Labour on Auckland
A helpful spy has sent me a copy of Labour powerpoint presentation – labour-auckland-governance-presentation-06-2009 on the Auckland Super City. Now at last we know what they are proposing. Key details:
- Labour says all councillors should be elected from single-member wards. This is a direct contradiction of the Royal Commission’s recommendation that you want some Councillors who represent all of Auckland – not just a geographical area.
- To reduce the proposed powers of the Mayor so he or she can not even appoint committee chairs. The Mayoral powers are already weak by international standards and Labour wants them even weaker, so that the power lies all with the majority faction on Council.
- To have 10-12 second tier boards or councils only. This means that each local board or Council will cover on average a massive 140,000 people. All the current community boards will be abolished under Labour’s plan so Labour policy is to have the local boards or councils further removed from actual neighbourhood communities. Grey Lynn will be sharing a board/council with Epsom under Labour’s plans, rather than have a smaller more local level of representation.
- To have two seats reserved for Maori on the Maori roll, but not to have a mana whenua seat as proposed by the Royal Commission.
So when Labour claim they are outraged that the Government is not proceeding with the exact form the Royal Commission proposed, you should be aware they are proposing four major departures from the Royal Commission themsleves.