C&R looks to hook voters with rates policy favouring richer households

The Super City's first elections are next year. Bernard Orsman looks at how the centre-right is planning to fight them

Citizens & Ratepayers, which has ruled Auckland City Council almost continuously since 1944, now wants to rule the Auckland Super City.

The de facto local government branch of the National Party is planning to run a single ticket for the 20 ward seats on the Auckland Council and candidates for the 126 seats on 19 local boards.

In essence, that is the plan, says John Slater, C&R president and former president of the National Party.

An exception could be made for a traditionally independent candidate with C&R leanings and a decision has still to be made about sub-brands, such as C&R Manukau and C&R Waitakere.

Mr Slater said the rationale for a regionwide ticket was C&R's well-accepted values for local government - transparency, efficiency and good governance.

At the 2007 local body elections, C&R dipped its toe in the water outside Auckland City, with some success. The high-profile Christine Rankin won a seat on the Auckland Regional Council and Paul Mitchell was elected to the Waitakere City Council.

The trial was in anticipation of a Super City, and since then C&R has been working to roll out its brand. A few months ago it merged with its equivalent in Manukau, Peoples Choice, and has a branch in Waitakere with enough members for candidate pre-selection.

Peoples Choice councillors Dick Quax and Michael Williams, plus Jami-Lee Ross, have joined the C&R bandwagon and could seek nomination for the two ward seats in Howick-Pakuranga-Botany. It made sense for Peoples Choice to adopt the stronger C&R brand, said Mr Quax.

Mr Slater said the biggest difficulty facing C&R was the overcrowding of potential candidates in centre-right strongholds.

"I'm reminded of the similar problems we had when we went from first-past-the post to MMP with 100-plus electorates crashing into 60."

The Orakei-Maungakiekie ward lurks as the biggest challenge, with five sitting C&R councillors for two seats. There are challenges accommodating two C&R Auckland Regional councillors, Michael Barnett and Judith Bassett, and finding a candidate for the prestigious, but single-member, ward of Maungawhau-Hauraki Gulf. Western Bays councillor Greg Moyle is keen, but it could be the perfect fit for Mr Barnett - Mr Chamber of Commerce in Auckland. Another possible contender is Hobson community board chairwoman Desley Simpson.

Mr Slater said it had yet to be decided if C&R would endorse Auckland City Mayor John Banks for the Super mayoralty, even though C&R and Mr Banks are effectively joined at the hip.

On policy, C&R can be expected to stick to their core beliefs of low rates, doing the basics, strong governance and transparency. A committee, headed by Auckland City deputy mayor David Hay, and including council finance committee chairman Doug Armstrong and Mr Barnett, is developing a rates policy that is likely to combine a mix of capital value (land plus buildings) and uniform charges that favour better-off households at the expense of poorer households.

The challenge for C&R, and any credible ticket and mayoral candidate for that matter, will be devising a single rating system for the region. Whatever system is adopted will create winners and losers because every council operates differently. The same applies to water charges.

C&R, which operates a strict party whip on the Auckland City Council, has still to decide if it would support a centre-left mayor, or work in opposition to the mayor. This happened in the previous council of Auckland City Mayor Dick Hubbard.

"The greatest chance of success for Auckland City is to have the mayor and council in sync, otherwise there is potential for a major catastrophe. This is a test case for the rest of New Zealand and it's incredibly important that these first three years are successful," Mr Slater said.

The biggest challenge to a single C&R brand is in the National Party strongholds of Rodney, Franklin and the North Shore where party politics are anathema at the local level, and there is deep distrust of Auckland City politics infecting the region.

Rodney Mayor and former Act MP Penny Webster is standing as an independent for the Rodney ward: "It is very important for the rural areas that you have someone who fights for what the people need. You can't do that if you are constrained by party politics."

North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams said: "I find it quite arrogant and offensive that people on the other side of the bridge are conspiring to set up a regime on the North Shore.

"Part of the whole problem of the Super City is the centrist mentality coming out of Epsom and Remuera who think what is good for them will be able to be transposed on other communities."

North Shore deputy mayor Julia Parfitt represents the conservative East Coast Bays, but attended the Super City mayoral campaign launch of Manukau Mayor Len Brown and came away impressed with the centre-left candidate.

"I could work with whoever. People who support me don't want political parties to be involved in the process. They want to know you are beholden to electors, rather than ruled by instruction from a politicised grouping."

She believes a regionwide C&R ticket could backfire badly for the simple reason that many people do not want national politics in local government.

WHAT IS AT STAKE
* The most powerful political body outside Parliament.
* Control of the Super City, representing 1.4 million people.
* 20 seats in 12 wards on the Super City.
* 126 seats on 19 local boards.

* Tomorrow: How the centre-left is gearing up.