KEY POINTS:
This weekend, for those hardy enough to brave the chill, entry to Auckland City's public swimming pools went up 20c. It's part of the "every little bit counts" exercise the politicians are going through to try to pare back the city's new 10-year draft budget.
Mobile library buses,
new pool developments, the $33.8 million Rugby World Cup wish list, the "iconic" $51.2 million Te Wero Bridge project, all have been mentioned as potential victims of the razor gang.
But surprisingly, I haven't heard anyone mention one of the most expensive of all the dream projects as a suitable candidate for the chop. This could, of course, be because it's one of the favourites of the bureaucracy.
We're talking the purchase of Queen's Wharf - asking price about $60 million to $80 million, or more accurately, whatever publicly owned Ports of Auckland can squeeze out of publicly owned Auckland City.
I've never understood why the Auckland City bureaucrats thought it was good stewardship of my rates to start splashing it about buying up a wharf that I and my fellow Aucklanders already own.
Now, with useful new amenities like the Avondale and Otahuhu swimming pools likely to fall off the 10-year plan because of the council credit squeeze, it seems even more inappropriate.
And if that's not sufficient reason to persuade the city to taihoa, then surely the unpredictable nature of pending governance reforms surely is. Depending on the outcome of the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance, Auckland City and the owners of the port company, the Auckland Regional Council, could be changed out of all recognition. They might even all be amalgamated into one.
If that were to happen, what a pointless waste of $80 million to city ratepayers buying the wharf would be.
If Auckland City declared an end to its ownership cravings for this and other parts of the waterfront, then the pressure could go back on the port company and its 100 per cent owner, the ARC (through its subsidiary, Auckland Regional Holdings) to get on with the transformation of Queen's Wharf.
Back in February, ARC chairman Mike Lee and his deputy, Chamber of Commerce chief executive Michael Barnett, waxed lyrical in these pages about opening the waterfront to public access by converting it into a cruise ship terminal with public features such as markets and exhibitions.
"The location presents a unique opportunity to provide an accessible area where visitors and Aucklanders can interact. It should include a signature exhibition space and range of amenities to attract visitors and Aucklanders alike."
They called for government investment, pointing to the millions the state had been prepared to throw into the ill-fated waterfront stadium project.
Coming at it from a tangent was Mayor John Banks, who said he had resumed the negotiations to buy the wharf that he'd started during his first term in 2001-2004. "I don't want to see it flogged off to private developers."
It was an odd statement to make, given the ARC had just brought the port company back into full public ownership, to prevent just such an eventuality.
Predictably Scrooge-like was the port company, which was gung-ho about a new passenger ship facility as long as it didn't have to pay for it.
It argues there is not a business case for the port company building a new terminal when most of the economic benefits of the cruise ship industry fall elsewhere. The port bosses claim it is local and central government that are the main beneficiaries.
It's not an argument I've ever understood. Why is processing dead flesh in frozen form considered core business of a port, but handling walking, talking human flesh, not?
Airports do it and make an attractive profit, charging the passengers for the endless upgrades of the facilities, so why can't the port company do likewise?
With the property market collapse, the rehabilitation of the Tank Farm area to the west of the CBD is fast retreating into never-never land. This setback at least provides the opportunity to refocus on the under-used wharf space at the bottom of Queen St.
Now it's up to the ARC family to make it happen. It was the ARC chiefs, Mr Lee and Mr Barnett, who unveiled their marvellous dream a year ago. They own the port company and the wharf. What are they waiting for?
