Highway activist reluctant party to war of words with Auckland mayor

By JULIE MIDDLETON

So who is John Haigh, the anti-highway campaigner immersed in a war of words with Auckland mayor John Banks?

Haigh, 57, is an Auckland Queen's Counsel who has become - "reluctantly", by his own admission - the voice of the Hobson Bay Residents' Network.

Haigh is craggy-faced, deliberate and measured in a very lawyerish way, and often gazes out his office window into Shortland St as he ponders answers.

His ideal solution? Public transport, flowing along the corridor where the bay's existing rail lines sit, coupled with measures such as congestion charging to free up motorways.

That public transport would hopefully carry him, too: Haigh doesn't use it now "because it's not adequate, and because - and I accept responsibility for this - I need to get out of the mindset of always using a car.

"I'm as much at fault as the worst motorist, and I see the need for change."

He lives in Seaview Rd near Hobson Bay; Banks has alluded to him as a not-in-my-backyard whinger.

"Of course being close, we'll be more affected than some other people," Haigh admits, "but in fact it's an advantage to me in Seaview Rd [to have a motorway]."

He only has "a peep" of the sea so his views won't alter.

"But it's more than just a personal interest, it's more the environment of Hobson Bay which has been protected over the years by many groups, including my father."

Without intending to, Haigh is following the path laid by the late Frank Haigh, a lawyer and liberal activist.

Among his victories, according to the son: preserving a park on Hobson Bay's perimeter that was tagged for state housing; stopping Auckland University relocating to reclaimed land at the bay; and preventing a petrol station being built on the corner of Hapua and Seaview Rds.

Haigh describes himself and Banks as "friends without having any social interaction" - they met through former Attorney-General Paul East.

So how accurate, really, was that mock-up of the proposed Portland Rd interchange, described as "humbug" and "dishonest" by Banks?

"On the information we were able to ascertain," says Haigh, "it is an accurate depiction of the intended interchange." And the blasted earth around it? "For many years of construction it will be like that."

John Banks v John Haigh, QC

* The computer-driven mock-up is totally dishonest and if it's as quarter as bad as the dishonest mock-up that has been dishonestly distributed across the eastern suburbs ... then I promise I will oppose it.

I'm happy to show my long-time friend, the distinguished lawyer, the plans. I'm happy to show his gracious wife and then they can go out and send an apology to all those people who have been peddled this crap and say we've got it all wrong. - John Banks on National Radio, April 21.

* Those people who authorised (the mock-up) did so completely honestly and to accuse them of being dishonest is in itself dishonest ... they're concerned citizens who are a lot more concerned about the broader community and the bigger picture than Mr Banks and his cronies. - John Haigh on National Radio, April 21.

* It has been brought to my attention that the so-called Hobson Bay Residents' Network behaved 'like a rabble' at last week's Hobson Community Board meeting. I am not surprised given the half-truths and barefaced lies being peddled around the local parish. - John Banks' letter to John Haigh, April 30.

* Quite frankly, I don't have the time or the inclination to respond in the same abusive manner. Suffice to say that your allegations of dishonesty and lies are false. Sadly, John, you seem to be attacking the person rather than the issue For a man who purports to hold the high moral ground at any given moment, this is tragic indeed. - John Haigh's response to John Banks, May 3.