New super mayor should have 'John Key-like experience'

John Key. Photo / Mark Mitchell

A non-incumbent mayor with "John Key-like experience" is likely to be the best bet for the job of leading a proposed Auckland super city, an infrastructure specialist said today.

Associate Professor Paul Rouse, of Auckland University, said the job should go to someone who had the Prime Minister's combination of experience in business, finance and politics.

A management accounting expert at the university's business school, Dr Rouse also said none of the region's present mayors would probably be able to be impartial in a super city structure.

"They all have baggage," he said.

"I think it might be a bit difficult for any of the incumbent mayors to take on the role, as ratepayers will constantly be analysing whether money is being unfairly or frivolously spent in their previous cities, and what their real motives are."

Dr Rouse said any shake-up in Auckland's governance should place strong leadership at the top of the to-do list.

He pointed to the likes of Mr Key and Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee as people who had pragmatic skills in politics and management, and seemed to get the job done.

It was important for the new leader to be voted in, to have no conflicts of interest and to be able "to lead us into the future together".

Dr Rouse said Auckland also needed a figurehead like Sir Dove-Myer Robinson, or "Robbie", Auckland City's longest-serving mayor with stints from 1959 to 1965 and 1968 to 1980.

"Robbie was respected by the city, and that will be very important in a new city structure, where none of us knows exactly how this two-tier system will work in practice."

The Auckland "super city" proposal is contained in the Royal Commission into Auckland Governance report released last Friday.

It calls for a single, region-wide unitary authority to replace the present array of councils and community boards.

Localised democracy would continue through six local councils and through community boards on Great Barrier and Waiheke islands.

- NZPA