Brian Rudman: We voted for a political earthquake. So where's the shakeup?

Political change was a way in for Auckland Mayor Len Brown, now, all that's left is to see the decisions enacted. Photo / Dean Purcell

This time last year, Auckland City mayor John Banks was rubbishing a poll showing Manukau mayor Len Brown 11 points ahead in the race for the Super City mayoralty as "shonky".

He said: "No one really believes a Labour candidate for the Auckland mayoralty can be that far ahead with the National Party in Auckland 30 points ahead of Labour in every poll".

How wrong he was. The winds of change, as heralded by that and other polls, did duly blow Mr Banks and his conservative allies out of the way, leaving it clear for Mr Brown's brave new world.

The new council has had only two months to settle in, so perhaps it's unfair to start looking for signs the revolution is under way. The worry is, will we still be waiting for signs of change in 12 months' time? Glancing over columns written this time last year reminds me that Aucklanders are very good at talking about change, but not so good when it comes to delivery.

Last Christmas Eve, Transport Minister Steven Joyce finally gave permission for a six-lane tunnel under Waterview to complete the Western Ring Route motorway system.

This was 10 months after he'd canned it. A year on, Mr Joyce and tunnels are back in the news. This time, it's the inner-city underground train loop that Mr Joyce wants to have re-examined.

Meanwhile, above ground, the drawn-out hassle to introduce an integrated ticket system for Auckland public transport is having its annual summer outing. A year ago, Infratil, the company running most of Auckland's buses, declared its Snapper swipe cards would be on the buses before the Rugby World Cup, despite losing a long and bloody battle for the right to create and run the region's new integrated "one ticket" system.

This is the dream of producing a single public transport card which passengers can use regardless of operator or mode of transport.

French electronic giant Thales won the contract and the subsequent legal battles, but Snapper refuses to lie down. A year on, it has gained permission to piggy-back its Snapper swipe-card system on to the victorious Thales system from next March.

It's not the integrated system that's long been promised, just a glorified cash card, but I guess if it speeds up the flow of passengers on and off buses that counts, in the Auckland context, as a small step for mankind.

It only took a knock on my door last weekend to remind me that making a mess of running this town is hardly a new phenomenon. My mystery visitor handed me a tattered old book thinking my interest in Auckland affairs would make it a good read.

It turned out to be the diary of Irish adventurer Conor O'Brien, who stopped off in Auckland in 1923 during his circumnavigation of the globe. A quick Google revealed that his yacht, Saoirse, was probably the first small boat around Cape Horn proper, and that O'Brien was a sort of Irish Ed Hillary of his day - and a political activist as well.

He had climbed with Everest victim George Mallory, shipped guns to Ireland in 1914 for the republican cause and served in the Royal Naval Reserve during World War I. He's also listed as an architect, which perhaps explains his comments about the 1920s Auckland landscape.

"Auckland, because it has more natural advantages, has thrown away more architectural opportunities than any other city I know." While admiring the "positively flamboyant" new university building, he wrote: "Why do they not get the city council to regulate planning, and prevent the finest site in the town from being littered indiscriminately with hideous cubes of glass and concrete?"

His tongue-in-cheek solution? "Eighty years ago, Auckland did not exist; now it has all the problems of traffic and space that vex cities 10 times as old. Fortunately, New Zealand is liable to earthquakes."

Two months ago Aucklanders voted for a political earthquake. Hopefully, in 12 months' time I'll be able to report more signs of a true shake-up.

And that's me done until mid-January. Thanks for the feedback over the year. I did quite enjoy a recent letter from Phyllis of Huia, who growled like a schoolmarm over something she disagreed with, telling me to "do your homework and not be swayed by slanted popular media". Then she softened, and added: "Otherwise, your articles are quite well written".