Viewpoint – On the Island of Salamasond

Over 50 years, I have been involved with the Rodney County Council, the Rodney District Council and, finally, the Auckland Supercity. During the tenure of the Rodney County Council, all the assets were built. The roads and drains were maintained, and there were local staff with an interest in keeping the area working. The council office was located in Warkworth and there was ownership of issues.

As with any bureaucratic model, the organisation needed to get bigger. Rodney County Council became the Rodney District Council and moved to Orewa; expanding with new boundaries, bigger offices, more staff and a fundamental shift away from a rural model to an urban-centric model. Further infrastructure was obtained through borrowing, but the population base was still unable to fund this growth with a rapidly increasing population.

In 2009, then Minister for Regulatory Reform Rodney Hide sold a dream to the community of Rodney.

He stated that amalgamation into an Auckland Supercity was the way forward to get better outcomes.

Supposedly, more rates taken off more people would amount to better levels of service.

The people of the Wellsford subdivision were not convinced and took their concerns to John Key, the Prime Minister at the time. Despite huge apprehension about the Supercity proposal, it was ignored, and Rodney became part of Auckland in 2010.

The Supercity governing body uses a formula to determine how ratepayers receive funding for services.

This is called the 80-15-5 formula. For example, money will get allocated if there is 80 per cent of the population living in a certain area. This is designed to safeguard spending in urban areas.

The 15 per cent part of the formula relates to deprivation. This money is dedicated to areas without adequate infrastructure. This encompasses areas like Rodney where we have substandard, unsealed roads and poor drainage. The five per cent part of the formula represents land mass. Essentially, this portion is allocated to the rural population.

Regardless of this flawed formula, 80 per cent of the money will always go to the urban area (Auckland central), regardless of where the money is collected. This money funds the City Rail Link and a multi-billion-dollar Auckland central wastewater scheme.

Fifteen years have elapsed since the 30-year development plan was set. All we have achieved is ever increasing rates and a poor level of service.

We are being asked to submit again through the local board to the governing body. Over 50 years, all the rural community has ever asked for are sealed roads and clear drains. One would think that the governing body would have recognised this after all that time.

If Auckland Council had sealed 20km of unsealed road a year, they would have completed their 700km road sealing programme in 30 years. The savings in maintenance would have been evident.

Drainage boards were adopted by the governing body due to the Supercity’s preferred suppliers being expensive and incapable. The drainage boards are still waiting for a service level agreement, seven years after being introduced.

This situation draws parallels to Dr Seuss’ book ‘Yertle the Turtle’, based on the Island of Salamasond. Many turtles (layers of bureaucracy) including King Yertle at the very top, balance on the back of the smallest turtle (the ratepayer), asking for more and more until eventually, the smallest turtle buckles.