John Roughan: Figurehead maybe, but a crucial one

Either John Banks (left) or Len Brown will be the new city's public face, but unelected CCOs will make most of the key decisions. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Election billboards are always revealing. They can carry maybe five words, six maximum, big enough to be read by passing traffic. Two of them will be the candidate's name. That leaves just three or four.

They are the most visible words the candidate will utter, and the most expensive. Weeks of thought must have been given to them, days of discussion, hours of revision.

In the end, they would express the essence of the person and distil the candidacy's priorities and purpose.

Three of the Auckland mayoral candidates have erected billboards on a prominent corner in my neighbourhood.

Colin Craig says he is "For People not Politics". That tells me quite a lot about him. He is obviously an innocent embarking on public life with no more definite purpose.

Len Brown's message has just two words: "For Mayor". I knew that. He must have discovered there are many who still do not know who he is and the position he wants. That is interesting.

John Banks does not have that problem. He's well known everywhere, a mixed blessing in his case, but it offers him better use of his billboard space. And since he has been an enthusiast for greater Auckland, that is what his hoarding could say: "For a Greater Auckland".

But it doesn't. The billboard his campaign has erected near me says "For Safer Communities".

Those are his most important words, his primary appeal for my vote, his essential mayoral mission. "For Safer Communities".

I feel insulted.

The first time I saw this cynical, gratuitous slur on the neighbourhood I was out walking after dark, as I sometimes do. The circuit takes me through a dense bush park and across a moon-lit golf course. I have never encountered the slightest menace or had cause to give it a thought.

The area is one of those showing a low incidence of crime in an Auckland property guide published in this month's issue of Metro magazine. That was a survey of burglaries, thefts, car conversions and minor disorder. Had it measured street violence I doubt the neighbourhood would register.

We could hardly be safer.

Banks, I think, knows this very well. He also knows that among the powers to be invested in the new Auckland mayoralty, criminal law enforcement does not feature. He is not running for police commissioner.

So why, of all the hopes and plans he could harbour for a newly united city, is he campaigning on crime? The answer, I fear, is that his tactical advisers have taken a poll.

They have probably presented people across Auckland with a random list of concerns and asked them to choose one or rank them.

Crime would rank high for most people regardless of whether they were suffering it.

So would cancer. Why not put that in the poll? It would be as relevant to a mayoral contest. Until I saw that hoarding I had just about settled my vote. Now I'm angry enough to change it. What use is someone who takes such a cynical view of the job he wants?

In Christchurch a mayor has shown how important the position can be. Bob Parker was a beacon of inspiration after the quake - calm with a sense of urgency, clear-headed about what needed to be done.

He expressed the city's trauma amid the rubble and aftershocks but never achingly, never melodramatic or maudlin, always moving to the next need. Aucklanders considering their mayoral vote could usefully try to imagine the candidates in such a crisis.

It was disappointing that neither Banks nor Brown quickly set up an earthquake relief fund. They are mayors of populations larger than Christchurch.

I doubt that Parker was actually calling as many shots as suggested by the television coverage. A mayor is the public face of an organisation of diverse expertise, but the figurehead role is not to be decried.

The Canterbury quake exposed again this country's lack of a suitable national figure.

The Prime Minister was able to step into the role this time, touring the damage, offering sympathy and encouragement where he could. But political leaders use up their popularity after a term or two.

When John Key cancelled his weekend with the Queen I wonder if it occurred to her how unsatisfactory this monarchy is. Had the quake happened in Canterbury, Kent, she would have gone to the scene. Here, the stricken city does not merit a visit from anyone in her family.

The Governor-General probably went to Christchurch but nobody noticed. Figureheads are for morale, they have to be noticed.

The new Auckland mayoralty may not be much more than a figurehead. Council-controlled organisations (CCOs) set up to run transport, property, investments, waterfront development and the like will make most of the concrete decisions.

But the figurehead will be the sole elected voice of the whole city. Those words could matter.