Simon Wilson: The things they say - an Auckland election meetings report

Councillor Richard Hills speaking at the North Shore ward meeting in Beach Haven with, from left, Adrian Tyler, Danielle Grant, George Wood and Chris Darby. Photo / Dean Purcell

OPINION

Olivia Whitney is a first-time candidate for her local board, Albert-Eden, on the Communities and Residents (C&R) ticket. "I'm for green spaces, neighbourhood safety and sensible transport options," she told an election meeting at Rocket Park in Mt Albert recently.

You'd be unfit for office if you didn't agree with that. Most candidates in this election certainly do. I've been attending election meetings all over the city and "I'm a greenie" is by far the most common thing candidates of all colours say.

But what does it mean, to be a greenie? What did Whitney mean?

"I'm a keen cyclist," she added, "and a driver and I run. I think having more people on bikes is a good thing but it needs to be done in ways that serve people's needs."

She's quite right to identify that most of us are not "drivers" or "cyclists", but people who use different modes of transport at different times.

But when she said "sensible", she was using a political code for "don't remove any car parks". Not for bike lanes, not for priority bus lanes, either. When she said "people's needs", she meant "people driving".

And when she said "neighbourhood safety", she was thinking, rightly, about the poor lighting in far too many public parks and walkways. But neighbourhood safety should also mean safe pathways for kids to bike to school.

Cycleways, bus lanes, car parks and the "rights of drivers" are flashpoints for a lot of the debates this election. So is "not listening to the community".

Danielle Grant is a centre-right candidate to become a North Shore councillor, and three-term member of the Kaipātiki Local Board. Here she is in Milford, talking about buses: "We need safe public transport options and it has to increase in frequency. But we have to take the community with us."

Danielle Grant in Beach Haven. Photo / Dean Purcell

Deputy mayor Bill Cashmore isn't impressed with that. In his experience, he told me recently, the biggest barrier to "taking the community with us" is councillors and local board members who work up their communities to oppose the policies.

Cashmore and Grant are both in the National Party, but they see Auckland and its council very differently.

Grant told a meeting in Beach Haven that her board was "the most successful and the envy of the others". It's a claim to which members of several other boards raise an eyebrow.

But she also said she was "sick of nine years of my lived experience of not being listened to" by the council.

Those statements cannot both be right.

Grant's colleague George Wood, also a candidate for the North Shore ward and a sitting local board member, told a meeting in Devonport, "We need people who can work together."

He made the comment when Viv Beck was still in the race. That meant, along with Efeso Collins, Wood had a choice of two mayoral candidates whose entire platforms were built on their ability to build working relationships across the political divide.

Wood, though, made it clear he supported Wayne Brown, who is proud of not subscribing to such feelgood niceties.

Sometimes, when people complain about a lack of consultation, they mean only that they are not getting their own way.

People tell me I'm mad, but I can't help it, I like going to political meetings. Even if it does sometimes feel like I might be the youngest person in the room.

The audience for a candidates meeting in Beach Haven. Photo / Dean Purcell

Don't get me wrong, I think my generation's commitment to voting is something we can be proud of. It's just that political meetings are not the most reliable way of gauging what's important to the community at large.

Surveys show people are happy with their rubbish collection, the libraries and swimming pools, but they don't like the council. There's a communications job needed there, but people hate "PR" too.

A two-thirds majority of surveyed Aucklanders have also said they support a climate action targeted rate. We do seem to want something done, even if the idea of leaving the car at home has not yet caught on widely.

Working out what to do – having a council determined to find the best way forward on climate action, keeping the infrastructure pipeline flowing and controlling the budget – that's what we're voting on this election.

Richard Hills is a sitting councillor from North Shore and chair of the council's climate change and environment committee. He told the Devonport meeting that while various candidates had belittled the climate action plan, all councillors and all local boards had voted for it.

Richard Hills at the Beach Haven meeting. Photo / Dean Purcell

People complain nothing is being done for the Shore, he said, but said they were working now on how to get ferry frequencies back up, and he was proud they had secured $50 million for the development of Lake Rd. He talked about the work they're doing on kauri dieback and the "systematic improvement" they're making to water quality on the Shore after "decades of underinvestment".

In Milford, George Wood claimed, "The water problems on the Shore are not being addressed." There were water-related roadworks in the streets right outside the very hall in which we were sitting.

Julie Fairey is the Puketāpapa local board chair and a candidate for Eden-Albert-Puketāpapa councillor. She told the Rocket Park meeting how proud she was of the redevelopment of Walmsley Park in Mt Roskill. It's part of the green string of parkland along the course of Te Auaunga/Oakley Creek.

Julie Fairey with a little library: a community initiative she has promoted. Photo / Alex Burton

The stream used to be a concrete-lined canal, surrounded by rough grass and a few scraggly trees.

"We re-established the stream around the hard basalt: The water told the builders where it wanted to go." They planted new grass, natives and fruit trees, laid out lovely wide shared paths for cycling and walking, and installed artworks and some highly inventive play areas.

What used to be a barren, dangerous area is now a beautiful and very popular park.

"There are eels," said Fairey. "And when it rains heavily, that land will flood. We designed the stormwater system for that to happen: The water will cover the park and the streets instead of getting into the houses."

Local boards are important. Council has projects like that on its books, for sites all over the city. Local boards make them happen.

Don't vote for people who complain all the time about how they're being ignored. Vote for people with the attitude and skills to get things done.

Chris Darby, also a North Shore councillor and chair of the planning committee, is the architect for much of the progress they're making. He told the meeting he believed "every Aucklander should be able to move around easily", but to do that we need to "improve public transport so radically that we all want to use it".

Councillor Chris Darby: "Every Aucklander should be able to move around easily." Photo / Dean Purcell

He said we have a "car-dependent culture" and the next council will have to be a "climate council, courageous and disciplined and able to see the climate through the eyes of our children".

On the Shore, they go at each other a bit.

George Wood in Milford: "The 3.5 per cent rates rise is too much."

Richard Hills: "George, your local board voted for it. All of them did."

Trish Deans, on the Devonport-Takapuna board, told the Devonport meeting the new housing density rules will mean five-storey buildings can be built behind Victoria Rd.

Chris Darby: "That's wrong."

Deans: "It's right."

Darby: "It's disingenuous for you to say that. We need integrity in this contest."

George Wood, hoping to get back on the governing body of council after a long absence. Photo / Dean Purcell

Then there are the candidates who have their own ideas altogether.

Raymond Tan, also standing in the North Shore ward: "We need more roads because cycling and public transport doesn't make sense when you're escaping a wildfire."

Grant Mountjoy, a Rock the Vote candidate for the Waitematā Local Board: "I've been told there's a plan for a cycleway on the harbour bridge. Has anyone thought about how many people will jump off?"