You might expect Rodney Hide to have a sneaking respect for the arts of conversation, discussion, compromise. In short, listening to other people's points of view.
For the man owes his privileged position as an MP and Minister to that most compromising form of democracy, MMP. Cast your mind as far
back as ... oh, November. He and his party would have been out of Parliament but National asked its Epsom candidate to lie down. Which Richard Worth proved himself a master at. Hide slid back into Parliament through the back door, four yes-people at his heels. For his party's support he was repaid with the job of Minister for Local Government. The title is clearly wrong. This is the Minister Against Local Government.
Hide - and, let's not forget, John Key - tore up the Royal Commission's report on Auckland and ram-raided their half-cocked scheme into law. There was no debate. That might have shown the flaws - like the failed experiment in Papakura, which we report on today.
The Local Government Act 2002, which demands residents have a say in what happens to their own councils, was shredded. Just for Aucklanders. Very quietly, and very deliberately, in that law.
Aucklanders were promised they'd get their say at hearings. First those were limited to talking about the neutered local councils. Then the Government tossed aside protocol and jacked up the Associate Minister of Local Government to shepherd its scheme through ``public consultation'. Today, we advise you how to prepare a submission to that committee. We recommend you do.
Now Hide proposes to review council spending. Oh, good, we'll have a say ... but ``I do not propose to publish a public discussion document', the minister writes, citing ``a number of recent processes that have elicited public views on local government'.
The only processes that have elicited public views were started by The Aucklander, followed by other newspapers. Public views are the very last thing this Minister has sought.
Perhaps he can reform councils on his own. Perhaps he can even make the buses run on time. But the last person who did that for public transport had considerably more than 3.65% of his country's support.
EXPOSED: The failed experiment By John Landrigan
The retired couple serve me vegetable soup and toast. Their Papakura home is cosy, the greeting warm. We've met before. Anne Martin taught at the local secondary school for decades and once ran for mayor. She supported her husband, David Buist, into the mayoralty chains following the election in 2001. In retirement, they are active, fit and passionately community-conscious. As a political team, they campaigned on a platform of transparency and to reverse previous mayor David Hawkins' policy of selling up and privatising council services. The very model that Rodney Hide champions for Auckland's proposed super-city was, they say, an abject failure in Papakura.
The whole town was angry, says Mr Buist. ``[Residents would ring] council to make a complaint about a service but were passed on to various contractors who claimed commercial sensitivity. There was no accountability.'
This was 1985 to 1995, the time of New Zealand's first experiment in selling off public assets and privatising publicly owned services.
Mr Hawkins was elected mayor in 1992. He privatised services such as roading, parks and reserves and build ing consents. Council staff (excluding seven library staff) were cut from 90 to 24.
Water services were sold in a contentious 30-year-deal to Australian company United Water. Overseas shareholders, says Anne Martin, receive profits previously meant for the community.
She says the sale was publicly notified from late December 1996 to January 24, 1997 - when everyone was on holiday.
A local action group conducted a postcard poll and received 1160 votes - 96.7 per cent against selling it. The backyard referendum was ignored.
``We were all so angry,' says Anne Martin. ``How dare they sell our water without us knowing? Big alarm bells should be ringing. What happened to us is going to happen to the rest of Auckland.'
Mr Buist says contractors made few improvements and offered minimum maintenance of council assets. He was forced, as mayor, to buy back engineering and regulatory services.
The $13.1 million paid to the council for the water franchise was spent on a new library building and a swimming pool.
The public now pays entry to the pool and it still costs the ratepayer more than $1 million a year to run.
The ``white elephant' that is the library is little used because it's in a near-empty mall part-owned by the council.
Aucklanders should be aware, says Mr Buist, that big-ticket projects such as revamping the waterfront and public transport are on the super-city agenda. They should also note that both Papakura projects had significant budget overruns paid from council funds, topped up by rates increases.
``With little staff, the district was left with no expertise or technical competency to see if contractors were delivering a good service,' says Mr Buist. ``They could not have done the right feasibility study on the pool and library.'
As a result, council rates, which dropped to the lowest in the country under Mr Hawkins - if you didn't include your water bill - rose again. Rates jumped by a whopping 36.4 per cent between 1999 and 2002, and have increased steadily since.
Staff also grew from the 24 under Mr Hawkins to about 124 full-time staff now, as progressive councils, including that led by David Buist, clawed back services.
``If the super-city proceeds,' says Mrs Martin, ``it will be like having a house with a flash garden in the front but a backyard full of weeds.'
Mr Hawkins declined to comment.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW? David Hawkins is corporate affairs manager of Watercare Services.
The chairman of the transition agency overseeing Auckland's move to a super-city, Mark Ford, was chief executive of Watercare Services. He was appointed to his new role by Local Government Minister Rodney Hide.
Sir Roger Douglas was Minister of Finance, architect of central government reforms, and Manurewa MP. Political mentor to Mr Hide, he is back in Parliament for Act.
George Hawkins, David Hawkins' brother, was earlier Papakura Mayor and instrumental in selling the bulk of the district's Auckland Airport shares. He is now Manurewa MP and Opposition spokesman on local government.
Here's how you can have your say
Lippy Chalmers is worried her little suburb will lose out under the super-city. She lives in Ranui, West Auckland, but it could be any one of 1000 similar communities around the greater Auckland region.
Mrs Chalmers says the suburb has done a lot to stifle crime in the past few years, but she worries the hard work will be undone when the new council takes over.
Mrs Chalmers looks after the Ranui Community House, and says most people have no idea how to get their views listened to. She has joined Massey Community Board and other community groups to help people write submissions to the select committee, which is deciding how Auckland is governed.
``We haven't been given any time to write submissions, but I think the Government has underestimated people. There's a groundswell of people who want to have a say, but don't necessarily know how to do so.'
She says a lot of people would find submitting something to a select committee ``quite scary. People don't realise that all they've got to do is write a letter, a couple of paragraphs or bulletpoints, to say how they'd like the the city run.'
Here's how to have your say:
- List your name, address and contact details, and state whether you want to speak at a hearing.
- Outline your points of concern or support - these only need to be bulletpoints or paragraphs.
- Send to: Freepost, Clerk of the Committee, Auckland Council Committee, Select Committee Offices, Parliament, Wellington (no stamp needed), or email: agl@parliament.govt.nz.
Submissions close on June 26.