Brian Rudman: Super City launch good time to party

What a couple of ageing spoilsports North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams and his Auckland City counterpart John Banks are in opposing a celebratory Super City knees-up. Alan Smythe's proposal for a $1 million bash to launch the new Super City is so obviously the right thing to do that the two old grey mayors sound as if they belong in an old folks home, nursing cups of cocoa.

Even opponents of amalgamation, of which Mr Williams is among the most vociferous, have to admit that for better or worth, the forced marriage of Auckland's territorial councils is a revolutionary change for the region. Whether the outcome is a Tower of Babel, or heaven on Earth where Westies lie down with Parnellites and live to tell the story, is still to be seen.

But if ever there was an excuse to party, surely this is it.

Given the zillions of dollars of savings proponents are claiming the reforms will deliver, what's a mere million between friends? Mr Smythe, the legendary organiser of the popular summer free concerts in the Domain, talks of approaching the Lottery Grants Board for sponsorship, Both mayors reckon there are better ways for Lotto money to be spent. If that's so, why don't they - and Mr Banks in particular - shake down the business moguls who have lobbied tirelessly and, in the end successfully, for amalgamation in the belief they will reap the rewards.

In submissions to the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance, the Employers and Manufacturers Association (Northern) talked of annual savings of $132 million. The NZ Council for Infrastructure Development estimated annual savings of $200 million. The royal commission, after hearing all the evidence, conservatively went for $113 million. Just who was to get the benefit of these savings was left rather vague, but business lobby groups are not in the habit of campaigning for change on a purely altruistic basis.

So who better to fund the party of the century, then, than the parents of this arranged marriage, Auckland's business lobby groups. Then there are those hoping to profit from the reforms. The international water companies. The sellers of electric trains. The road builders. Surely Auckland has a talented arm-twister or two to turn on those faucets.

Prime Minister John Key has set the example when it comes to parties. He's throwing a party for overseas rugby fans on Auckland's Queens Wharf, and has convinced local leaders, Mr Banks included, to fork out not $1 million but tens of millions of ratepayers' dollars to buy the wharf and create a suitable "party central" venue to host the show. If we can fund a multimillion-dollar party for a bunch of itinerant rugby fans, then why not a modest party for ourselves.

We should be throwing a party that the rest of the country wants to be at. This party should be a big fullstop in our history. The day sorry sagas - like the present half-hearted Queens Wharf fiasco when tired old fragmented Auckland tried to muddle through on the cheap - ended. And if it all turns to custard the day after and we return to our bad old ways, well they can't take away the fun we had while it lasted.

Mr Smythe's proposal is a three-hour supershow on the Auckland Anniversary Day following amalgamation, February 1, 2011. To me, that's unaccustomedly timorous of him.

The Olympic Games opening extravaganza he envisages should be the start of a two- or three-week long festival, incorporating Auckland's now well established biennial festival. The next one is scheduled for early March 2011, but what's to stop it coming forward a month or, conversely, Mr Smythe's extravaganza waiting a week or two.

We all know partying and sharing new experiences are great ways of making new friends.

What better way for citizens of the new Auckland to get to know each other.