Viewpoint – What are we going to do about AT?

In 2010, the government chose to establish seven substantive Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs) in Auckland to deliver council services without the public’s input or consultation. This included establishing Auckland Transport (AT) as its own statutory body, granting it full control over all local roads and significant delegated powers equivalent to a regional council.

It is a misnomer to call AT a Council Controlled Organisation, as it is not controlled by elected members, but ultimately by Auckland’s ratepayers.

The chief executive of AT is accountable to a Board of Directors, who are then accountable to Auckland Council. However, this accountability is merely by way of updating the council. Basically, the Board of Directors fully governs Auckland Transport.

The chief executive controls AT’s daily operations and reports to the Board of Directors. There is no control given to the mayor and therefore no democratic control given to Auckland ratepayers.

Apart from the Board of Directors, there is another power controlling AT. Current law allows the Minister of Transport to control 51 per cent of AT’s funding and the power to dictate to the Board of Directors on which projects money is spent.

Auckland Council’s role under the law is one merely of a shareholder. It can appoint the members of the AT board and it provides it with a Letter of Expectation, which includes direction and targets, to which the board responds with a Statement of Intent.

AT is “accountable” to council through these mechanisms. However, this pseudo-accountability is not the same has having control.

Despite progress from various external reviews over the years, many of the challenges identified with the CCO model are still being observed, including concerns about public trust and confidence, strategic misalignment, ineffective democratic accountability, cost-effectiveness and duplication of services.

The question Mayor Wayne Brown is currently wrestling with is the potential for jumping from the frying pan into the fire if AT were to be brought back in-house under Auckland Council.

One of the original reasons AT was set up was to remove political squabbling between regional councillors who were wanting to achieve short-term wins, rather than thinking long-term and building infrastructure ahead of Auckland’s housing growth.

Unlike previous mayors, Brown has taken on the challenge of addressing whether AT has systemic problems that require massive structural change, or whether further adjustments to the existing model could address these problems, including taking control and accountability back to ratepayers.

Curiously, and unbeknown to the mayor, New Zealand First recently introduced a member’s bill to Parliament seeking to disestablish AT. Party leader Winston Peters called AT “a failed experiment”. The bill must be drawn from the “biscuit tin ballot” in order to be considered by Parliament, however.

In the meantime, the mayor is continuing to work on his own solutions, with the goal of presenting an alternative to Aucklanders for managing Auckland Transport.