Islanders hit hard by rates

By CLAIRE TREVETT

The Mabey family have farmed the same block of land on Great Barrier Island since 1918.

Each year they have paid any rates bills that appeared in the letter box without a quibble, despite living 100km away from many of the facilities they were paying for.

So this year, Helen Mabey nearly fell over in shock to see her bill was $1176.18 - a 367 per cent increase on last year's $252.08.

"What do we get for that? There are absolutely no improvements here at all. We don't get any buses or any of the facilities in Auckland. We've got our own costs, because of the isolation. We have our own power, our own water and everything. Life here is tough enough."

Kevin Burke's rates had increased from $110 in 2001 to over $430.

"Here on Great Barrier Island we are 100km from the nearest ARC facility. No transport, no parks, nothing. Apart from a few dollars thrown at some environmental projects, we have no benefits from the ARC's existence. Most here visit Auckland as little as possible and pass through it as quickly as possible. We would not notice if the ARC lived or died. Until now."

Public transport on the island was non-existent for its 1050 permanent residents. A regular fast ferry service to Auckland was stopped about two years ago.

A Sunday drive to enjoy one of the regional council's Auckland parks will cost them $330 on the car ferry and take about five hours.

A spokesman for ARC said Great Barrier Island would pay a total of $105,500 in general and biosecurity rates.

"The ARC provides Great Barrier Island with possibly 10 times more support for biosecurity than the ratepayers pay for, and in biosecurity measures alone the island's entire bill is returned."

It estimated measures to eradicate goats from private land had cost over $150,000 over two years.

About $50,000 more was spent on general pest and weed control. Grants totalling $53,000 were given to different groups on the island for environmental work.

Coastal and land permits were also administered and monitored.

However, community board chairman John Mellars dismissed the biosecurity as "a heap of warm fuzzy nonsense".

"The notion that a large, sparsely populated island, 70 per cent of which is controlled by non-ratepaying bludgers like the Department of Conservation, should have its biosecurity cost carried by local ratepayers is ludicrous."

The residents were also paying the price of discovering they were suddenly sitting on gold mines.

Property valuations on Great Barrier put the value of the Mabey land at $3 million - up from $800,000 three years before.

Properties on Great Barrier had risen by an average of 31 per cent, compared with Auckland's 14.4 per cent.

Rates had gone up accordingly, yet in the 2001 Census, the median income of people on Great Barrier Island was $11,700 - nearly half the $22,300 median income of those in Auckland City.

Its unemployment rate was 17.4 per cent, compared with about 8 per cent for Auckland City.

Mrs Mabey estimated her combined regional and city council rates bills would be $7031, up from $2313 in 2002.

Fourth generation farmers Charles and Winnie Blackwell's regional council bill had gone up from $218 to $475.14.

On a second property, the increase was from $85 to $214.

Caroline de Latour said her rates had doubled.

"We hardly get anything. Apart from killing some goats, which doesn't concern me.

"I think they do very little and it appears to me we are perhaps subsidising the mainland."

Tell us what you think about the rates increases:
* Email the Herald News Desk