The year of harsh political reality for Auckland and Wayne Brown

Friday, 20 January 2023

Todd Niall is the senior Auckland affairs reporter for Stuff.

ANALYSIS: This is a year in which realities will come home to roost, both for the mayor Wayne Brown and for Aucklanders, who on top of other pressures, will get less from their council while paying more.

The expectation that once Covid-19’s impact faded things would return to “normal” has gone, with the upward trajectory of public transport use now snapped, and a focus on climate action seemingly replaced by trying to balance the council’s books.

Brown, his council and Aucklanders who engage on shaping the city’s toughest-ever budget will have to decide what they can live without in the quest to plug a deficit last forecast to reach $295 million.

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Even if the hit from global inflation and high interest rates softens sooner rather than later, community programmes and access to council facilities face a trim, and rates will rise an average 4.6%.

Juggling the numbers will have little impact on one part of Auckland life – how people get around – as the long-running success story of public transport use enters a bleak chapter.

More than 1000 bus services have been cut, due to a shortage of 500-plus drivers, with further ad hoc cancellations, and recruiting in a tight job market, even with higher wages on offer, will be a slow turnaround.

The greatest success, commuter train use, is a locked-in fail, with an extended summer shutdown for maintenance and upgrades flowing into a two-month closure of part of the southern line and a nine-month closure for the eastern line.

For reasons never clearly explained, years of disruptive repairs by KiwiRail to under-maintained tracks will be capped-off with the replacement of the foundations they sit on.

There is no escaping the disruption, and it is certain there will be a swing back in favour of motoring – just as the city should be cutting back driving to meet climate change goals.

Wayne Brown’s headline campaign themes were shaking up council agencies and accelerating the relocation of Auckland’s port, but he will find the political priority in 2023 will be striking the right mix of measures to balance the budget with minimum impact on Aucklanders.

Port reform will be important, but a back-burner issue, with Brown already having to back away from his declared timeframe for the ending of the vehicle trade.

Brown’s December 2024 deadline did not make it into his letter of expectation to the council-owned port company, after it became a barrier to political consensus from councillors on how the port should evolve.

That was a lesson in consensus-building, and that the mayor really is just one of 21 when it comes to the council taking a position on something.

Brown’s wish to accelerate a shrinking of the port’s operational space may run up against the provisions of the Port Companies Act, which requires the company under statute, led by its directors, “to operate as a successful business”, not to mention the scale of the nationwide consequences of such a change.

The pressing issue which Aucklanders have a role in, is deciding what should or shouldn’t be cut in the proposed $130 million reduction in council operation spending next year.

The suggestion it should quit childcare centres it runs was backpedalled after a strong community response, showing that the public consultation process in March could make a real impact on direction.

As well as what should or shouldn’t be cut is the question of whether a slightly higher rates rise might retain important services – an extra 1% on rates raises $20.4 million and would add 54 cents a week to an average value home’s annual bill.

The coming year in Auckland will involve things that simply have to be toughed out, but among the gloomy talk, the budget consultation is a chance to make a positive impact on retaining what Aucklanders value most.