Brian Rudman: Mother of all battles rages over who controls public transport

The battle for overall control of Auckland public transport has been one of the more titanic struggles of recent times. Championing the cause of greater public governance has been Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee.

The leading standard-bearer for increased private control has been Wellington-based Tim Brown, Infratil executive and director of NZ Bus (an Infratil subsidiary). Well, that was until the latest Metro magazine appeared with a feisty ticking off for Mr Lee from a certain Frances Brown of Devonport.

Indeed the missive was so well crafted and full of the detail not always found in letters to the editor that it earned the author a $240 case of fine sauvignon blanc as best letter of the month. Young Tim tells me he's still waiting for a bottle or two from his mum. Though why he should get any, given both he and his mum insist the letter was all her own work, I don't know.

All he admits is that "she did flick me a copy of it, so I was aware she was expressing her opinions".

As kids, most of us would have been mortified at the thought of one's mother leaping in to fight our battles. But I guess these days a grown-up merchant banker needs every friend he can find.

A daily commuter across the harbour, Mrs Brown was responding to a Metro story on Auckland's ferry services by having a swipe at both Mr Lee and Auckland Regional Transport Authority chairman Mark Ford.

She says she did speak to her son "to get her facts straight" but "I didn't think I was putting the point of view for Tim, it's my view too and sure enough, I'm going to be on his side aren't I? I'm his mother".

In her letter, she said Mr Lee had leaned on ARTA to subsidise the twice-weekly ferry to Rakino Island - not a Fullers service. "Why is ARTA paying its board several hundred thousand a year to sit by and let Lee call the shots?"

Mr Ford rejects the allegation. "Mike had absolutely nothing to do with Rakino." He said that the ARC and the NZ Transport Agency are joint funders of the service "but they certainly don't determine what the priorities are".

Mr Lee says that when the Rakino operator gave about three weeks' notice he was going to abandon the service, the residents naturally enough sought help from the politician.

"I said fair enough, I'll pass this on to ARTA and we'll see what we can do for you." ARTA, he says, decided to introduce an emergency service until it could call for tenders for a new operator. Mr Lee was galled to discover the successful applicant was the operator who had previously "held the community to ransom in the first place".

Given the way the public transport battle continues to simmer, there'll be lots more opportunities for letters to the editor. Top issue at present is integrated ticketing. It's three weeks since the ARC finally agreed to go ahead with integrated ticketing. But before they could announce this joyous news word apparently reached Infratil that its tender had lost out.

Word also is that Infratil's response was to call for a "probity review" claiming that one of ARTA's advisers in the tendering process was biased. This review is now being conducted in secret by the NZ Transport Agency.

On the plus side for Infratil are National's election promises to repeal parts of the Public Transport Management Act, passed in the dying phases of the last Parliament by a strange coalition of Labour, Greens, Maori and Act. This legislation was a triumph for ARTA, giving it the power to design an integrated transport network that serves the needs of the passengers and the ratepayers who fund the $94 million annual subsidy, rather than the needs of transport company shareholders.

Infratil chief executive Marko Bogoieveski told shareholders recently we "got totally hammered" by this act.

On Friday, Mr Brown said "we've been given assurances by the Government that they will amend it", but he admits it's not exactly top of the Government's agenda and it is up to Infratil to "make sure" the Government was "kept aware" of this pledge.

He might want to keep Metro aware of the wine issue too. His mum hasn't seen a drop of it yet.