Poll shows huge support for keeping assets in public hands

North Shore City tabled some stunning poll results at the select committee this morning. Their Colmar Brunton poll of 800 residents shows 89% agree the supply of water should remain in public council ownership and not be privatised.  85% agree that publicly owned strategic community assets such as the port and the airport should remain in public council ownership under the new super city.

I'd be surprised if those figures were any less dramatic in other parts of Auckland and should echo around the city as a resounding endorsement of Labour's campaign to ensure that Auckland's community assets are protected from privatisation under the super city.

Andrew Williams mayor of North Shore spoke strongly on the public's desire to keep assets in public ownership. He said water was liquid gold, and all over the world water privatisation had caused huge problems. He said privatisation of Auckland's ports would undermine efforts to open up the waterfront to public access; and that imporrtant infrastructure assets like the airport could deliver a revenue stream that could go bacck to help the community.

Earlier in this morning's hearings Auckland City mayor and super-mayoral aspirant John Banks showed he was out of step with much of public opinion on key democratic aspects of the bill. Mayor Banks has been perhaps the most high profile but is now an increasingly isolated cheer leader for the Government’s super city model.

He supported the Government’s proposal that a minimum of 8 councillors in the new Auckland Council be elected at large, arguing that when he was a councillor representing Birkenhead on the regional council early in his career he was utterly focused on getting re-elected, and looking after the votes in his local ward.

We are only about one-third of the way through the hearings but I have to say that argument has been pretty well debunked in my view over the past week. MPs and councillors commonly rise above the parochial concerns of their electorates. And if the new super city clearly separates out the regional and local tasks of the Auckland Council and local councils this should not be a problem.

It is also clear from submissions that people fear at-large counncillors would be less accountable. And more likely to come from the eastern suburbs, as was the case before the ward system was introduced to Auckland City in 1989.

Mayor Banks’ submission was also revealing on the question of the powers of local boards. He proposed the new super city council would delegate powers to the local councils, and be given the flexibility to shape the roles of super-council and local councils over time.

This was out of step with many other submissions to date which asked that the powers of local boards would be clearly mandated in legislation and not left up to the discretion of the Auckland Council.

Banks’ own Council has starved its community boards of powers and budget. They are a good case study of why the powers of local councils should be set out in law and not left up to the discretion of the super-council.