Auckland councillors back trip to Glasgow conference

Bruce Hucker

Two senior Auckland City councillors and two officers are off to a waterfront conference in Glasgow following a political free-for-all over the issue of overseas travel at a time of double-digit rates increases.

Deputy Mayor Bruce Hucker and Citizens & Ratepayers Now leader Scott Milne yesterday took part in a vote by the urban strategy and governance committee to send themselves to Glasgow in October at ratepayers' expense.

They will be accompanied by planning general manager John Duthie and one other staff member, who is still to be confirmed.

The trip has divided the council over the burgeoning cost of overseas travel, leading to accusations of councillor abuse of the travel policy, gutter politics and "unsophisticated journalism".

This followed revelations in the Herald that City Vision councillors Vern Walsh and Penny Sefuiva and two officers took a month-long global jaunt at a cost of $85,000.

The two councillors travelled business class on all long-haul flights, while officers Cameron Parr and Mark Vinall sat back in economy class on all but one leg to save money.

Independent councillor Faye Storer said going to Glasgow at a time of high rates increases was appalling and the council needed to overhaul its policy in order to abolish business-class travel.

She travelled economy class on a trip to the United States, Canada and Italy in September last year.

"There is nothing wrong with economy class. You just need to twiddle your toes a bit and walk around. The difference in cost is far too great," she said before voting against the trip with City Vision councillor Cathy Casey.

There is a $20,000 to $24,000 difference between economy and business class on a trip for four to Glasgow.

Overseas travel has ballooned to more than $100,000 under Mayor Dick Hubbard.

C&R Now councillor Doug Armstrong said he supported the Glasgow trip but believed councillors should travel in economy class and pay the extra cost themselves if they wanted to upgrade to business class.

Mr Armstrong was critical of travel reports containing no cost estimates, saying he got a huge surprise to find that the trip Mr Walsh and Mrs Sefuiva had taken cost $85,000.

In a testy exchange with Mr Walsh over who introduced the policy of business-class travel - C&R Now brought it in in 2003 with support from Dr Hucker - Mr Armstrong said it needed changing because "the policy has been abused".

He was forced to withdraw the statement that councillors were abusing the policy. Instead, he said it "has proved to be faulty".

In a strong defence of the travel policy, Mr Walsh said he was "110 per cent" behind the recommendation to send two councillors and two staff to Glasgow, saying he was appalled the issue had turned into a political football.

"Sadly, what seems to have happened is the debate about moving this city forward has dropped into the gutter by a few people who want to make political points."

Later, Mr Walsh said he was not referring to Mr Hubbard, who dropped a bombshell last month by saying the month-long trip by Mr Walsh and Mrs Sefuiva was too long and he was not consulted.

Mr Hubbard also claimed the first he knew about the trip was when he read about it in the Herald.

Mr Walsh said councillors "should not be spooked by unsophisticated journalism" that failed to appreciate the real issue, which was for officers and councillors to gain knowledge at home and abroad as the council spent billions of dollars on infrastructure over the next decade to move Auckland forward.