Dialogue: Mayor and co are paddling against a new mainstream

The Auckland City Council, led by Mayor John Banks, is ignoring the art of good governance for an increasingly diverse society, writes MARNEY AINSWORTH*.

Early figures from last year's Census revealed the changing face of the Auckland region: one in every three people was born overseas, while one in four people were of either Pacific Island or Asian ethnicity.

Earlier this month the Auckland City Council, led by Mayor John Banks and dominated by the Auckland Citizens and Ratepayers Now majority, voted against giving any priority to developing council services to assist new migrants to settle and to integrate into Auckland.

They also voted down proposals to develop communication channels with the Pacific Island communities so the council could better identify and meet the needs and interests of this large group of Aucklanders.

These are just two decisions this council has made since its election that override or ignore the needs and interests of large numbers of Aucklanders. Also being shut out are pensioners and other council tenants, low-income earners and people with allergies to chemical weed sprays.

Other planned moves will see reduced council support for arts, culture, and sporting events. Not only are significant numbers of people being undervalued but tree protection rules are being wiped for 80 per cent of Auckland City.

In the name of debt reduction, the very things that make Auckland City inclusive, interesting, creative or beautiful are being swept aside so Auckland can become a developer's dream.

The icing on the cake is a proposed reduction of 20 per cent in the marketing and communications budget, which funds activities to find out what people want and to let them know what is going on.

The art of good governance in a diverse society is about finding out about the wide variety of wants and needs of the many different groups, discerning the common and separate themes, then developing acceptable and intelligent solutions that will increase our quality of life and create a city that we all want to work and live in.

This will happen only if all the people believe that we all have a meaningful opportunity to take part in decisions that affect us, we have the information necessary to make an informed contribution, and we are confident that our diverse views are being heard and taken into account.

Mr Banks confirmed in a radio interview before Christmas that it did not matter how many people opposed the proposed changes, they would go ahead anyway. When asked how he could justify these actions he has consistently answered, "We won and you lost".

When asked how he could justify sidestepping normal democratic process and invoking emergency powers to bring in Sir William Birch, he replied, "What's the problem? I rung around - we had the numbers".

Clearly he and the C&R Now majority believe that elections are a legal way to gain control of the power and resources of local government for the victors to do with as they see fit. Auckland City residents face being governed by an elected dictatorship.

But a growing number of citizens are saying no to this approach. Signs of this include the march against the proposed changes being organised tomorrow by new grassroots group Wake Up Auckland.

Another sign is the growing number of people who plan to participate actively in the democratic processes and open forums of the council because they will not quietly sit back and watch our senior citizens made frightened and insecure at the very time they should be able to enjoy their lives in peace.

It is ironic that the Banks-C&R Now approach is being taken in the name of the economy and getting Auckland moving, when many commentators now agree that social capital is a fundamental part, if not the foundation stone, of a vibrant, thriving economy.

Put simply, social capital is the willingness of all members of the community to take co-ordinated action, to work together and to actively participate in achieving shared goals. Civic leaders who value social capital recognise that participation in developing agreed goals becomes an end in itself.

They recognise that dissent, opposition and a general lack of effort and commitment can be traced to a refusal of leaders to recognise differences and diversity, and a failure to provide established, co-operative processes through which divergent opinions can be expressed, heard and taken into account in solutions that strive towards the highest common denominator.

We cannot solve our problems of congestion, environmental pollution and low economic growth using the same people or policies that got us into this mess.

Auckland City will thrive only by balancing economic, social and environmental considerations and taking into account the interests of future generations.

With one-third born overseas and one in 10 being Maori, nearly 45 per cent of Auckland City residents are non-European.

In a world where information technology is fragmenting and democratising our interactions and communications, it is vital that Auckland be led by local people who understand that the mainstream is now very different from what it was 40, 20 or even five years ago.

* Marney Ainsworth, a spokeswoman for Wake Up Auckland, ran public consultations for previous Auckland city councils.