Thanks and praise

It has been a unique year for our city.

In the midst of economic change and challenges, and the Royal Commission now ensuring that we as a city will be consigned to the pages of history, it’s a time to reflect on how far we’ve come and look ahead to 2010.

Over the past 45 years, we have seen economic growth and the building of a city and a city council that we can look back on with pride. It is something we hope to see continue heading into the new Auckland Council next November.

A united Auckland should bring to the table passion, pride and commitment from around the region and provide a platform to build on for the people and communities of Tamaki Makaurau.

As this year draws to a close, I want to acknowledge my colleagues around the Manukau City Council table.

Our Deputy Mayor, Gary Troup has been wonderful and hardworking in his role. Gary has a rare community touch and is a valued member of our council.

Two of our senior councillors have carried out fantastic leadership roles over the last year. Councillor Colleen Brown has led the Policy and Activities Committee this year where there have been some challenging meetings. She has exhibited resilience, resolve and good humour.

Councillor Anne Candy has also done some wonderful work chairing the Hearings Committee this year.

We have put our foot down in recent times to ensure that we work through a number of proposed plan changes for the city as it gears up for further development, and balancing this against environmental concerns which is at the heart of the work that we do.

Anne’s leadership and that of her committee has been outstanding.

The committee chairs, Jami-Lee Ross for Accountability and Performance, Alf Filipaina (Treaty of Waitangi), Hugh Graham (Funding and Grants), Maggie Burrill (Audit and Risk) and Sylvia Taylor in Tenders have all shown effective leadership in their roles.

In our council we have six portfolio leaders who deal with the general areas of council policy and strategic development and take leadership roles on behalf of the council.

I acknowledge them for their hard work in key areas. Dick Quax (Community Safety), John Walker (Community Development), David Collings (Transport), Bob Wichman (Corporate Services), Arthur Anae (Economic Development), and Sharon Stewart (Environmental Management) have all been dedicated and led debates in their respective portfolios throughout the year, and their work has been greatly appreciated.

I also want to acknowledge Councillors Daniel Newman, Michael Williams and Efu Koka for their day-to-day involvement in council life and their roles as community board members. Each has been a strong advocate for their communities and shown effective advocacy around council.

I want to make mention of our eight community boards who jointly won a New Zealand Community Boards prize for their community advocacy plans.

It was an outstanding achievement and I wish to particularly recognise the board chairs, Mike Bailey from Manurewa, Stephen Grey from Papatoetoe, Peter Skelton fromMangere, Ava Fa’amoe for Otara, Dyann Calverley of Botany, Maurice Hinton for Clevedon, Ross Warren from Pakuranga and Jim Donald for Howick. I have attended community board meetings through this term and have seen the passion and pride these boards have for their local communities.

I want to also take time to acknowledge our Chief Executive Officer, Leigh Auton and his executive leadership team, the directors, managers and staff.

Many have dedicated their lives to this council, serving with commitment and pride. Our staff have continued to show focus, diligence and good humour through some challenging times and I am humbled by this.

I love being the Mayor of this city.

Politics can be a difficult calling for a family, so I want to acknowledge my wife Shan and our three daughters for supporting me and my role in our council.

I want to conclude this final letter for the year with a prayer of reflection. I wish you and your families a happy and safe Christmas and New Year.

Dear Lord,
In time of change when families are challenged
Give us strength and resolve
A uniting of the spirit
Based on respect for our past and hope for our future
Let us share our common bonds
We residents here in Manukau
Give us peace
Let us be tolerant
Let no prejudice divide us
We pray that we share the spirit
And hope of a common humanity this Christmas.

Merry Christmas to you all.

Local Businesses

Over the last two years I’ve enjoyed making monthly visits to businesses around the city.

A recent visit took me to Hynds Pipes in East Tamaki. It’s a huge site off Highbrook Drive which the owner, John Hynds, his son Adrian and his team have developed over the years. I was shown the amazing process that the company’s pipe products go through in their construction.

Hynds Pipes are huge in the infrastructure scene in the region, and around the country and the Pacific. They, like other businesses have seen the effects of the recession but are continuing to stay strong. It was pointed out to me that the site is holding significantly more stock than usual because of the downturn in the residential/commercial market over recent years.

I was keen to point out that local government is doing all it can to ensure we continue to invest in our local economies. Throughout the region, we will be looking to spend more than $1 billion in capital development work this financial year.

