In an exclusive letter written for the Herald on Sunday, Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown outlines what he wants for the city from the new Government.
What Auckland expects from a new Government is well known and has been well publicised by the Auckland Manifesto, released by me last month, so the opportunity to reinforce the message in the Herald on Sunday is more than welcome.
Firstly, as the country’s only Super City representing a third of our population and 40 per cent of our GDP, Auckland expects to be treated with respect by those elected to Wellington, so that means no more being told by central government what projects we have inflicted upon us as a result of election sloganeering. Instead, Auckland will tell Wellington what projects are important to us and that the Government’s job is to help fund these projects.
No more wasting $350 million on consultants driving unwanted harbour and metro rail tunnels, nor unwanted Three Water bureaucracies. That money should have been spent on roading repairs.
The Government needs to regularly sit down with Auckland Council in Auckland and negotiate with the city as partners in the manner expected when the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance set up the big city.
The errors in creating the Auckland Super City must be quickly fixed by legislation so the largest local government organisation in New Zealand can do simple stuff like setting parking fines, putting bed taxes on accommodation providers so we can fund big events, and allowing us to set in place “time of use” charges on our congested highways to deal with morning and evening congestion and get more out of our roads.
Decisions like the blanket removal of the Regional Fuel Tax and the Three Waters legislation need to take place with actions that match the financial implications of these politically attractive moves.
Auckland knows best what transport projects are needed to deal with congestion and to move not only people but importantly freight through our city, and that means that the Integrated Transport Plan for Auckland has to override the appeal of Wellington imposing dramatic but ill-thought-out slogan-based projects that never deliver the benefits promised and always end up with huge cost overruns.
The main thing that Auckland really wants is a fair share of the revenues that the city provides to central government. We send 40 per cent of all taxes collected to Wellington and get a lot less back. The Government’s own report on the future of local government recommended that the Government should pay rates just like everyone else and that GST on rates be returned to local government.
Given how many politicians thought that the administratively complex and foolish idea of removing tax on vegetables was a good idea they would find it hard to argue that leaving the tax on a tax, being GST on rates, shouldn’t be left where it came from, being councils.
As mayor of our biggest city, I look forward to sitting down with the new Government leaders and working through these issues as partners, not as juniors being told by Wellington what we will get. Before the Cabinet positions are sorted out I will gather all the 40 or so Auckland MPs together to get them to bury their party differences and be a team for Auckland on those issues that are needed to make our city the truly successful international city that it should be.
