Me and my big mouth.
In my last column I wrote about two local government politicians
from urban Auckland who came to Masterton to tell us what a wonderful thing
council amalgamation was.
I pointed out that it would have been more relevant, from a
Wairarapa perspective, to hear the opinion of someone from Rodney or Franklin,
the two semi-rural districts that had been either wholly or partly sucked in (some might say suckered in) by
Auckland.
A few days later I got an email advising of another public
meeting at which the speaker would be the chairman of the Pukekohe-based Franklin
local board, Andrew Baker.
Having painted myself into a corner, I had no option but to
hear what he had to say.
Baker, a farmer and former policeman, turned out to be an enthusiastic
and articulate advocate of amalgamation. He admitted having serious misgivings
when Franklin was “pulled asunder” in 2010 (part went to Auckland, part to Hauraki and part to Waikato) and said he could empathise with
people in the Wairarapa who feared losing control over their own affairs if the
region was absorbed by Wellington, as proposed by the Local Government
Commission.
He then proceeded to list the ways in which Franklin had
benefited.
Within a year of amalgamation, council-owned Watercare
Services had committed $130 million to the upgrading of Pukekohe’s “terrible”
water supply. The old Franklin council could never have afforded that, Baker
said.
Local roading had been greatly improved and the rural fire
service, which had made do with 30-year-old trucks and second-hand hoses, had acquired
a fleet of modern 4WD vehicles and shiny new gear. The bigger rating base made
all the difference.
Baker said the board had control over its own $20 million budget and
was well connected with local communities. The chairman was the equivalent of
the former mayor and focused entirely on local issues.
He had no opinion on what should happen in
Wellington but noted that under the Local Government Commission’s plan, local
decision-making powers would be greater than in Auckland.
Perhaps his most potent argument, at least for a Masterton
audience, was that Franklin rates were going down this year, the result of a
rating system that puts most of the rates burden on high-value city properties.
A cynic might say that it’s in Baker’s interests to put the
best possible spin on the system that employs him (the chairmanship is a
full-time job), and he made no mention of the widespread and deeply felt aversion to the new
governance model in Auckland. But it was a good sales pitch nonetheless.
We are left with a hard choice. Do we place our faith in the
Big Government model, or do we insist on the right of a socially and
geographically distinct region like the Wairarapa to run its own affairs?
There are powerful arguments both ways, but they are more sharply defined in the Wairarapa than
elsewhere because it stands apart from Wellington in a way that the Hutt
Valley, Porirua and Kapiti don’t.
I can’t help wondering why the issue is presented as an either/or
choice. Why not take a middle course? The three Wairarapa councils could merge,
along with the two Hutt cities. Wellington and Porirua could join together,
perhaps absorbing Kapiti too, and the regional council could be retained to do
what it does now, though perhaps with slightly enhanced powers.
That might overcome some of the objections to the commission’s
Big Bang proposal. It would deliver potential efficiency gains without
re-inventing the wheel and there would be a more compelling logic to the new
boundaries.
One important question that doesn’t seem to have been asked
yet, at least publically, is this: assuming the commission’s plan goes ahead,
who would be the super-mayor?
It’s important because whoever gets the job will not only be
a powerful figure politically, but could largely determine how well the model
works.
There’s little doubt that some of the negativity surrounding
Auckland is due to people’s dislike of Len Brown. It follows that the public
has an interest in knowing who might be the supremo of a Greater Wellington.
Most informed observers seem to assume that regional council chair
Fran Wilde has her eye on the job. Certainly, she has pushed aggressively for
amalgamation. But when I asked her about it this week, she kicked for touch.
Whether she stood for the mayoralty, she replied, would depend on the shape of
the final governance arrangements and her personal circumstances at the time.
It was a politician’s answer, as you’d
expect. But Wilde didn’t rule out
standing, and I’d be surprised if it wasn’t part of her grand plan.
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