What happened to Phil Goff's 2016 Auckland mayoral promises?

Tuesday, 5 March 2019

OPINION: Phil Goff can point to plenty of good things achieved during his three years as Auckland mayor.

Some of the highlights were not foreseen in his 2016 campaign, but similarly not all the promises turned out as made.

All of 2016's leading Auckland mayoral candidates were outsiders, meaning promises were bold and with no push-back from an encumbent defending the council's performance.

Taken literally, his slogan 'More for Less' was always an impossibility in a city struggling to fund its growth, and beneath it some details got reworked.

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RATES

* The promise: Rate rises will be kept low and affordable at an average of 2.5 per cent per annum or less.

Auckland's regional fuel tax replaced the $114 annual household Interim Transport Levy.

This gets complicated. General rates had risen by an average of 2.6 and 2.5 per cent in the two years before, so Goff was promising what looked like a status quo.

His promised and delivered variation was to bring in road charging - or, as it turned out, a regional fuel tax - to replace the $114 annual household Interim Transport Levy, which was due to expire mid-2018.

Not mentioned in the campaign were new targeted rates added in Goff's first two budgets.

From mid-2017, the accommodation sector picked up a $13 million additional burden, in a Goff-driven policy to make the sector pay half of the city's tourism marketing costs.

That remains subject to the outcome of a High Court challenge.

More than 1286 private accommodation providers, using online agencies such as Airbnb, were hit with a new rate a year later depending on their level of business, bringing in $570,000 this year.

A year later, all ratepayers began paying two new targeted rates equivalent to an additional 4.6 per cent in general rates, covering an accelerated programme of water quality improvements, and one tackling pests and Kauri Dieback under a Natural Environment rate.

Both allowed much-needed additional work to be done and were backed in public consultation, but their financial burden was over and above Goff's 2016 promises.

A partial offset was the ending, as promised, of the transport levy. A political nicety was that for an average value home, the additional targeted rates were the same amount as the saving from the levy. Homes worth more than the average pay more than they did previously.

While residential ratepayers saved $114 a year from losing the levy, economists Sapere Research estimated the average household would pay $252 a year due to the 11.5 cent-a-litre fuel tax, on average $138 per household more than the levy, each year.

COUNCIL EFFICIENCY

* The promise: Each council department will be set an efficiency target, averaging 3-6 per cent across total council expenditure.

From outside the council, Goff boldly proclaimed Auckland Council had historically had a 'cost plus' mentality when it came to budgeting.

He pledged 'as a first step' that each department would be required to find 3-6 per cent in savings to contribute to future cost pressures.

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It was a promise that appeared to ignore the annual efficiency savings being achieved, and in an interview, Goff said his promises were on top of whatever was going on already.

Figures supplied to Stuff forecast efficiency savings of $23m in both this year and next, falling to $16m in 2021. These are additional annual savings of 2 per cent twice, and then 1 per cent.

The council has so far found $13.5m of this year's $23m and expects to find the rest.

The breakdown of how the savings will be achieved include significant elements that were being worked on before Goff came to office. Separating his influence, from the already-happening savings programme is all-but impossible.

In the six years prior to Goff becoming mayor, the efficiency savings achieved were larger than those proposed in the figures from his office, in all but one year. That is not surprising given the low-hanging fruit available early in the council's life - $81m in the first year.

HOUSING

* The promise: Urgent and bold action is needed to stop the worsening housing crisis and restore the affordability and availability of housing.

* Seek to eliminate chronic homelessness

Goff has delivered on his commitment to try to end chronic homelessness, with the creation of the Housing First programme, co-funded by the Government, one of the first policies he championed.

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Elsewhere in housing there is little that can be attributed to Goff's specific ideas, rather than work already underway in council and its development agency Panuku.

Goff likes to point to rising home construction and consenting figures, as did former Housing Minister Nick Smith, in a way that associates the politician with the upswing.

Home building has been on a steady and consistent rise since the post-Global Financial Crisis trough.

In the past year, 13,272 new homes have been consented for building in the future, and 10,475 were officially completed. The numbers have levelled off and remain below the 14,000 estimated to be needed each year for decades, to wipe out a 47,000 home shortage and keep up with demand.

The Government's Kiwibuild programme has the potential to be the biggest shift in Auckland, in delivering more affordable housing.

Goff swiftly convened a mayoral taskforce on housing after being elected, which has not claimed any significant innovation, other than being a valuable forum for participants to share ideas.

TRANSPORT

* The promise: Improved public transport options providing efficient alternatives are needed to stop Auckland grinding to a halt.

As with housing, the election of a Labour-led coalition in 2017 has resulted in the Government making most of the running on major projects which had been advocated by Goff, Labour - the parliamentary caucus of which he left upon election as mayor - and the Green Party.

These include plans for light rail lines, a joint Auckland Council-Government funding programme (which was in place pre-Goff but only partly-funded, and is now fully funded), and the now-introduced regional fuel tax.

Goff's 2016 interest in detailed policy is something he may wish to forget. On ferries: 'Ensure competition where appropriate and bring ferry service contracts within the contracting model which applies elsewhere in Auckland's public transport network.'

Ferries, the costliest form of public transport to provide, have not advanced significantly. Auckland Transport does not plan to integrate ferry fares into the rest of the public transport system until 2021.

A couple of years spent trying to negotiate new deals and new vessels with operators has collapsed and gone back to the drawing board, amid warnings new vessels might not be bought until operators have some certainty of contracts.

THE ROB AND NORM IDEA

Upon election, Goff said he would bring in successful business executives - naming former Air New Zealand CEO Rob Fyfe, and the airline's Norm Thompson - to help make the council more 'efficient, responsive and flexible.' It is an idea that faded without trace.

ONE MILLION TREES

A feel-good policy with environmental benefits is on track, the planting of one million trees in the first term is expected to be completed this year on target and on budget - $3m.