Public backs my vision, says Hubbard

Dick Hubbard

Auckland City Mayor Dick Hubbard says he is getting overwhelmingly positive feedback to a full-page advertisement outlining his vision for the city, but his critics continue to call the strategy a desperate act.

In an unprecedented move, the multimillionaire businessman took out the advertisement in yesterday's Herald at his own expense to make an impassioned plea in favour of hefty rates rises in the city.

Mr Hubbard invoked images of Auckland's past and recalled the exploits of former mayors to justify this year's household rates increase of 13.4 per cent - coming on top of last year's 9.7 per cent hike.

Mr Hubbard said his office and the council call centre had received a huge number of emails, faxes and telephone calls, the vast majority endorsing the approach of the advertisement and thanking him. He did not know the number of responses.

Citizens & Ratepayers Now councillor and former finance committee chairman Doug Armstrong yesterday joined his leader Scott Milne in condemning Mr Hubbard for siding with the centre-left City Vision-Labour group to "support everything they have ever put up" and called the advertisement a desperate attempt at leadership.

"Dick has only got himself to blame for the dilemma he has got himself into. I have never seen such anger over a rates increase," Mr Armstrong said.

Cameron Brewer, press secretary to former mayor John Banks, said the tone of the advertisement was sanctimonious and read like a factory boss telling his workers why they should be happy with a pay cut.

"Labelling ratepayers short-sighted is very ill-advised. In politics the public are always right. It was also wrong to point to past mayoral visionaries because it instantly implies that he sees himself as one. In New Zealand that goes down like a bowl of cold porridge," Mr Brewer said.

The organiser of the No More Rates lobby group, David Thornton, said the advertisement was an insult to ratepayers' intelligence.

Asked if the advertisement would become a turning point in a rocky first two years as mayor, Mr Hubbard said: "I don't know. It's hard to speculate on that. All I can say is I have been absolutely overwhelmed by the response."

Mr Hubbard said he had been addressing issues in the advertisement in talks and had found that people wanted to hear the story of the vision and where the city was going.

"I wanted to reach a wider audience and this seemed to be the appropriate way of doing it. I wanted to be able to do it in my language, in my way and showing my style of leadership."

Public relations expert and political commentator Matthew Hooton said it was necessary for any politician to outline some kind of vision to the public.

"Given Mr Hubbard's mayoralty up till now has been undistinguished and characterised by blunders and petty small issues like the colour of pavers it is not before time that he is thinking to portray some kind of vision of where he wants to take the city."

Mr Hooton said to build on the advertisement, Mr Hubbard needed to publicly humiliate Deputy Mayor Dr Bruce Hucker to end the perception he was controlled by the deputy mayor and to demonstrate he was in control of council.

Then a rates increase would be possible politically for Mr Hubbard, he said.