KEY POINTS:
The chairman of the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Auckland Governance, Peter Salmon, QC, has strongly criticised Manukau, Waitakere and North Shore City Councils for putting their own interests ahead of the interests of Auckland.
The retired High Court judge delivered the message yesterday after Manukau City Council had finished making a submission pressing for survival in the biggest shake-up of local government since 1989.
North Shore and Waitakere City Councils have also, in the words of Mr Salmon, "waved little flags saying, 'We are the best'."
"I would like to see the big councils expressing a view that put Auckland first. What we get from each of them is expressing a view putting their own territories first," he said.
The commission has finished public hearings in the district councils of Franklin, Papakura and Rodney as well as North Shore, Waitakere and Manukau cities.
Next week, it moves to Central Auckland where the Auckland City Council and Auckland Regional Council will present submissions with a stronger focus on regional governance and the abolition of city councils.
Auckland City favours a centralised regional body controlling neighbourhood boards with few powers.
The ARC favours a Greater Auckland Authority supported by about 30 empowered community councils.
Mr Salmon said yesterday the commission did not have any idea at this stage what form of local government would be best for Auckland.
Manukau councillors and senior staff disagreed with Mr Salmon's view that they were putting their own interests first.
They said the council model of three cities - northern, central and south - under a Greater Auckland Council with a regional strategic planning framework did put the interests of Auckland at the forefront.
The southern city would include Franklin and Papakura District Councils.
Under the model, the Greater Auckland Council would be made up of 12 regional councillors, three appointed councillors from each of the three cities and one Maori representative from each city.
Councillor Colleen Brown and chief executive Leigh Auton made special mention of Manukau's social dimension, something that would be threatened under a single-city model.
Olympic champion and councillor John Walker said his Field of Dreams programme to get disadvantaged children involved in sport would not work under one city.
"Who will take the kids from Otara, Mangere and Manurewa. They sure won't in Auckland. We will in Manukau," Mr Walker said. To which Mr Salmon said: "Why shouldn't Field of Dreams cover all of Auckland?"
Colleen Brown said the council had provided swimming pools free of charge for social reasons. "My concern is if you create little units of governance, how will those free swimming pools stay open for residents?"
