Mike Williams: Auckland's woes may be good for Bay

Mike Williams

IF YOU watched Television One's 6pm news on Wednesday, you'd be forgiven for thinking New Zealand was really a city-state called Auckland. As an ex-pat Hawke's Bay native, I wondered just what the other two thirds of Kiwis made of the lead stories about Ports of Auckland, transport levies and the delayed sentencing of the ex-CEO of an outfit found only in Auckland.

I became an Aucklander by accident. When Paul Holmes, Peter Beaven and I left Karamu High School to carry on our education, we went to Victoria University in Wellington. Auckland University was never considered, as Hawke's Bay at that time was very much orientated to the south with a very dodgy road between Napier and Taupo contrasting with a regular passenger rail service between Hawke's Bay and Wellington.

As Auckland University was the centre for the study of New Zealand history at the time, I moved north to do a master's degree. After a year at Karamu High and an OE I returned to the Bay. The availability of a teaching job in Auckland took me back.

Every ambitious country needs a big city and these are almost always resented by those who live elsewhere. They hog resources, act as a magnet for young people and warp national economies. Auckland does all of the above.

The issue around the Ports of Auckland is a long-running sore. Unlike Napier, whose port is neatly tucked under the Bluff Hill and could expand out to sea without causing concern, the main port of Auckland sits at the bottom of the CBD and juts into Waitemata Harbour. The latest attempt to expand the port by driving two wharves another hundred metres into the harbour and ultimately reclaiming the seabed in between (as a carpark) has been met by vociferous opposition and is the latest chapter in a history of despoilment of what is a beautiful natural asset.

Living on a peninsula in the Upper Harbour, I won't be confronted by this eyesore on a daily basis, but the wealthy people who will are up in arms.

The people running the port have a long history of selfish arrogance going back to the time of the unlamented Auckland Harbour Board, which fenced off the harbour a hundred years ago.

New Zealand should develop a national ports strategy as was under way under the former Labour Government. The Waitemata will always accommodate a growing passenger and ferry port, but much freight could be landed at Tauranga or Northport near Whangarei. These ports now compete with each other. In a country the size of New Zealand, this is loopy.

Storing cargo on the waterside on land worth billions is equally silly. The port of Los Angeles, handling vast quantities of cargo, has a modest footprint compared with Auckland because just about everything is railed away to a huge inland port at Alameda. The same could happen in Auckland if an integrated approach involving Kiwi Rail was developed.

The latest "compromise" of allowing one wharf extension is unlikely to please anyone. Watch for more sparks to fly.

A precipitous fall from grace by a prominent Aucklander has seemed like light relief beside the port issue.

Alex Swney, the former chief executive of a lobby group called Heart of the City, has admitted charges of tax evasion and false invoicing of his ex-employer and faces a jail term.

Swney mixed with the elite of the city and at one point, ran for Mayor of Auckland.

Heart of the City was Swney's invention; he was gregarious, popular and effective in promoting the interests of CBD retailers.

He got around the town on a scooter and seemed to be in attendance at every local bash. I ran into him on several occasions.

His apparent wealth was ill-gotten and his downfall began when the IRD randomly followed up a GST number on an invoice to Heart of the City.

The GST number was unallocated and the company didn't exist. This led to bank accounts under the control of Swney and a forensic accounting exercise which showed a pattern of false invoicing and non-existent companies.

The judge in the case almost certainly would have sent Swney to jail on Wednesday, but called in sick.

Despite his greed, hubris and stupidity Swney did promote one idea that might have averted the "transport surcharge" that will likely increase Aucklanders rates bills soon.

He advocated that a portion of GST payments should be allocated to local councils. An irony when you consider his offending.

With Auckland rates bills rising further and the port sprawling into the harbour, a united Hawke's Bay Council should be promoting the Bay as a retirement option. Sell your Auckland house, get a better one in the Bay and enjoy the half-million dollars you'll pocket!

-Mike Williams grew up in Hawke's Bay. He is a supporter of pro-amalgamation group A Better Hawke's Bay. He is chief executive of the NZ Howard League and a former president of the Labour Party. He is a political commentator and can be heard on Radio NZ's Nine to Noon programme at 11am on Mondays and Sean Plunket's RadioLive show at 11am on Fridays. All opinions in this column are his and not the newspaper's.