Editorial: Public spending is a public matter

Eden Park. Photo / Richard Robinson

The decision by the Auckland Council to spend another $3.17 million on the Rugby World Cup to finance the staging of the three matches transferred from quake-damaged Christchurch was the right one.

The council's 12-7 vote on Thursday to contribute the extra, from its own coffers and those of organisations it controls, adds barely three per cent to the $100m ratepayers are already spending on upgrading Eden Park and tournament running costs .

The financial circumstances in which the city, the country and the planet find themselves are somewhat more problematic than they were in the heady days when New Zealand won the right to host the tournament, but the die was cast long ago and no one should now be objecting to the expense.

What is profoundly objectionable, however, is the apparent attempt by senior council officers to withhold information from Auckland councillors to stifle public debate on the funding.

An unidentified councillor spoke out on the matter this week, complaining that officers had delayed the release of a key report on the extra costs to "force us to make a decision apace".

"[They] are treating us with contempt and we are getting a bit sick of it," the councillor said.

It's hard to disagree. The council's rugby cup executive officer Rachael Dacy said this week that not all funding details would be made public, which, if she was correctly reported, is an extraordinary utterance.

The affair is reminiscent of the cost blowout on the V8 Supercars in Hamilton, which has ended up costing ratepayers nearly $30m after capital costs of $18m were presented to the council and the media as $7m.

The spending of public money, at any time but particularly these days, should be subject to absolute transparency and the most intense scrutiny. Officers who do not understand that - and hold it as an article of faith - should be seeking careers in the private sector.