KEY POINTS:
A wide variety of views are emerging from the more than 3000 submissions to the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Auckland Governance. The Herald continues a snapshot of who is thinking what.
HEART OF THE CITY
The central-city organisation is calling for a two-tier model made up of
a Greater Auckland Council with Maori seats and 15 to 25 community councils comprising four community councillors and one GAC councillor elected from the ward.
Chief executive Alex Swney said the 1989 amalgamation had weakened the community voice and that was a mistake. It was important to correct that by powering up community boards.
He said electing a mayor at large had repeatedly failed Auckland and the better model was for the GAC to elect a leader with the majority of councillors' support.
"This is not dissimilar to what is now successful up at the Auckland Regional Council and with central Government. We do not elect the Prime Minister at large."
Having eights councils was a bureaucratic nightmare and suggestions to reduce it to three or four "would leave us with bickering between three councils, three out-of-sync plans, three heads and three voices".
The submission said a form of the single transferable voting system (STV), a single voting day and compulsory voting could be an improvement on the current first-past-the-post system, three-week postal ballot and optional voting system.
NEW ZEALAND COUNCIL FOR INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT
The region's governance is characterised by competing leadership and disunity, says the business lobby group's chief executive Stephen Selwood, and the case for fundamental reform is compelling.
With the One Auckland Trust and Employers and Manufacturers (Northern), the Council for Infrastructure Development is advocating its version of the "One Auckland" plan drawn up last year.
It wants to see a mayor elected at large for greater Auckland with a range of executive powers, including the appointment of boards and chief executives to run key agencies.
The One Auckland Council would have 24 members, including the mayor and 23 councillors based on parliamentary boundaries. There would be two Maori seats based on the Tamaki Makaurau and Te Tai Tokerau boundaries.
And there would be 23 community councils - including two Maori councils - made up of five members each. Each council would get the same amount of regional rates to implement community plans.
The One Auckland Council would have three divisions - economic development; community culture and recreation; and sustainable development - and two council-controlled bodies for water and transport.
The submission said "services will be contracted to the private sector, as they are now, but the community councils will be the eyes, ears and voice of the local community to ensure services standards are maintained and improved".
Mr Selwood said it would be reasonable to expect annual savings of $200 million from the current $2 billion running costs.
LAWRENCE CARTER, MEMBER OF ENGINEERS FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Local government has not worked well since the restructuring of 1989. Most decision-making had been removed to the cities, which were seen as remote from the people.
In general, the principle should be that decision-making should be at the lowest possible practicable level. Clearly though, some things should be handled by a region-wide council, such as transport.
As oil prices continued to rise, radical changes would become necessary in many aspects of life, and local government structures should be set up to deal with these.
AUCKLAND ENERGY CONSUMER TRUST
The publicly elected trust, which owns 75.1 per cent of the power giant Vector, says it will be unaffected by any local body changes.
That was because the income beneficiaries were Vector customers livings in the boundaries of the old Auckland Electric Power Board, namely Auckland City, Manukau City and parts of Papakura District Council. Any new local body boundaries would not change that.
The trust said the councils, who are the long-term capital beneficiaries of the trust, have previously tried to claim ownership of the trust assets, but to no avail.
In its submission the trust said it had discussed its views with Auckland City and Manukau councils, who have removed all references to the trust from their submission. The trust understood Papakura had retained a reference to ownership issues.
It has reserved the right to respond to any issue detrimentally affecting the trust.
AUCKLAND REGIONAL PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE
The commission should undertake a health impact study on its final policy proposals so that its recommendations to the Government have the maximum potential beneficial impact on health outcomes, says the service.
"Any changes to local government ... have the potential to impact ... on the health of the region's residents."
It strongly recommended the commission consider the effects on population health and inequalities in its deliberations.
NO MORE RATES
Spokesman David Thornton proposes a "tri-city polycentric" system that brings all levels of elected representations into the loop.
How does it work? Elected local community councils, grouped into three cities, each appoint three representatives to form a Greater Auckland Regional Authority.
The three-tier system is made up of community councils, city councils and the regional authority.
Auckland must be recognised as a polycentric city/region in which the needs of communities are recognised as being as important as the needs of the whole region.
COUNCIL OF TRADE UNIONS
A world-class city is not about elites. It is about everybody. It is not about a few influential people getting their way. It is about everyone having a say, says the CTU.
It supports an expanded role for regional government but not a supercity that wipes out significant opportunities for engagement and reduces democratic participation.
Instead of fewer local authorities, the CTU submissions said, there could be a case for more cities and districts based on populations of about 200,000 to deal with those functions not undertaken by regional government or community boards.
The CTU said the 150,000 workers it represented in Auckland wanted to live in a vibrant region where housing is affordable, communities were safe with local amenities and spaces for events and recreation. They wanted a clean, green environment, opportunities to develop skills and decent jobs.
The submission said there needed to be recognition of the Treaty of Waitangi and the large Pacific Island, Asian and diverse populations in the governance arrangements.
