KEY POINTS:
Somehow Bruce Hucker has clung on as Auckland City's Deputy Mayor while being deposed as the leader of the city council's dominant City Vision ticket. Customarily, the roles are intertwined. Being dumped as a ticket leader after a falling out over policy would mean the loss of the
status associated with the deputy mayoralty. There was certainly good reason for that to happen this time, but Dr Hucker, it seems, has been the beneficiary of his City Vision colleagues' misguided sense of loyalty.
With local-body elections looming, those councillors know they have every right to be angry. Water charges will be a pivotal issue, and Dr Hucker's championing of higher bills could, through association, lead to some losing their seats. All the more reason, it might be thought, to sideline him as far as possible. Deposing him as leader shows the ticket will not brush aside a flagrant breach of its 2004 election pledge to keep water bills "fairly priced". But retention of the deputy mayoralty helps ensure, in the public eye at least, that the issue will continue to dog the ticket.
So, also, does the decision to install Vern Walsh and Richard Northey in some sort of power-sharing leadership role. Mr Walsh, the finance committee chairman, is one of the main orchestrators of the water policy backed by Dr Hucker, which envisages 9 to 10 per cent increases in charges every year for a decade. He will not stand for re-election at the October poll. Nonetheless, he retains a high profile through a co-leadership role with Mr Northey, the leader in waiting.
The City Vision councillors hope to persuade Dr Hucker, who will stand in Western Bays ward, and Mr Walsh to sign up to a policy more closely aligned to that expected of a centre-left ticket. A palatable outcome seems unlikely. Dr Hucker was intransigent in the weeks leading up to his downfall. He has described his approach as a sensible one, and suggested the price rises amount to the weekly cost of half a large packet of potato chips or less than the cost of a 1.5-litre bottle of Coca-Cola. Such statements have a habit of coming back to bite politicians and their parties.
Nor is his policy sensible. It involves the council ramping up the dividend due from Metrowater, thereby consigning householders to higher water bills. Quite accurately, this device has been labelled a rates rise in disguise. It also flies in the face of Metrowater's original mandate to minimise costs to customers, and any tenet of good governance. Metrowater should not be used as a cash cow for spending on other council activities.
Dr Hucker has now paid a price for this ill-judged approach. Yet his retention of the deputy mayoralty condemns his City Vision colleagues to continue, in the words of one, to risk being "tarred with the same brush as Bruce". Perhaps they feel a debt of gratitude to him, based on his work on the council since 1986 and his stewardship of the City Vision ticket of Labour, Progressive, Alliance, Green Party and community independents since it started at the 1998 elections. Whatever the reason, it does not bear close scrutiny.
Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee has noted that Dr Hucker had not stuck with City Vision policy, was not being true to those who voted for the ticket, and was not working with the majority of City Vision councillors. "All that can come out of this," he said, "is a growing cynicism about politicians and politics." He is right. The City Vision majority has stopped short of delivering a decisive and logical riposte to Dr Hucker. He retains the baubles of office, despite clouding his reputation, in a downfall of his own making. The consequences will become evident in October.