KEY POINTS:
The chief executives of Auckland's two largest cities aren't waiting for the Government to sign off on One Plan before reforming the way they do joint business.
Manukau City chief executive Leigh Auton and Auckland City boss David Rankin have already launched a number of joint council infrastructure initiatives, re-thought how their respective cities' waste management systems could be made more efficient and are working on various shared services agreements.
Auton says the pair made a conscious decision to take a "leadership position" and demonstrate to Aucklanders and the critics that One Plan could be made to work.
The Auckland-Manukau Eastern Transport Initiative which will link the two cities through the Eastern suburbs of Auckland was an early run on the board.
Their two cities between them are responsible for 20 per cent of the NZ economy.
"We have to do it", said Auton from his council's HQ.
"If we don't, how can we expect the smaller councils to join in?"
A proposal to reform Auckland's complex governance system by requiring seven territorial authorities and the regional council to agree upon, then implement a single development plan has been in front of Cabinet this week.
Implementing One Plan approach will be challenging.
It requires a changed mindset. Not just from chief executives used to thriving on competition and (not) adverse to a bit of patch protection, but, also from prospective candidates in this year's local body elections.
The bitter fallout over Economic Minister Trevor Mallard's proposal to build a national stadium on Auckland's waterfront in time for the Rugby World Cup final in 2011 illustrated how difficult it is to form a common purpose in Auckland.
Auckland City Mayor Dick Hubbard, armed with arguments by Rankin, tried to capture the opportunity. The Auckland Regional Council, which ultimately owns the wharf on which the stadium was to be built wouldn't play ball.
It demonstrated (yet again) to central Government how difficult it is getting Auckland to sing on the same page.
The hope is that by taking a 'softly softly' approach to the reform of Auckland's governance, negotiations will (overtime) lead to a regional rationalisation which will remove costly duplications.
When Dick Hubbard, Sir Barry Curtis, George Wood, and, Bob Harvey wrote to the Prime Minister last September with their grand plan to restructure Auckland into three enlarged cities, Helen Clark's beam was a mile wide.
Clark's Government had been fobbing off the inevitable "When are you going to sort out Auckland?" question almost from the time Labour won power in 1999.
But Harvey, who had tipped himself as a possible Lord Mayor of an over-arching Greater Auckland Council, lost his nerve when his Waitakere councillors said they would not let him carve up their city between its North Shore and Auckland neighbours.
It was back to the drawing board again.
After months of negotiations between the seven Auckland territorial authorities: Auckland City, Manukau. North Shore, Waitakere, Rodney, Papakura, and Franklin and the Auckland Regional Council broad agreement was reached on the One Plan approach contained in the final Strengthening Auckland's Regional Governance report.
The results are light years away from an ambitious proposal for a super-city which business has promoted (see details page 10).
EMA Northern chief executive Alasdair Thompson is fed up." I've been to the Herald's Mood of the Boardroom breakfasts and heard Labour and National politicians say they would be prepared to come to the party if Auckland could reach agreement on the way ahead.
"Trouble is, the local politicians don't want to do themselves out of a job.
"It's time for the Government to step in."
But Committee for Auckland chairman Sir Ron Carter urges caution.
Sir Ron wrote to the Government after the governance report was sent to Cabinet. His view is that the region should consolidate what's already on the table now, then take a further look down the track.
It's not just a matter of getting Auckland politicians to sing in harmony.
The region faces a big infrastructure deficit and "new money" is needed to fund investments in areas like broadband infrastructure and energy.
National Leader John Key has called for less reliance on rates to pay for major infrastructure projects. Key says National will offer "tools" such as allowing councils to take on debt to pay for long-running projects, more user-pays and public-private partnerships.
A regional fuels tax is in train.
Many business leaders (and quite a few local officials) believe the Government should redeploy some government funding directly to Auckland to administer.
Talk around town is of a New Deal for Auckland. The critical issue remains "New Money".
