Rivals at odds over voting system

The two political tickets on the Auckland City Council are at odds over how to elect councillors to the Super City.

The right-leaning Citizens & Ratepayers ticket is pushing for one citywide ward with six councillors, while the left-leaning City Vision ticket wants six wards with one councillor each.

The independent Local Government Commission is meeting councils to get their thoughts on single and multi-member wards for the Super Auckland Council, boundary issues for the council and local boards.

The Government dropped a plan to have Super City councillors elected at-large, but told the commission it favoured multi-member wards.

The final decision will be made by the commission.

There was widespread opposition for eight at-large councillors on the Auckland Council, the main fear being that the at-large system would favour the wealthy, celebrities and political blocs who could afford regionwide campaigns.

C&R leader and Auckland City Deputy Mayor David Hay said there were good reasons for a single ward with six councillors.

It would reduce parochialism and allow councillors to adopt a regional focus, and was less susceptible to future boundary changes.

Six wards with one councillor each would be close to parliamentary boundaries and could create problems.

City Vision leader Richard Northey said smaller, single-member wards would reduce the cost of campaigning and encourage a wider range of candidates.

A single ward of 440,000 people would increase the chances of all councillors coming from the main political tickets, he said.

Mr Northey said C&R hankered for the pre-ward system days of the old Auckland City where the C&R ticket of predominantly Remuera, Epsom and Kohimarama candidates was swept to power with less than half the votes.

The other big councils generally favour single-member wards for the Auckland Council, although there are differing views on the Waitakere and Manukau councils. The Auckland Regional Council has pushed for single-member wards.

North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams said the concern over a multi-member ward was it could result in three members coming from one area of the North Shore.

Manukau Mayor Len Brown said councillors had different views, but he favoured single-member wards to represent about 70,000 people.

Wards of that size would provide good community-of-interest representation and still deliver councillors with a regional focus, he said.

Mr Brown said single-member wards would also boost the chance of ethnic representation in areas with, for example, strong Maori and Pacific Island communities.

Waitakere Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse said she and some other councillors wanted a single, multi-member ward to preserve Waitakere's entity, but there were other views around the council table.

The commission will decide if there will be multi-member or single-member wards when it issues draft boundary proposals on November 20.