KEY POINTS:
Council spending and incomes are in the news. Auckland City Council has become embroiled in a junket row after three delegates jetted business class to Auckland's new sister city Hamburg on a fact-finding mission.
News of the council-funded trip is expected to cause a furore after it emerged that Auckland City ratepayers are footing the bill for the visit last October.
And out West Auckland, the 278 residents of Waitakere Gardens Retirement Village had 278 reasons to vent their anger when the independent Government inquiry into local body rates came to Auckland yesterday for a chat with councils and ratepayers.
Last year, the Waitakere City Council increased the residents' rates and water bills by 87 per cent. After paying $450 in 2005, they were shocked to learn that their rates were $600 and they faced a new fixed wastewater charge of $350 - a total of $950.
>> Read the latest story about the overseas trips
>> Read the story about the rate rises
This forum is now closed. Here is a selection of your views:
Roger Hawkins
I note in this mornings article and Mr Hubbards subsequent response that Mr Hubbard says "I was required to visit Busan as part of our sister-city obligations. There was only a minor marginal cost in visiting Hamburg as well". Isnt it lucky Busan and Hamburg are so close together - as if they had been on different continents or thousands of miles apart it would have cost the rate payers a fortune! Still I guess another across the board rates increase of, lets say, the CPI plus 15 per cent will almost cover it.
Mr Williams
Dick Hubbard is an intelligent business man, who knows his stuff, economics, networking and general business. He has done a lot for the city of Auckland, much more than John Banks, give him a break from your socialist slanted views.
Terry
Your reporting is sensationalised and ridiculous. Like most Aucklanders, I have a lot of respect for Mayor Hubbard (that is why we voted him in).. The term junket (your words, nobody elses) is cheap and tabloid..Your level of reporting simply confirms why you journalists are rated as one of the least trusted and respected occupations on the planet.
Rosemary Stone
A quick examination of Mr Hubbards trip timetables reveals that there was no down-time in his trips to Busan and Hamburg. Although international travel might seem very glamorous to those of us whose jobs rarely take us away from our home-base, if you ask anyone that is required to travel for work, they will say that it is almost always extremely tiring and lonely. If an international trip reaps rewards for Auckland and the expense can be justified, then Mr Hubbard should attend. It is after all, the job we elected him to do. I dont think anyone looking at the timetables would think that he had a cruisy holiday at the expense of the ratepayer.
Tony Pattison
Working in sales as I do, it is understood that there is always investment required in scoping what is available and required to establish any business relationship. $30k for potential earnings of hundreds of millions of dollars (and the exact amount isn't important) is a pittance, and should be seen as just that - an investment. Flying business class might be questioned, however.
Dr Melanie Aberneth
Whilst it is appropriate that there be checks on overseas travel for councillors, your current articles on Dick Hubbard and others are biased, inflammatory and of poor quality. The Herald can surely do better than this- or can it. Over the years I have read and watched as the current mayor and Council become targets I repeat: Analysis is essential and useful, biased misinformation is not.
Michael Kingston
I used to think Dick Hubbard had a brain. Now after hearing about a ratepayer funded trip to Hamburg and his views on the value of Aucklands commercial port v having a stadium in its place, Dick you have lost any confidence that I had previously in you. To say that your mission to Hamburg will generate $500 million in trade on a "vibe" with nothing to base this figure on is so stupid it makes me wonder how you run a business. The difference between running a cereal company and being the representative of Auckland is way too much for you. Please resign and go back to breakfast cereals. I will not vote for you again.
D.Blumberg
Its tax payer money, but bean counters will not make it grow.
Rossnz
If you believe the $500000000 Mayoral Vibes you will believe anything. A junket is a junket is a junket. Elected councils should stick to their knitting, and leave big business promotion to big business promoters. If they dont succeed they go bust. Sister cities are a sham.
Roxanne Ashby
Your coverage of this story is full of cheap shots, especially the photo of Hamburgs red light district. Very shallow and unprofessional journalism.