At least half of this is in transportation.

While government and private investment is constrained by the present financial circumstances, our councils are showing a strong confidence by continuing to invest in our local infrastructure. We have recently seen an increase in the number of building and resource consents issued, and we hope to see more positive signs of an economic upturn in coming months.

The Third Bill on Auckland Governance

The third and final Bill relating to the restructure of Auckland Governance came out this week. It’s detailed and covers the balance of the new structure not included in the first two bills, particularly the corporate side.

It finalises the shape of the new water company, and sets up the new transport agency and the CCO’s working beside the council structure.

What was missing from the Bill was statutory prescribed delegations for the 19 new local boards.

The Councils of Auckland put together an agreed list of proposed powers and delegations for the second tier and submitted them at the end of the second Bill to the Select Committee.

In my view these delegations would give plenty of teeth to the second tier and ensure that in local communities the boards are able to deliver much of the nuts and bolts of services that the community presently get and will also have sufficient strength to be strong and empowered advocates to the Auckland Council on policy and strategic issues.

The Government is missing an opportunity to save Auckland from another prolonged squabble by not putting in place statutory perimeters for the local boards operations.

Rainbow’s End, Kidz First and Variety

I was asked to open a new ride at Rainbow’s End recently, called the Invader. It’s hard to describe this ride but I encourage those visiting over summer to try it out. It was a lot of fun and the kids who were there in the hundreds seemed to enjoy it. It’s another big positive for Rainbow’s End which attracts some 360,000 visitors every year.

I’ve also attended over recent times a number of occasions organised by the South Auckland Health Foundation for Kidz First.

Last Saturday I was hosted by the Variety Club who have been extraordinary in their long service for kids with health difficulties across our region and the country. They put on a fantastic Christmas party and concert which was a great occasion for the kids and the agencies who support them. Boy is Christmas season huge this year!

Enjoy the lead up to Christmas Day.

A principle we have in our democracy is that the barriers to entry should be low enough so that anyone can participate.

Of course this needs to be balanced with the need to appeal to a broad cross-section of society.

That’s why many people were concerned when the government proposed a $580,000 spending limit for mayoral candidates for the Auckland Council.

It’s simply too high and needs to be rebalanced.

That’s why I’ve been calling for the government to slash the campaign spending limit to avoid the mayoralty being ‘bought’ by a wealthy candidate. Currently a mayoral candidate in a major city is limited to $70,000 in the three months leading up to the election.

It is worth considering that if you combine all the current mayoral campaign spending limits for each the current Auckland councils, you would get a spending cap of around $370,000. $580,000 is therefore clearly excessive.

I believe, given Auckland’s size, the limit should be set within $150,000 to $200,000.

That will enable serious candidates to buy the sort of advertising needed to market themselves across such a large city – which, unfortunately, is not cheap – but prevent the mayoral race from being completely dominated by one or two people with access to large funding. The government shouldn’t give wealthy candidates such a massive advantage over the grassroots campaigners who might want to enter the race.

I’ve said in the past that my campaign could spend $500,000-$1million if need be. I was responding to John Banks who has claimed a half million dollar campaign fund. In the USA, progressive political campaigns often lose out to the saturation advertising of high-spending, conservative opponents. For that reason, I’ll need to try to match him to make sure the campaign is competitive next year in order to protect Auckland’s communities. But I don’t think the limit should be that high – it prices too many out of the race.

The greater point is that the candidate who can build the strongest on the ground campaign should win on the day. The person who is in touch with the people of Auckland, who is out there on the doorstep and in the community halls discussing the issues that matter, is the person who should win the election. That is what I am focused on.

It was good to see North Shore mayor Andrew Williams and John Banks both expressing concern at the high spending limit. I’ll write to my mayoral colleagues to ask their councils to put in a submission to the government calling for the limit to be reduced.

It was great to see the poll in today’s Herald showing a strong level of support for my campaign for the mayoralty. It’s a great Christmas present and gives us a strong start next year.

The most important part of the poll is that it shows us leading in every single part of the region.

We launched this campaign three and a half months ago on the slopes of Maungakiekie/One Tree Hill. In my announcement speech I opened by saying: We come here today with many of us focused, perhaps as never before, on our city. Auckland is poised at an historical moment, a civic coming together, a time for committing to a unity of purpose and vision, to the establishment of a world city – the pre-eminent economic and cultural hub in the South Pacific.

