KEY POINTS:
The Government is setting up a Royal Commission of Inquiry on whether there should be a more radical restructuring among Auckland's local bodies.
Since last year the Government has been working with the eight councils running New Zealand's largest city to see if they could be better organised.
The inquiry has been given extraordinary political weighting. It is only the third Royal Commission in modern history. There have been Royal Commissions into Genetic Modification and the MMP voting system.
Local Government Minister Mark Burton said the issues were complex and Auckland should not be dictated to be Wellington.
"The commission will examine and report on what local and regional governance arrangement are required for the Auckland region over the foreseeable future," Mr Burton said.
"The commission provides the opportunity for a broader and independent assessment of what is needed to achieve Auckland's potential."
The commission's membership and terms of reference are yet to be set.
Mr Burton hoped the commission would report in late 2008.
In the meantime, Mr Burton said the Auckland Regional Project Report showed the Auckland councils had sufficient agreement on some steps towards stronger regional leadership:
* A "strengthened regional council" (possibly called Greater Auckland) with the current council's functions plus some additional responsibilities such as tourism management, regional economic development and significant events management;
* A "One Plan for Auckland" to promote social, economic, cultural and environmental well-being through action plans; and
* A committee of the regional council known as the Regional Sustainable Development Forum to develop the "One Plan".
Councils aim to have membership and operation of the forum decided before the 2007 local elections and by the end of January 2008 all the various councils are to agree on the transfer of responsibilities to the regional council.
Mr Burton said central government would continue to support Auckland towards greater collaboration and improved planning for the region.
The Commission of Inquiry could be the biggest shake-up in local bodies in the region since the major restructuring of the late 1980s when more than 20 small suburban councils were amalgamated in Auckland, as well as forced amalgamations of rural bodies to form district councils.
It comes after gowing debate as to whether New Zealand's largest city should be governed as a "super city", with one major council, rather than its current structure of four large city councils (Auckland, North Shore, Waitakere and Manukau), with three other smaller councils of Rodney, Papakura and Franklin.
The Auckland Regional Council runs transport and environmental planning for the region.
Last year, the four city mayors discussed the proposal of a super-council.
However, the idea was shelved after opposition from the Rodney, Papakura and Franklin districts, as well as the ARC, who were all shut out of the discussions.
It also met opposition from several of the mayors' own councillors.
North Shore mayor George Wood welcomed news of the inquiry, saying his wish had come true but that there would be costs to the community that had not been budgeted for.
"Deep down in my heart of hearts I'm pretty happy that the Government's decided to look at Auckland in a comprehensive manner," Mr Wood said.
He said in-depth analysis would be done and fundamental changes made that would save councils more in the long run.
"You probably could find quite a bit of cost savings. The people of Auckland will probably still want to see the local in local government," Mr Wood said.
He said the integration of water, IT services and the seven District Plans as well as the Auckland Regional Council's regional plans could be "brought together".
"There are only 1.3 million people in Auckland but there are a huge amount of complex systems," Mr Wood said.
But the likely costs of hiring legal representation and the "dreaded consultants" to prepare reports had not been budgeted for under the 10 year plan, Mr Wood said.
Rodney mayor John Law said it made sense to have one urban authority with Franklin and Rodney on the periphery, as unitary authorities.
The Auckland regional governance project includes Rodney in the report but Mr Law said the commission would likely find that Rodney and Franklin should stay separate because they were "rurban" not rural or urban.
"Close down the ARC, we don't need them, and I think the people will appreciate that," Mr Law said.
He said Rodney could keep committee links with Auckland on items like water supply and some bylaws.
He said Rodney had previously looked into becoming a unitary authority but a report to council found it would cost the council more to break out on its own.
Mr Law said the report did not look at how much the council could save by making its own planning decisions and now that the way had been made possible through the inquiry, "we have every opportunity'.
Franklin District Council mayor Mark Ball had not heard of the announcement when nzherald.co.nz called.
"That's a bit of a major," Mr Ball said.
He said the Franklin District Council supported the one city plan and it made sense for members of central and local government to get around a table to determine the needs of the community.
Last week, the Employers and Manufacturers Association (Northern) called for a super-council for Auckland, while National leader John Key promised reforms.
Today he said he welcomed "an objective discussion".
"It's along the lines I proposed in my recent speech to the Local Government Association. It's critical that we get buy-in from a wide range of Auckland decision-makers," he said.
"This can't be a partisan exercise for Labour. We need a lasting solution that will stand the test of time."
Others have advocated ideas such as reducing the number of councils and retaining the status quo but with more infrastructure being built and run by region wide organisations.
- NZPA / NEWSTALK ZB / NZ HERALD STAFF
