Viewpoint – Public assets prioritised

I hope everyone is getting by okay with all the winter ailments doing the rounds and people have had time to enjoy the Olympics. There’s been some wonderful performances and displays of personal humility and sportsmanship in Paris, the same city that 100 years ago witnessed the extraordinary feats of Scotsman Eric Liddell  of Chariots of Fire fame.

Winter’s certainly not proving much of a handbrake for Penlink with works flying ahead at real pace, the 2026 completion date looming up fast. And, on Penlink we’ve written to the Minister’s current ‘review’ of the decision to toll the project (HM July 29). This is to remind him Ministry of Transport officials themselves stated NZTA’s business case, the way it undertook consultation and the lack of public support meant the toll proposal failed three of the four statutory tests and overall,“…the evidence provided to support tolling Penlink isweak.”  Ultimately it will be the Minister who makes the call.

Recently there was some significant funding for parks and reserves around the Hibiscus Coast, including $11.9m for Ōrewa beach and $9.4m for Metro Park West. It was also good to see the council chief executive making a clear statement on the status of the Gulf Harbour Golf Course covenant. Pleasing too for our ferry commuters, the news that a full service will resume from September 9. 

Not quite so impressive are ongoing attempts to sell major assets and privatise what remains of council operations – the latest example an attempt to privatise the management of council leisure centres and pools. Fortunately councillors rejected this proposal and well-run centres like Stanmore Bay will continue under council management and control.

This sort of behaviour, reflected in previous moves to privatise Ports of Auckland and sell the airport shares, brings to mind the comments of Professor of Public Policy Ian Shirley. At the very start of the Super City he predicted local government in Auckland would be replaced with “… a corporate structure where the major beneficiaries will be the exclusive brethren of big business, merchant bankers and a narrow range of consultants dominated by legal and accountancy firms”.

His prediction was shown to be uncannily correct when in 2021 a Weekend Herald  investigation revealed the Super City had become a $10 billion gold mine for multinational corporations and big local companies. The model of contracting out most of the work of Auckland Council had fed $10b of ratepayers’ money to just 20 companies since the Super City’s inception in 2010.

For our part, we remain committed to preserving and enhancing the valuable public assets on the Coast, all of which have been painstakingly built up by successive councils over many decades. The main goal now, as back then, simply to ensure our community continues to evolve as a better place to live for all.