Local Government Commission. In other words, it will erode our democracy. It will be a gross injustice if after all the delays, (more than three years and not of our making), if this community’s aspirations are frustrated by a retrospective change in the rules just before the goal posts. NAG will be pressing hard to ensure that its proposal is processed under the existing law and you can help that to happen by expressing your concerns to your MP and the Local Government Minister.
In the meantime, NAG has prepared and filed a supplementary proposal adopting many of the principles of the successful TCDC “devolved empowerment” model, which will put the initiative clearly back into the hands of the North Rodney community where it belongs. NAG is very confident that it will produce an infinitely better local government arrangement for our area if it’s allowed to happen.
Why would anyone want to put up with the mess that is Auckland when we could have an efficient community-driven model like TCDC?
