KEY POINTS:
It was rather clever, and a tad subversive, of the ARPASS (Auckland Regional Physical Activity and Sport Strategy) secretariat to release its report into the haphazard growth of Auckland sports facilities in the same week as the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance opened for business.
Highlighting local councils'
plans to spend $180 million over the next five to 10 years upgrading major sports facilities on their own patches without co-ordinating this expenditure on a regional basis will be grist to the commissioners' mill. It's also a timely reminder of why Auckland needs a governance shake-up.
Eighteen months ago, when this sports facility review was first announced, I suggested it was a waste of money unless the councils and sports bodies gave commitments to abide by any decisions made and agree that any funding be on a regional basis. Of course, no one did.
I've never quite fathomed why the various tribes that govern Auckland - assorted government agencies included - created a regional conscience like ARPASS. Perhaps the city fathers saw it as a form of confessional. A place to trot along to every so often to seek forgiveness for their parochialism, praise regionalism, then head back to their city halls to sin again.
The new report highlights the wasteful duplication of facilities likely if the spend-up proceeds without better co-operation between councils.
ARPASS has also released a report on Auckland's readiness to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Together, the reports underline the short-sightedness of selecting Eden Park as the region's main stadium. Not that Aucklanders had any choice. Just over a year ago, after we rejected the Government's waterfront stadium proposal, the then Sports Minister, Trevor Mallard, and his advisers said their final offer was a cheap upgrade of Eden Park, or nothing.
At the time, the Auckland Regional Council and others argued that an Eden Park upgrade would fail to provide a suitable future venue for the Commonwealth Games. The ARPASS report agrees.
The new Eden Park makes no provision for an international athletics track and installing one later, says ARPASS, would need the removal of an unspecified quantity of existing seating.
The report adds that "the viability of developing a world-class stadium incorporating an international athletics track will need to be one of the first questions answered before any decision is made on bidding for a future Commonwealth Games."
It suggests Mt Smart Stadium, with plenty of space for warm-up facilities, "may be the most cost-effective Commonwealth Games venue".
If so, think of the money that would have been saved if we'd rebuilt Mt Smart as a combined rugby and athletics stadium to begin with. Now, we're faced with building a new one if we're ever to host another Games.
Talking consultation, the politicians who promised at last year's election to slash wasteful spending are now happy to splash the cash around trying to influence the royal commission. Auckland City bureaucrats, for example, say they "anticipate the level of external resource budget required will be around $300,000 to $350,000". That's for PricewaterhouseCoopers consultants and the like. They're also planning fact-finding trips to Brisbane. They're even talking of consulting we ratepayers.
Now perhaps I'm simple, but I thought it was the royal commission that had been appointed to do the consulting.
The antipathy to change and co-operation displayed by Auckland's eight local councils in recent years is the very reason a royal commission was set up.
Over the past year or so, the bureaucrats and politicians were so frightened of change that they actually ganged together for once, dashing off reports to Wellington recommending as little reform to governance as they thought they could get away with. Their prejudice to change is well known.
Those wanting to put their view would be best to do it directly to the commissioners, by mail or go to www.royalcommission.govt.nz. That way you will know it arrives unfiltered.