There are 20 new coronavirus cases in New Zealand as PM Jacinda Ardern reveals all Government ministers and public sector chief executives will take a 20 per cent pay cut.
Top businessman Sir Ralph Norris has deemed a 3.5 per cent rates increase by Auckland Council unrealistic and worried about a "business as usual" approach to the Covid-19 crisis.
Norris said he offered to assist Mayor Phil Goff and chief executive Stephen Town two weeks ago to help with restructuringcouncil activities and reassess the budget.
The response he got was the council had something in train - Goff announced a mayoral business advisory panel on March 30 - and Norris left the matter there.
Norris, who worked at the council headquarters in the days when it was the ASB bank headquarters and he was chief executive, said he found after talking with councillor Chris Fletcher it seems to be business as usual at council.
If that is the case, he said, "it would worry me".
Norris said ratepayers and the wider city have got a lot of stress on them as a result of what has happened with the closedown, citing the struggling hospitality sector in particular, and the impact on rates revenue.
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He compared the actions of the Government making sacrifices and significant changes to its revenue and priorities to the actions of the council.
"I just don't get the feeling the council is doing the same," Norris said.
He said there had been no announcements from council that it is looking at wage costs and making savings, like what is happening in the private sector.
"A commitment to a 3.5 per cent increase in rates, and 4.5 per cent for residential ratepayers, I think is unrealistic in this particular environment," he said.
His comments come as Goff and councillors work through financial scenarios prepared by officers ahead of considering a planned 3.5 per cent rates increase from July 1.
Goff has signalled an intention to stick with the planned increase, saying it will be hard to reduce the figure without compounding council's difficulties and cancelling capital projects.
"Keeping these projects in play will assist with ensuring jobs and incomes vital to our recovery as a community and country from what will be the worst recession since the 1930s," he told the Herald last week.
The mayoral business advisory panel is made up of eight leaders in the business and public sectors and includes Auckland District Health Board chief executive Ailsa Claire, Fletcher Construction chief executive Peter Reidy, Employers and Manufactures chief executive Brett O'Reilly, FIRST Union president Robert Reid and Tourism Holdings chief executive Grant Webster.
Its goal is to assist the city's transition back to normal economic activity when the lockdown is lifted. It also provides feedback to the Covid Cabinet committee.
At its launch, Goff said it will identify issues needing to be addressed and opportunities to get through the difficulties caused by unprecedented interruption in economic activity.
In a letter from Town to Norris on April 7, released by council today, the council boss set out the process officers were taking to address the financial challenges.
Auckland Council chief executive Stephen Town. Photo / Herald
Town said councils face different challenges to other organisations because it is legally obliged to consult with ratepayers to reduce or eliminate services, not eligible for Government support packages and subsidies, and expected to support the Government's stimulus package of "shovel ready" projects.
"We've also identified essential and non-essential services for lockdown and we are already reducing our cost base accordingly," Town said, adding council's cost base will need to be reset and lowered for the next 12 months and beyond.
"I'm confident we already have the team in place to take the region and city forward on a sensible recovery pathway," he told Norris, a former chief executive of the ASB, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Air New Zealand.
