Was this Auckland Council's most ineffective three years?

Wednesday, 25 September 2019

OPINION: Auckland councillors assemble on Thursday for the last time prior to elections, ending a term where progress has been slowed by unprecedented bad political blood.

This is only the third term of the council, created in 2010 through the amalgamation of eight local bodies, but it is one that may be remembered more for the ill-tempered squabbles than the important progress made.

Phil Goff swept into the mayoralty after three decades in Parliament and failed to adapt his political management skills quickly enough to the more collegial, consensus-dominated climate needed in effective local government.

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff is standing for re-election.

By mid-way through his first year, there were enough ruffled feathers to fill a duvet, and a group of councillors proudly self-proclaimed as the B Team became a regular thorn in Goff's side.

* Goff v the 'B' Team: Investigations, bullying and distrust at Auckland Council

* Power of Auckland mayor's office curbed after lashing by ombudsman

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

The first two-terms were devoted to major work required under the amalgamation of legislation, the creation of a long-term vision for development and growth called the Auckland Plan, and the finalising of the development blueprint the Unitary Plan.

The Unitary Plan in particular was both contentious and critical to the city's future, increasing the potential housing density, and the biggest town planning overhaul ever undertaken in the country was wrapped up on the eve of the 2016 election.

Even the post-2013 election revelation of an extra-marital affair by then-mayor Len Brown, partly conducted on council premises, didn't hinder progress, although the councillor's sense of common purpose took a serious knock.

When Goff arrived, it should have been consolidation time for Australasia's biggest local body.

However, he and his inner circle of ex-Wellington mayoral staffers were determined to show local government, how much it had to learn, and how to do better.

Goff commissioned a study of options for a downtown stadium, which ended up costing the council agency Regional Facilities Auckland $1 million.

It alienated many councillors when released only at the insistence of the Ombudsman, after a complaint by this journalist, and Goff initially declined to let councillors read an unredacted version anywhere but in his office.

Auckland Councillors elected in 2016 - including the late Dick Quax, and Denise Lee who became an MP, replaced by Paul Young and Josephine Bartley.

And so the 'B-team' was born, an unusual anti-Goff alliance of both left and right-leaning councillors from veteran Mike Lee on the left, to Daniel Newman and Greg Sayers on the right.

The now seven-year old strategy of re-arranging the city's major sporting venues dragged unresolved through a third term of council.

Support fragmented over whether speedway should move from Western Springs, and how financial aid should be provided to the cash-strapped Eden Park Trust Board.

The mayor as 'chairman of the board' is ultimately responsible for political management, but maybe the often spiteful opposition became more than any one person could overcome.

Sayers voted against almost everything, including a budget that boosted spending on sealing roads in his rural Rodney Ward.

Being in the 'B Team' became a badge of misguided honour, and bizarre victories were chalked up - such as part of the assistance package for Eden Park being a gift, rather than the loan proposed by the mayor.

Two three-term veterans, Lee and former Auckland City mayor Christine Fletcher said they were going to call it a day this election, but opted to seek another term in opposition to Goff.

Fletcher joined John Tamihere's mayoral campaign as the challenger's running-mate, and is now opposing policies she voted for.

Lee's brief flirtation with running for mayor, became a decision to oppose former left-leaning ally Pippa Coom in a ward battle that could split the left vote and raises the possibility the Waitemata and Gulf seat could switch to the centre-right Communities and Residents ticket.

On the upside, important new targeted rates - not mentioned by Goff when he campaigned for office - have accelerated programmes to tackle environmental threats like Kauri die-back, and infrastructure to stop sewage flowing into waterways and beaches.

A regional fuel tax, while imperfect, has kick-started faster work on a range of transport improvements that would otherwise have remained on the to-do list.

The joint transport plan (ATAP) between the council and government became fully-funded after the arrival of a Labour-led government in 2017, though whether the cash exists in the taxpayers' coffers has yet to be confirmed.

There is agreement with the government for light rail, although the project has disappeared into the Government's transport agency, with a whole term of council passing and no sign of when, where and how a line might be built.

The city's hosting of the America's Cup in 2021 has triggered a major city waterfront and cup village upgrade, however in the south, long-standing hopes for a 'Te Papa North' in Manukau have been dashed by the government.

The council will lose one of its wisest political heads next month, with Waitakere ward councillor Penny Hulse stepping down, a politician who knew how to build consensus and negotiate even the most contentious of landscapes.

Whoever leads the fourth Auckland Council in November, and whoever sits in the 20 council seats needs to focus on why they are there.

The politicians need to put the division, point-scoring and often pettiness of the third term behind them, and focus on collaboration to tackle some of the biggest urban challenges in the country.