David Tennent: Unity: It makes dollars and sense

David Tennent

I heard a prominent Napier person speak recently and he stated that in his opinion Napier did not need the rest of Hawke's Bay and should operate independently.

This attitude has been prevalent in our province for too long and has caused far too many parochial stances. We do not have a large population, 150,000 people in fact, which is small by comparison with other regions, and such a divisional attitude hinders progress.

Add to that the fact that we have five council bureaucracies with their associated overheads and duplication, who until recently had little communication with each other, and it comes as no surprise that we have fallen behind other regions of a similar demographic profile.

To compare Hawke's Bay with Auckland, as some have, is ridiculous. We are poles apart and have very different reasons for combining. Auckland is a rapidly growing city with a large population, whereas we are a rural region with a small population struggling to get ahead.

Change is something people do not readily feel comfortable with but it is inevitable in the interest of progress.

My generation, the baby boomers, have advanced from using manually operated adding machines and stock scales etc, to digital everything and the computer age.

Also in my experience, we've progressed from a telephone on a party line which we shared with neighbours to today's iPhone which sees me sending and receiving emails, texts and phone calls while out and about on the farm. All change for the better. Technology has made our world a smaller place and allowed services to be rationalised and shared.

I live in Takapau, at the southern end of our region, and would have no problem seeing the main council offices in Napier, as is the case with the Hawke's Bay Regional Council now.

The Bay is generally a conservative region, so the vision to combine five councils into one will inevitably polarise people, especially the politicians who will be affected.

It has been telling that some of these politicians have been the squeakiest wheels when fighting this vision.

Councils have a number of roles to play which affect us all on a daily basis (sewerage, roading, rubbish collection, water, etc) but most of these utilities occur as a matter of course and are the responsibility of management, just as in any business providing a service.

They do not necessitate the input of dozens of separately functioning councillors.

Other services such as libraries and sporting amenities, etc will require decisions being made by the politicians to reflect the wishes of their communities.

Hawke's Bay does not need five autonomous bureaucracies to deliver the services we require. Apart from the inefficiencies of the system, it is also hugely expensive and we, the ratepayers, are paying dearly.

Many investigations into the financial implications of the current system have all come back concluding there are considerable savings to be made by combining forces. The latest is the Local Government Commission saying $10 million could be saved, of which more than $6 million could come out of a senior-management restructure. This significant saving could be spent on enhancing our region and reducing rates.

It is essential, if we are to progress in this region, that we grasp this opportunity to change local government here, an opportunity which will not come again.

We owe it to the next generation to provide an environment that will encourage them to stay and work here in a unified Hawke's Bay.

David Tennent is a farmer and former Central Hawke's Bay district councillor.

Business and civic leaders, organisers, experts in their field and interest groups can contribute opinions. The views expressed here are the writer's personal opinion and not the newspaper's. Email: editor@hbtoday.co.nz. Viewpoints on the amalgamation debate can be submitted for consideration and will be used as long as no council resources, money, time or expertise are used in their preparation. This is a requirement of the Local Government Act 2002.