KEY POINTS:
Auckland City Mayor Dick Hubbard has jumped at a fresh chance to push his agenda of abolishing the Auckland Regional Council and setting up a Greater Auckland Council.
The opportunity has come with a Government decision giving the region's seven councils and the ARC two to three months to come up with a single plan.
Local Government Minister Mark Burton said that after that, legislation would be passed in time for the changes to take effect at the polls on October 13, giving Aucklanders the chance to vote for a Lord Mayor.
Mr Hubbard said for a plan to work, governance issues needed to be addressed first.
The first-term mayor, who has no plans to be Lord Mayor of Auckland, said time was tight but he was determined to get "over the finishing line" in time for the local body elections.
But Mr Hubbard's enthusiasm upset ARC chairman Mike Lee, who accused the Auckland City Mayor of persisting with the "hare-brained" scheme he and the other three big-city mayors came up with last October that fell apart within days.
That plan called for abolishing the ARC and four of the region's seven councils.
Mr Lee said "one plan" should be reasonably easy to pull together. It was not about reinventing the wheel but pulling together things such as the regional growth strategy, regional land transport strategy, regional economic development strategy and Metro plan - most of which had a high degree of agreement.
He said any new set-up had to be more cost-effective and efficient for ratepayers "because why do it?"
Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey was underwhelmed by Mr Burton's proposal to the Mayoral Forum in Auckland. He had wanted to see a framework for change on which the region could hang its future.
"It just wasn't good enough," he said.
Papakura Mayor and Mayoral Forum chairman John Robertson welcomed the opportunity for the biggest shake-up of local government since 1989 - which he noted protected small councils such as Papakura from being abolished.
Mr Burton said the Government had considered the plan and agreed with the recommendation on the development, funding and implementation of an over-arching regional strategic plan or "one plan" as outlined in the proposal.
National leader John Key said if Auckland was to become a world-class city and remain competitive with the likes of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane it had to have a more streamlined system of local government.
"Central government have got to show some leadership for anything to get off the ground," Mr Key said.
Employers and Manufacturers Association (Northern) chief executive Alastair Thompson said the "one plan" proposal was another layer of sticking plaster with more costs attached that would push the issue out beyond next year's national elections. It was weak and disappointing.
