Pauline Wetton: It's change, but it isn't democracy

Opinion

The exemplar of democratic systems is the Constitution of the United States of America, with its classic pattern of checks and balances among the various organs of government.

Such checks and balances were an integral part of the new system of governance for Auckland that was decided on after many months of public submissions and hearings by the royal commission. This system has been cavalierly dismissed by the Government - and after only two weeks of Cabinet discussion.

The original commission report provided for input into the quality of decision-making by a variety of groupings in the community. The six local councils elected by all adult residents had real powers of decision-making in the interests of their local communities - and were provided with the funds to go with those powers. Infrastructure matters were to be handled by the central council.

Not everyone would agree with the details of these proposals, but the general drift of the report would have provided for both the local and the general interests of Aucklanders.

And what do we now have we left of this report? Just one element - the Super City mayoralty, elected at large by the whole city.

It should be clear that the most likely candidates for such a position will be those with access to funding. This would have been acceptable in democratic terms if the powers of the mayor and council were balanced by the other organs of governance, but this is what has been destroyed by the Government's decisions.

The subterfuge that the "20 to 30 community boards" would provide for real democracy is at best laughable, at worst, deeply dishonest. Boards with no power and no funding, able only to "suggest" actions and activities to the all-powerful central council - this is the antithesis of democracy.

With the changes due to be made to the Resource Management Act our city could be exposed to the plans of groups of councillors whose agendas may not be those of a majority of Auckland's residents. The new system will almost inevitably be "captured" by a clique of white, largely male, wealthy, business-orientated, eastern seaboard-dwellers.

A democratic system? To this very ordinary resident of our city, this doesn't seem likely. If the citizens of Auckland really care about power-sharing in our "patch", then we must all make our opinions heard loud and clear by the Government, and particularly by John Key and Rodney Hide, the architects of this emasculation of the commission's proposals.

Pauline Wetton is a retired school teacher living in Orewa.