Since then I have been getting out and around the many communities that make up our region.

I’ve been talking about the risks and opportunities of the new Auckland Council.

The risks are that this amalgamation doesn’t work and Aucklanders don’t see the benefits from this huge change we are going through. People are concerned that their local community identity will be lost in the new structure and that the focus will shift from their area to another part of town. I won’t let that happen.

Again from my launch: I believe that our people, our communities must be at the centre of the new Auckland. Communities have been central to all that I have worked for. Local government must be local. Especially now. Especially as Auckland comes together.

The opportunity is the chance to build an integrated extensive public transport system, a fair rating system for all, strong economic growth and business development, a healthy environment and a city we all love to live in.

That’s why I’m standing for mayor.

I hope you’ll get involved with the campaign next year. We need thousands of Aucklanders out there and engaged in the election to make sure we protect local communities in the new council. Please consider making a donation to the campaign. And I hope you’ll get involved in the debate about the future of our great region.

Christmas Parades

Summer has finally arrived!

It has been wonderful taking in the last few days and it has been great to get a sense of the beautiful fine days ahead of us. The warm days is a welcome relief after some mixed weather for the Christmas parades that have been taking place across the city.

The parades have been an opportunity for our communities to celebrate the festive Christmas season and have fun. We have seen two new parades introduced this year – at Manurewa township and Westfield Manukau City – which were both great events.

As usual, the Howick parade was massive and superbly run by Rae and Brian Neben and the Howick-Pakuranga Times crew.

Papatoetoe’s parade was also huge, despite the heavy rain and thousands of spectators turned out at the parade route around Hunters Corner. It was just a brilliant atmosphere and in the end I jumped out of the car and walked in the rain along with everyone else. The Mangere Bridge parade was also a good local event with a focus on the youngsters and religious themes.

Policy

We are continuing to proceed with a number of the planning changes in the city.

This week, the council’s Policy and Activities Committee went through key reports relating to proposed plan changes in Beachlands and Flat Bush.

The Beachlands plan change has been the subject of considerable community consultation and input over a long period of time. We are now working through the plan change and the new potential growth zone to the west of the existing Beachlands community with some pace.

We have also had considerable discussion with the proposed second stage of the new town of Flat Bush and I am generally pleased with the progress being made.

The spectacular success of the green fingers concept and the building of the communities around this concept has won kudos from residents and visitors. This urban design has also been recognised internationally as state of the art urban environmental development.

This is a continuing work in progress to develop what should be a close community in and around this new area of development. For those interested there is an information open day to get feedback on the work to date next Tuesday 15 December. It is being held at the Old Flat Bush School Hall (cnr Murphys Rd & Flat Bush School Rd) from 3:30pm to 6:30pm.

Enjoy your week.

I was very concerned to read that the government plans to make it easier for the Ports of Auckland to be privatised.

Currently there is a requirement that the issue of the privatisation of the Ports of Auckland be put to referendum should someone wish to sell that asset. This means the people of Auckland can decide whether selling it is a good idea.

I believe retaining and developing our strategic public assets is important to the future of the Auckland region and is integral to the economic base of the city.

The people of Auckland have made their voices loud and clear on the issue of privatisation of the Ports of Auckland. We don’t want to see it sold off. The requirement to hold a referendum on the privatisation of Auckland’s ports is recognition that the public should have a direct say in the future of that asset.

It’s concerning to see that the third bill setting up the super-city will remove the ability of Aucklanders to make the ultimate decision over this important strategic asset. Attempts to sell the ports in the 1990s were met with fierce community opposition and I think this same opposition will spring up again this time.

Many people in the community are concerned that the whole super-city project is an attempt to flog off the last of Auckland’s assets – not under my watch.

It should be noted that in the past other councils and other mayors haven’t stood up for public ownership of public assets. There is no guarantee the new Auckland Council will do the same.

Rodney Hide says he believes in making ‘democracy more democratic’. If he trusts the people, then why not leave the decision on Auckland’s port up to the people?

The right to a referendum on the sale of the Ports of Auckland must be maintained.

When the shape of the final piece of legislation bringing Auckland together was revealed last week I was surprised and disappointed – as was the New Zealand Herald, which referred to “two curious features”. Curious, indeed – let me explain.

