NRC finds 'half-truths and lies' in report

More  than $80,000 of ratepayers' money had been used to promote "half-truths and downright lies" in the McKinlay Douglas report on Northland local government reorganisation, the Northland Regional Council heard yesterday.
The claim came from Cr Bill Rossiter as the NRC considered correspondence it had obtained from the Whangarei and Far North district councils through an Official Information Act request.
He said the correspondence should be referred to the Auditor General.
The Far North District Council withheld some of the requested information and the Kaipara District Council did not respond to the request.
NRC deputy chairman Cr Ian Walker said the material supplied queried the honesty of those involved in producing the report and he would hate to see what was withheld.
McKinlay Douglas Ltd was "a hired gun", obviously recruited to write things people wanted to see rather than an objective document, he said, calling for a ministerial inquiry into the report.
The final report recommends either a single unitary authority or two unitary authorities - one based on Far North district boundaries and the other combining the Whangarei and Kaipara districts.
But earlier McKinlay Douglas draft documents obtained by the NRC rate two authorities as the least favoured option and recommend a single authority as "superior" with "much more to offer Northland".
Correspondence obtained by the NRC also discloses report author Peter McKinlay saying a Far North unitary authority is unlikely to be financially viable and he had received "strong signals" that much of central government would have practical difficulties in dealing with two unitary authorities rather than one.
Recommended NRC staff options for responding to the matters uncovered by the Official Information Act request included complaining to the Ombudsman about the FNDC decision to withhold information.
Another option was to ask the Minister of Local Government and/or Auditor General for an opinion on the appropriateness of the process followed to produce the report.
Staff also suggested the NRC could inform the public about the relevant facts, giving the regional council's perspective on material being distributed by the district councils.
Cr Craig Brown said he had attended several district council public consultation meetings on the McKinlay Douglas report and people were not happy with some of the information supplied. He thought the NRC should overlook it and get on with their job.
Chairman Mark Farnsworth said the report was a distraction and the long Northland drought was more urgent  business.
Cr Joe Carr said only two or three people were attending FNDC public consultation meetings.
The report was a regional waste of time and he didn't want to create a national waste of time by referring it to the Minister and the Attorney General.
He moved the NRC write to the district councils expressing areas of concern.
Cr Brown agreed with Cr Carr, but said he was concerned about honesty and the public did not get the full picture if it was half-informed.
He wanted the Ombudsman to obtain the information withheld by the FNDC, and this view was supported by Cr Lorraine Hill and other councillors.
Cr Carr withdrew his motion and the council resolved to seek the withheld information before making further moves.