Suburb analogy doesn't fit

NZ First list MP Ron Mark speaks at the Carterton Event Centre during an information and awareness evening, hosted by Wairarapa Toastmasters, on the Wellington reorganisation proposal.

IT WAS a night of analogies at Wednesday night's packed-out presentation at the Carterton Event Centre on the governance of Wairarapa and the Local Government Commission's draft proposal.

Like many analogies, they are useful for comparative purposes, and make useful points, as long as people remember they can also be logical fallacies. Just because one thing became true, does not mean another circumstance will. Tracey O'Callaghan's small boat versus Titanic comparison drew a laugh from an audience stacked with anti-super city people, but it certainly wasn't a fair comparison.

Ron Mark made the most of rubbishing the joining of authorities based on strong connections and linkages, even to the point of suggesting New Zealand could join with China on that basis.

It is also true that several million people live outside London but travel there to work, yet Kent and Surrey remain their own authorities. What Mr Mark doesn't cover is the economics of vast populations, and this is one of Wairarapa's problems.

Shanghai, or Kent, for that matter, can be autonomous and run their own affairs because they have millions of people. New Zealand has always been cursed with a small taxpayer base, and Wairarapa takes that to an extreme. It isn't easy to run an area this size with 26,000 ratepayers.

The funding shortfall is the bogeyman for some. In a letter to the editor, David Waltham asked if the rates paid to Greater Wellington at the moment would be the same as the supposed funding shortfall.

If the $11 million shortfall is accurate, we'd all have to pay from $400 to $500 a year. At the moment, we pay about $100 a year to Greater Wellington for rates.

To me, the extra money isn't insurmountable. The problem I have with the super-city concept is Wairarapa's representation in the pot. I have always thought the "boat" (O'Callaghan's analogy) could do with getting larger, but not to the point of being super-sized. I struggle with the idea of what is effectively a province, with significantly different views, being reduced to a two-person representation on the council. We might only have the population of three Wellington suburbs, but you can't reduce us to a suburb analogy to try to make things fit.