Leaders blast Super City plans

Photo / Herald on Sunday

Auckland Super City plans have been called "fundamentally broken" and undemocratic by Auckland's leaders in select committee hearings, with opposition mounting ahead of a protest scheduled in Parnell tomorrow.

Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee, chief executive Peter Winder and North Shore mayor Andrew Williams all spoke out against the Super City's proposed structure at select committee hearings in Wellington today.

The Auckland Transition Agency's plans revealed "the true horror of the Government's centralisation and corporatisation agenda for Auckland," Mr Williams said.

The new Super City would lack transparency and accountability, with between 70 and 90 per cent of local government assets put in the hands of unelected companies, he said.

"These directors do not have to be representative of the communities of the wider region, and they do not even have to be Aucklanders," Mr Williams said.

The super city governance model was fundamentally broken and pretty much beyond repair, he said.

Mr Lee said he had been disappointed by how the Super City was structured.

"We will have all sorts of agencies making different decisions, a lack of unity, and a structure that lack public accountability."

Mr Winder said transport was a major issue, and the new Super City council would have little control over it.

"What is worrying is that the Auckland Council will have less control over Auckland Transport than the Government has over even very small crown agents such as the New Zealand Tourism Board or the Health Research Council of New Zealand.

"The Government would not tolerate such weak accountability for its own crown agents, so why should the Auckland Council tolerate them?"

Labour MP Phil Twyford, who sits on the select committee, said opposition outnumbered support among submissions nine to one but the committee was not listening.

"This Government just isn't listening to Aucklanders when it comes to the future of our democracy," Mr Twyford said.

He would be joining protests planned for noon to 2pm on Tuesday, March 2, outside the Quality Hotel Barrycourt, 20 Gladstone Rd, Parnell, he said.

The select committee's chairman, National's John Carter, declined to comment.