KEY POINTS:
National leader John Key and a group of business lobbyists entered the debate about reforming Auckland councils yesterday to a mixed response from local leaders.
Mr Key, the MP for Helensville, said a National government would reform Auckland's seven councils and regional council but kept his options open
about one super council, a smaller-scale merger into three, or keeping the eight councils but requiring them to share utility services.
His comments, made to the local government conference in Dunedin, coincided with the launch of a new campaign for one super council to run the region of 1.2 million people.
The Fix Auckland campaign calls for public feedback on abolishing the eight councils and establishing One Auckland Council with a mayor elected at large and 21 community councils based on electorate boundaries.
The campaign is being fronted by the Employers and Manufacturers Association (EMA) with support from the New Zealand Council for Infrastructure Development business lobby group and the One Auckland Trust, headed by local government consultant Grant Kirby.
Auckland City Mayor Dick Hubbard, Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee and Papakura Mayor John Robertson, who chairs the political reference group working with the Government on strengthening local governance in Auckland, had different takes on the latest ideas.
Mr Hubbard said Mr Key was promising to look at an issue that had been around for two years but had nothing specific to add.
He agreed in principle with the EMA's radical overhaul.
Mr Lee said Mr Key focused on the problems in Auckland but was fuzzy on solutions.
The Employers and Manufacturers had come out in a blaze of publicity with a fine idea to fix Auckland but had to back up what they said.
Mr Robertson said the fact Mr Key was keen to engage with the problem of strengthening regional governance was helpful. He believed the EMA claims of $200 million in efficiencies from reducing the councils to one super council needed robust analysis.
In his speech, Mr Key called for less reliance on rates to pay for infrastructure projects and said National would offer "tools" such as allowing the council to take on debt to pay for long-running projects, more user-pays and public-private partnerships.
User-pays for water and community services are a theme under the Fix Auckland campaign.
Employers and Manufacturers (Northern) chief executive Alasdair Thompson said a suggestion on the website for businesses to pay the same level of rates as households was an "EMA view and not part of the plan".
When the regional council tried this tack in 2003, household rates rose by up to 467 per cent, leading to the rates revolt which cost ARC chairwoman Gwen Bull her job.
Mr Thompson said claims of $200 million savings a year from moving to one council came from discussions with a number of accounting firms, who said it could save at least 10 per cent in operational costs.
That would equate to a saving of about $400 a ratepayer for spending on much-needed capital infrastructure projects.
Plans by local councils and the Government to strengthen local government were just "tinkering around the edges" and the campaign was an attempt to engage the public in more dramatic reform.
Mr Robertson said he expected Local Government Minister Mark Burton to respond this month on the latest proposal to strengthen regional governance.
The main points of the latest plan include beefing up the regional council, renaming it "Greater Auckland" and replacing the regional growth forum with a regional sustainable development forum tasked with developing "One Plan" for the region.
Mr Hubbard was concerned that in reaching a consensus the region would end up with the lowest common denominator. The Government needed to listen carefully to the message from Auckland and show strong leadership.
No More Rates group spokesman David Thornton said the Fix Auckland campaign was a naked grab for power under a business-dominated single council.
Mayoral candidate John Banks said he had no preconceived ideas about one or more councils for Auckland, but welcomed the debate.