KEY POINTS:
Before postal voting opened for the local body elections Herald-DigiPoll surveys of Auckland's four cities found a surprising level of contentment with their councils. Nearly 65 per cent of Auckland City residents rated their council's performance good or better. On North Shore the approval exceeded 67 per cent. And these were people who told DigiPoll they intended to vote.
Clearly contentment in local body electorates does not ensure that incumbents survive. When the votes were counted on Saturday not only had Auckland citizens ditched their mayor, as the poll predicted, but changed the character of the council as well. North Shore ejected its incumbent as well as giving the council a shake-up. Likewise the Papakura mayoralty. Add the retirements in Manukau and Rodney, and Waitakere's Bob Harvey finds himself a lonely survivor of the mayors' forum that has tried to give Auckland a semblance of united direction.
The volatility probably reflects a national mood for change. Local elections, a year before each general election, have frequently presaged the parliamentary result. But low turnouts and a lack of overt party politics make local elections something of a lottery. The likes of Dick Hubbard and George Wood, who lost the Auckland and North Shore mayoralties, blame their losses on the steeply rising rates their councils have budgeted to collect over the next several years. But if the rating programme was causing such resentment the election turnout would surely be higher than the 35-40 per cent who bothered to vote.
Elections, for local as well as national government, are won by the side that motivates more people to vote. Those Aucklanders motivated last time by a dislike of Mayor John Banks clearly were not inclined to turn out for his successor this time. Mr Banks, meanwhile, has campaigned quietly, projected a softened image and achieved an astonishing comeback.
He returns with a Citizens and Ratepayers majority that should ensure the council is more united and businesslike than the previous one. In typically rash style, though, Mr Banks has made a regrettable promise to resist any council contribution to the upgrading of Eden Park for the 2011 Rugby World Cup. His new council should overrule him. The Government does not think Eden Park is a suitable site for a national stadium and a hard line from Auckland could see the matches moved.
Mr Banks is an enthusiast for unifying Auckland's local government, as was Mr Hubbard, and hopes he will be the last Mayor of Auckland City as now constituted. The low turnouts for these elections are another argument for a single city. People are less likely to vote when they are presented with a plethora of councils and boards and hardly know what some of them do.
Single issues, such as opposition to commercial use of Whenuapai airfield which has put a new mayor into North Shore City, would be less conclusive if the region was electing a single body. And people might be more inclined to stand for councils if their work would be widely known and assessed more carefully. When they see dutiful public workers unseated after a term or two, they can be forgiven for thinking they have more rewarding things to do.
Probably every council in the country lost valuable, dedicated members on Saturday for no reason apparent to the unfortunate. While this may be good sport for voters and those who rationalise the results, it does not encourage people to offer themselves for local government. While congratulating the elected, spare a thought for those undeservedly defeated, and for the consequences for good government