One of the government’s reasons for uniting Auckland local authorities was to streamline and standardise local government – to iron out the inconsistencies throughout the region so we all knew what the rules were as we went about our lives and businesses.

Most people agree that seems sensible, but people from all over the region – from Albany to Avondale, from Favona to Freemans Bay, from Orewa to Otara – are afraid of losing their community identity and their local representation.

Aucklanders have said, loudly and repeatedly, that we’re proud of our city and region but we also want to maintain our diversity and local communities.

So we’ve been asking for strong local boards with real power to make local decisions for local people. But that’s not what we’ll get in this new piece of legislation.

As it stands, the last bill, which will be introduced to Parliament before Christmas, leaves it up to the new Auckland council to decide what is local enough to leave to the local boards. It will all depend on the desire of the new mayor and the new council to support different communities – and their willingness to share power with local boards.

On the other hand, the bill takes many important decisions away from the new council and gives them to non-elected “Council Controlled Organisations”. These CCOs will control not only our public transport system, water supply and waterfront development, but also economic development, property holdings, major facilities and council investments.

These two features are, quite simply, the wrong way around. It should not be for the new Auckland council to decide what day rubbish is collected in Waiwera, what plants adorn the traffic islands of Papatoetoe or what a new library in Te Atatu should look like. There should be absolutely no possibility of the Auckland council micromanaging local boards, or unnecessarily imposing its will on your community.

It should, however, be for the Auckland council to decide exactly what Auckland’s public transport system should look like. And the new council must absolutely be able to help develop innovative ways of cutting local youth unemployment across the region.

So, how do we deal with legislation that has got these two issues the wrong way around? First, as with all legislation, this has to go through a select committee, which will listen to public submissions, before it becomes law. If you have concerns, make sure your voice and your community are heard during that process.

And when, next year, we all vote for our new mayor and new councillors we need to ensure that we give our votes to people we trust to make the right decisions for all of Auckland – and for all the exciting, individual communities within it.

The Auckland region is New Zealand’s economic and business powerhouse. It’s home to around one-third of the country’s population and it’s also responsible for around 36% of the country’s GDP.

Auckland has the country’s biggest port and airport, and as well as being home to 200 of the country’s biggest business, it also plays host to one-quarter of the world’s Fortune 500 companies.

Helping to ensure Auckland is a great place to do business, as well as a great place to live, will be a key role of the new Auckland council and mayor.

How does local government create a great environment for business? Claire Massey, who is director of Massey University’s centre for small and medium enterprise research, president of the Small Enterprise Association of Australia and New Zealand and senior vice-president of the International Council for Small Business, talks about creating a business-friendly environment.

She says a business-friendly environment enables, encourages and inspires individuals to believe they can take a risk and will be rewarded, and ensures young people have opportunities to develop that belief.
There’s already a lot of work going on in the Auckland region to provide those opportunities and foster the attitudes that bring business success.

For example, in October I was lucky enough to meet the enterprising students of Auckland Seventh Day Adventist High School and Macleans College, who won the regional Young Enterprise Scheme for their school-based businesses.

By involving secondary school students in actual businesses, that sell real products and services for real money, this scheme helps to create the future entrepreneurs Auckland needs.

COMET is another organisation that helps to create a business-friendly environment, by ensuring our education system and businesses understand each other’s needs and challenges. Check out the work it does in connecting businesses and schools through programmes such as Education for Enterprise and Principal for a Day.

But the new Auckland council and mayor will have to do more than encourage the education of our future business leaders – they will have to deal with some real issues that today’s businesses are struggling with.

For example, unacceptable delays in getting broadband can really put the brakes on small, home-based business start-ups. There should not be such delays in a first-world city such as Auckland, and we need to give priority to getting this vital communication and business infrastructure right.

Transport is also a fundamental issue for Auckland’s businesses. The new council and mayor will have to ensure all Aucklanders have options for getting to and from work quickly and easily. And if I am elected mayor I will also robustly advocate for central government funding of vital transport infrastructure to keep the city moving efficiently, so business isn’t put on hold because vital supplies are delivered late.

The leaders of the new Auckland council will have to be open, approachable and transparent in their dealings with business.

Because only by encouraging honest communication about the issues, needs and wants of businesses, and the people who run and work in them, can we make Auckland an innovative, world-class city that’s a great place to live and do business in.