Brian Rudman: Into the strange world of ARTA, ARH and ARC

COMMENT

The brave new world of a single Auckland transport entity grew a step closer last week with the report back, from Parliament's transport committee, of the Local Government (Auckland) Amendment Bill.

That's the legislation promising to deliver a one-stop transport shop, integrating the decision-making process for the region's land transport systems.

In anticipation, the regional council has already appointed panels to select board members for the Auckland Regional Transport Authority and for Auckland Regional Holdings (ARH).

The authority, which was announced in the Government's $1.62 billion transport funding and governance package last December, will be responsible for integrating public transport, local roads and travel demand management across the region. ARH will hold and oversee the assets previously held by Infrastructure Auckland, the biggest of which is the 80 per cent shareholding of Ports of Auckland still in public ownership.

The bill emerges from the committee stage with the Government's intention intact of keeping the day-to-day operations and control of transport authority safe from the meddling hands of local politicians and bureaucrats.

But there are changes in response to submissions from local councils. A significant retreat is in the composition of ARH's board of directors. ARH controls the region's $1.3 billion honeypot of assets; not only the port company shares, but also more than $300 million in invested cash. The territorial councils feared ARC would stack it with regional politicians and bureaucrats. Economic fundamentalists wanted it stacked with businessmen. The committee have come up with a reasonable compromise, stipulating that there be no more than two regional council representatives.

A majority of the committee are also recommending that the entire Franklin District, including the part belonging within the Waikato Regional Council boundaries, be managed by Auckland Regional Council and the transport authority for land transport purposes, given the strong links Franklin's transport system has with Auckland's.

There's also consideration of the ownership of what will be ARH's single biggest asset, the shareholding in Ports of Auckland.

The committee's decision to make it even more difficult to sell off this asset than provided for in the original draft highlights what a strange world we live in.

It's only a month since the Government paid $54 million for the iconic Westhaven marina following public uproar over Ports of Auckland's decision to sell it.

Hocking off such a treasured piece of the Auckland waterfront was unthinkable said the politicians. The depth of feeling was so great that parliamentarians on the transport committee have let it rub off on the even stronger restrictions they have built into any future sale of port company shares by ARH.

The original bill said ARH could not sell any port company shares without the written consent of the regional council. A majority of the committee, chaired by Mark Gosche, considered this protection too weak. The revised bill requires that for the sale of any port shares, the ARH must conduct "a special consultative procedure". Further, if it plans to sell more than 24.9 per cent of its holding, it must poll all residential electors of the region and abide by the majority decision.

ARH would have to pay the costs of the poll.

Which is all well and good and reassuring for those wanting to retain the ownership of Auckland's waterfront in public hands, except for one vital detail. What's the use of battling to retain 80 per cent public ownership of Ports of Auckland when its directors can, with impunity, turn around and sell off the land this bill is supposed to be protecting? As I said, it can be a strange world.

The rest of the region has scored a victory over Auckland City in the little matter of the ownership of America's Cup Village.

On the eve of the Government's reform package last December, Auckland city had stitched up a deal with Infrastructure Auckland - now deceased - to take over ownership of the $11 million assets of America's Cup Village. On its deathbed, Infrastructure Auckland refused to consummate the deal. The parliamentarians have taken note of the squawks of outrage from the rest of the region, and walked away, declaring this a matter for Infrastructure Auckland's successor, ARH, to revisit.

Hopefully they won't spend too much time on it. After all, they and the regional transport authority have rather bigger matters to solve.