Greg Soar
What was the required workload during the visit by Mr Hubbard and others while recently overseas? Did we need to send so many of them and how do we know the amount of people sent is indeed justified?
Don Judkins
I believe that they are mayor and councillor junkets solely.
P J Verner
Your story on Hamburg painting it with the tired old cliches of being little more than a big port with a big red light area in itself demonstrates the value of sister city relationships. Writing about something after having visited the place is a good way to avoid having knee jerk reactions. Anyone visiting there is able to see it for a vibrant successful city with an excellent transport system and a beautiful environment. Unlike Auckland it has a varied and vibrant range of media and is the headquarters of such intelligent media as Der Spiegel, the likes of which you will not find in this tired, tacky provincial dump. If you want to see how to transform a waterfront with access for people and striking architecture and maintain a modern port go to Hamburg. Hamburg has a booming economy and is growing in population because it is such an attractive place to live.
Bob Schmidt
The simple 2007 solution: Take away their fat salaries, their office blocks, their limousines and air travel and their delusions of grandeur, and give them a computer, an internet connection, a high school teacher's wage and a space in their own living-room where they work with their own family looking over their shoulder. Post their days work on a website for public viewing and comment, at 6.00pm every day. Only then will they see that politics is about looking after the human species, present and future; living and unborn. And only then will we feel inclined to give them respect and emulation.
Tim Reid
Good on them for looking at ways of improving Auckland and building international relations. Every whinger in Auckland will be getting their knickers in a twist about this, but they are the same losers who voted against the stadium and any decent events like the V8's being held in the city. There would not be many people out there that would fly economy class to the other side of the world for a four days meeting.
Mist
ACC goes on business trips? All good and fine. Business class? Possibly worth it considering the distance. But $500 Million return trade? Let us have some more data to support that. Who is making that kind of cash from this "sister city" crud. And if it is not city wide why are not they footing the business bill? Yes, seeing other infrastructure is all fine - but are they sending the people who need to learn these things or is it a bunch of politicos fluffing themselves and believing to much of their own PR.
Murray Hunter
Sister cities have no value at all other then provide a junket for councillors. They should be banned to save wasted money aggravating massive rate rises.
Eeom
It is obvious really. Councils need to budget just like everyone else. Look at staff numbers also. I have a neighbour who drives a council car home for his lunch. (Don't think thats neccessary at all, and think of the petrol saved.) I see the solutions offered i.e. more GST/Transport tax etc. are the responsibility of the ratepayer with no input from Councils to cut their spending. I think Councils should return to the bygone era, and spend taxpayers rates on essential services. Forget giving rate monies to communities and organisations. A prime example is the Rugby World Cup!! If sporting bodies want to stage this event then good on them, but dont steal from the hard working ratepayers, many of whom are on fixed incomes, and a lot of these do not have rich assets as someone mentioned.If councillors, or for that matter politicians need to travel overseas, then if they were genuine in wanting to help the public, who voted them into office, they should pay the difference themselves, between economy and whether they wanted to fly business/first class.
Brian McNally
Absolutely ridiculous. When are these people going to be accountable to their ratepayers? The whole councils operation needs to be reviewed with the requirement to cull out the deadheads of which in my opinion their are many. Put a top NZ businessman in charge, pay him plenty as long as he performs, no performance no pay.
Fishy
All the partying and banqueting make me frustrated when I have to fork out any earning money to pay the council rates first together with the higher costs of living now (petrol, etc) before even thinking of buying food for my family. As a result, we hardly ate out. Does that surprises anyone? These guys who earn mega-bucks still get things for free in life because they dont have to fork out air-fares, dining at expensive restaurants, visits to operas, and so forth. It shows the divide between the have-nots and 'haves'. Where is the equality in NZ now?
David Wilson
This is just another example of the waste of our money by the council. When will they learn that it is not their money to spend as they see fit. It is there to provide a better infrastructure for the city not to enjoy junket trips around the world. But then they take their lead from a corrupt attitude in Government who think they can do as they like with our money. I would suggest they start looking at history as to what happens to rulers that over taxed the people for their own ends.
