Viewpoint – Titanic job ahead

Hot on the heels of three years of Covid-19 pandemic, we’ve started 2023 with devastating floods, a cyclone and an evolving financial crisis. Throw in large scale public transport disruptions and people could be forgiven for thinking it’s all getting a bit too much. All that’s missing is famine and war!

As far as this new council’s financial woes go, it has been handed the mother of all hospital passes from outgoing mayor Phil Goff while he heads off to the diplomatic high life in London as British High Commissioner, appointment courtesy of old friends in government.

In this respect I hope Aucklanders realise the council’s $11.4 billion debt and $300m per annum operating deficit didn’t just appear over the Christmas break. They arise as a consequence of the management of the Super City over the last decade and in particular the last six year tenure of former Mayor Goff. 

While it would be easy for the likes of myself, Cr Wayne Walker and others to say “we told you so” that’s scant consolation given the monumental task now required to turn this particular financial Titanic around. 

For what is now required is a fundamental restructure of the entire organisation, CCOs included – they are simply not sustainable in the current form. Capital expenditure must be markedly reduced and the top heavy managerial bureaucracy rationalised (as opposed to the important front line services the community value). 

Yet some still seek to extend the carefree ‘borrow, rate and sell’ modus operandi of the past for a few more years by selling off the last vestiges of what remains of Auckland’s assets – that is airport shares and ports – but once they’ve gone, that’s it. In a little over a decade they’ll have hocked off anything of value that previous councils spent generations building up.

In spite of all this, however, it is not all doom and gloom, especially on the Hibiscus Coast. A budget for recovery from the floods, which includes improved localised infrastructure and maintenance provision, will proceed as a top priority in anticipation of future events. Additionally we are fortunate that major infrastructure projects like Penlink and the Northern Motorway improvements were secured in advance of the natural disasters. 

The same goes for significant upgrades around the Coast for parks and community facilities for finances will be tight from hereon in.

Finally, there is an old saying that ‘out of adversity comes opportunity’. Over the next few years Auckland will have the chance to put that to the test.