Auckland's blue fringe gets stroppy

The natives are getting restless.  All over Auckland, but especially in the traditionally National-voting districts of Rodney in the north and Franklin in the south.

We’ve just finished 11 joint Labour-Green public meetings around Auckland to discuss the Government’s third super city bill for which public submissions close on Friday. Anger and frustration at the super city debacle were expressed in community halls from Mangere to Milford. But some of the harshest words for the Government were heard in unlikely places. Last night in Kumeu, in the heart of the Prime Minister’s electorate, about 50 locals were outraged at a meeting hosted by the local Residents and Ratepayers Association.  They see the super city as a power grab by Hide and the corporate wide-boys and fear their community will lose its voice.

Colleagues and I have just met a delegation from northern Rodney who came to Parliament today. They presented a 6000-signature petition to their local MP Lockwood Smith, Associate Local Government Minister John Carter (MP for neighbouring Northland) and Local Government Minister Rodney Hide. They want the Government to repeal part of the second super city bill and take northern Rodney (north of Dome Valley) out of the super city and put it into Kaipara District.

Given the chaotic and arbitrary process so far, they might have a decent chance of getting another U-turn.  John Carter who chairs the select committee, last year advised Cabinet to cut Rodney in half – south in and north out – ignoring the Royal Commission’s recommendation that the current Auckland regional boundaries be retained in order to give the city enough rural buffer land to protect the metropolitan urban limit from development pressures.  Then 400 angry residents gave Lockwood Smith hell about the partition in a public meeting in Warkworth. Cabinet buckled, deciding to bring all of Rodney in only 24 hours before the second super city bill returned to the House for its second reading.

Add to that the miseries of Franklin and Papakura; their bid to secede quashed by Rodney Hide. Franklin Mayor Mark Ball said he was “extremely disappointed by the minister’s blatant disregard of the wishes of the vast majority of people in Franklin”.

I’ve thought for a while that the Nats with small majorities (Kaye, Bennett, Lotu-Iiga) had the most to lose from the super city fiasco. But I am wondering whether Smith (Rodney), Collins (Papakura) and Hutchinson (Hunua) might well be in a for a caning too. But the stroppy natives of Rodney, Franklin and Papakura are not alone. The most recent poll shows two-thirds of Aucklanders feel the Government has ignored their wishes. Fifty seven percent don’t want to be part of the super city.