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Bruce Hucker was selected by City Vision yesterday to stand for the council but is refusing to say if he will drop his hard line on hitting low-income families with soaring water bills.
Shielded by his son Robert, Dr Hucker was pelted with chips by water protesters as he entered the Grey Lynn Community Centre for a selection meeting in the rock-solid City Vision ward of Western Bays, which he has represented since 1986.
Last week, Dr Hucker said higher water bills amounted to the cost of half a large bag of potato chips or less than the cost of a 1.5-litre bottle of Coca-Cola a week for a family of four. Water bills have gone up $200 a year for the medium household in two years.
"His 'bag of potato chips and bottle of coke' comments show his utter contempt for the poor he used to support," said Water Pressure Group spokeswoman Penny Bright.
City Vision chairman Robert Gallagher said support for Dr Hucker was less than unanimous at the selection meeting, attended by more than 120 supporters, including Auckland Central Labour MP and Minister of Auckland Issues Judith Tizard.
Mr Gallagher said City Vision was continuing discussions with Dr Hucker to get him to toe the party line. Discussions were also focused on the potential damage to City Vision at October's local body elections.
"The issue of water is not going to die. It's going to be a major election issue," said one City Vision source.
Dr Hucker was at his home in Freemans Bay last night and refused to discuss the selection meeting or water with the Herald. A council source said the 63-year-old and Labour Party member was advised to go home on Thursday and Friday last week because of the pressure he was under.
Dr Hucker has championed higher water bills from the council-owned water business, Metrowater, to pay the council a dividend to spend on increased stormwater work. In turn, that has freed up rates money earmarked for stormwater to be spent on anything from libraries to overseas trips. He has also been pushing for a dividend from the region's monopoly water supplier, Watercare. This would lead to even higher water bills.
Centre-left politicians have slated Dr Hucker for "trashing City Vision's election policies" of fair water prices, not to treat Metrowater as a "commercial commodity" and abolishing user charges for wastewater.
Critics have accused the council of gouging ratepayers and using Metrowater as a cash cow to hold down rates, which have soared by 33 per cent for households in the first term of Mayor Dick Hubbard and his City Vision-Labour-controlled council.
Ms Tizard said she attended the meeting to support Dr Hucker and other candidates and send a message "that they have got to work together". City Vision needed a clear water policy for the local body elections, she said.
Lindsey Rea, who was selected as the second council candidate for Western Bays, said: "I am a City Vision person and I support City Vision policy."
Ms Rea, who is the current chairwoman of the Eden-Albert community board, replaces Penny Sefuiva, who is standing down after being a councillor since 1995.