Therese Irving
No wonder our rates keep going up and up. I would like to know who gets the air points? An acquaintance that worked for the council some years ago used to send his wife to Germany on the air points he collected paid for by the ratepayers. They thought it was their right. He worked hard.
Bourbonjon
Do they really need to look at these cities or can they just exchange information using these new fangled inventions called telephone and email? If they do need to go to these places from time to time why do we have to pay to send them business class while most of us when we travel have to sit in the rear with the gear? Also NZ politicians have quite a track record of investigating this, investigating that, talking about everything and doing f all. Maybe if after jaunting all round the world on fact finding missions they actually came back and justified themselves by doing some effective work, I wouldnt mind so much. New Zealanders seem to be under the mistaken impression that these people are our leaders. Actually they are our employees. If you were a business owner would you let a member of your staff book and take trips on company money, flying business class while you have to fly coach?
Judith Evans
I live in a 21-unit village in Kaitaia, and each flat pays at least $13,000 per year plus water rates. Luckily, most residents are low-income earners and can claim the Government rates rebate.
I suggest that perhaps Councils are realising that ratepayers in villages may be able to claim this rebate, so they are putting up the rates because of it.
Kevin Hicks
In typical New Zealand fashion, lets not solve the problem. All the proposed solutions indicate how to source more funding. Not one mentions the heart of the matter - that councils and governments think up ever more creative ways to spend the increased rates and tax takes that they appropriate by regulation or inflation (400 per cent in 13 years for my rates). If this wasted money was fed into productive industry and research and development then the government and councils would earn extra revenue the legitimate way - by increased productivity and frugality - like the rest of us have to.
M Lawrence
If the Government were paying its share of the rates on all of its rental properties and churches and schools were included there would be plenty of money for the councils. But in saying that I am sure that they would find a way to spend that irresponsibly too.
Faye Brown
We owe these people everything we have today, but no our selfish greedy nature (this is not only aimed at the government, it is aimed at society) takes and continues to take. Our elderly folk fought in the war so future generations can buy their Ipods and PlayStations. It all comes down to absolute greed. We owe them more than the pathetic pension they receive, it's a joke. We owe them a good life, one that they earned and all we can do is keep sticking it to them. We are a sick society and do not deserve what our elderly have done for us. Rates for the elderly should be free, maybe remove the unemployment benefit to pay for it, at least those people can physically work.
Andrew
I am happy with the council expenditure on the trip to Hamburg. Hamburg is a harbour and port city like Auckland. These ties can improve our levels of business.
Michael Thoams
Sick of reading about this. It is absolutely reasonable, and standard business practice, for business trips of more than 5 or so hours to be Business Class. Isnt it better that our councillors arrive at their overseas destination refreshed and ready to work? Let it go!
Rehana
I have no problems about these delegates going to visit a sister city. What I do have a problem with is why do they have to travel business class? Why can not they just go economy? They would have still ended up in Hamburg. This is really annoying to know that ratepayers have to just about pay for every bliimin thing.
Anthony Gibbons
Threewords. Junket!Junket! Junket!!! And I am not talking about that gelatinous dessert in a Chinese restaurant. Perhaps these three got to vist the Hamburg Red Light district, since the reason for the trip was to forge a strategic alliance!! Pigs will fly. As for the Veuve Clicquot in business class, lap it up while you can Mayor Dick and your merry band of profligates. Next council elections will a broom through council. Aucklanders will vote to sweep you and your lot out into the street. This council has been an unmitigated disaster for Auckland with rates hikes, economic paralysis.
Hans Ontefel
Of course they have to look at other cities. What do you expect them to do? Sometimes the people of Auckland are so small minded it defies belief.
Kelly-Ann
An economic alliance with a city like Hamburg would be fantastic for Auckland! As the EU grows in strength and isolationism, anything that creates ties with NZ and a European country is invaluable.
The wealth of knowledge that the citys age gives them is also important for a young city like ours. Chances are the media generated by their visit (over there) has already earned the city the cost back in extra tourism anyway.
