My Account
Mark Thomas in Warkworth.
Give more power to local boards and communities was the message of two mayoral hopefuls who were in Mahurangi last month.
Labour MP and independent mayoral candidate Phil Goff spoke to Warkworth Rotary on June 23, while centre-right candidate Mark Thomas spent a day in Rodney on June 24.
At the Rotary meeting at the Bridgehouse, Mr Goff said he would look to devolve decision making to local boards and communities and Rodney could be used as a pilot for how the policy would work.
“There is a lot of discontent in this area,” Mr Goff said. “Why not give it a go and extend the remit and funding of the Local Board? I don’t think it will be easy, but it should be the goal.”
Transport and housing were the central topics of Mr Goff’s speech. Auckland Council needed to invest more in transport infrastructure by issuing infrastructure bonds and servicing the costs with road user charges, he said.
His strategy to deal to the housing crisis would be to lobby to reduce immigration by lifting the threshold for permanent residency and work visas and prevent non-resident investors from buying houses. Land supply also needed to increase.
“We’ve got to build up and out.”
Mark Thomas has served two terms as a member of the Orakei Local Board in East Auckland, where he is currently deputy chair, and he works as a business consultant.
The former National Party candidate stood for the Wellington Central seat at the first MMP election in 1996. Said to be the first casualty of MMP, Mr Thomas lost the seat after Jim Bolger told National voters to back ACT Party president Richard Prebble just two days before the election, giving ACT an electoral seat and shoehorning the party into Parliament. He again missed out entering Parliament as a list MP in 1999.
After travelling through Rodney with Rodney Local Board chair Brenda Steele, Mr Thomas stopped in at the Mahurangi Matters office to lay out his plan for Auckland.
He is proposing to increase local decision making in Council by establishing six transport boards, increasing local board budgets and giving ratepayers the option of setting their own rates increases.
The transport boards would be able to decide on transport priorities and spending in their area. Under the proposal, Rodney would form a board with its rural counterpart, Franklin, and the island local boards of Waiheke and Great Barrier. The board would include representatives from Auckland Transport, local councillors and local board members, who would prioritise a budget and presumably boost spending for rural priorities, like road sealing.
He also proposes to split Auckland into six regions and allow ratepayers to opt for either a rates freeze, or a rates increase of two to four per cent in order to progress specific projects. Each region would be charged at a different rate depending on its preference.
Local boards would also get a boosted budget, though he says the details would depend on savings in other areas of Council.
Funding for these initiatives would be partly funded by an “asset swap”, selling down shares in Auckland Airport and Ports of Auckland and putting the money directly into transport infrastructure.
“We get $45 million a year dividend from these assets, but the Productivity Commission says Auckland is losing $1.25 billion a year in lost productivity due to transport congestion,” Mr Thomas says.
The changes would be partly funded by $35 million in savings, mainly from Council’s $422 governance budget. He also proposes to increase the fixed portions of rates, the Uniform Annual General Charge (UAGC) from $385 to $450.