Julia
I think that trips are fine to visit other countries and see how they are doing it but cannot see why they cannot go economy class. If they want to go business, they can pay for the upgrade themselves. But this is small fry compared with the way they offer to subsidise rugby stadiums. Maybe it all comes under Hubris?
Ted Heath
Junket! Junket! Junket! Mr Mayor,stop wasting my hard earned rates dosh on dumb trips. Especially to Hamburg. Only a few decades ago the New Zealand Airforce was trying to level the place. I dont want one cent of my rates money going to a city which caused loss of so many Kiwi lives. Stick to spending on streets, footpaths, parks and libraries.
Steve
I am not surprised at the overwhelming vote of no to sister cities. We consistently show ourselves to the world as Kiwis, by definition - a small flightless bird all fluffed up with self-importance, earth bound with no real view of the world from up there where eagles soar, with a long beak perfectly suited to sticking into other countries business but too long to tend our own patch, short stumpy legs good for nothing but rucking and small beady eyes - completely short-sighted. Wake up NZ! Sister city relationships open us up to the world, viewed by millions for the very little cost of a trip overseas once in a while by a few dedicated people trying to do their best for the rest of us while we sit around and bitch all day. These trips are not holidays, there are hardworking, fully booked trips bound by protocol and simply not fun. Thanks to MMP we are being ruled by a very vocal myopic and negative fringe populated by idiots. The rest of the world (if they cared) must look at us and laugh. Ha ha, the jokes on us.
Paul B
Mr Mayor may be hoping to sell an extra $500 million of cornflakes to the city of Hamburg but I do no think this will mitigate the recent rates rises or our crap infrastructure. Scrap all sister city arrangements unless they provide tangible benefits to the city not just business class skives our councillors and their flunkies seem to indulge in on a regular basis (I would not be worried if something apart from endless reports came from them). Do the ratepayers of other cities put up with their councillors appetite for overseas travel? It would be interesting to know.
Geoff
We need to get over this, as it is really not a big deal. $10k per ticket for 5 people, plus a generous $10k for expenses, is a $100k trip all up. There must be 400,000 homes in Auckland so it equates to 25 cents per home. Dick says it could bring $500m into Auckland (which is probably not true) but if it did then that's $1,250 per home that is a 5000% return on my investment of 25 cents. For all those who play lotto, the tickets are $5+ and you have significantly less chance of winning than Dick does of bringing in the $500m, but you are quite happy to throw 20 times Dicks investment away every week on that. Alternatively you could reduce my rates by 25 cents per annum and not do the trip. Then I could spend it on coffee. I bought a cup of coffee this morning for $4. Now that is truly outrageous. Perhaps we should worry more about the cost of coffee.
Christoph
I think it is a great idea that our representatives went to Hamburg to see that is possible to have an integrated ticketing system working for one of best the public transport networks I have seen : electric rapid transit trains, ferries, busses, subways every two minutes in the rush hour. Just hope that they saw any of it and take some inspiration. Besides there is a direct shipping link between Hamburg and Auckland, one only has to see the containers at the port.
Don Kavanagh
The way this council has been running the city, I think these sister city relationships would be better described as suicide pacts.
John Robb
It seems to me the only purpose for having sister cities is to give our local body politicians a reason to fly business class on yet another junket. These are totally unnecessary. I am sure they can find out anything they need to know on the internet. It is interesting to note that in the U.S.(a country whose institutions I am sure most of our councillors would wish to emulate) elected representatives, senators included, travelling on public business have to fly economy or as they call it "coach". We elect them to administrate our city and I doubt their meeting with the "burghers" of Hamburg and Bruce Huckers imminent trip to China will advance that cause one iota.
Mel Stewart
It is interesting that the Mayor has to take hangers-on on a trip, which I agree maybe to forge relationships with sister cities to improve infrastructure, but why can not they do via videoconferencing? I totally disagree that to improve Aucklands infrastructure etc, the councillors need to visit other cities in the world. Aucklands problem is man made and can only be resolved by smart, energetic and pro-active people on the council. Go and talk to any person on the street, how we can improve Auckland City and you will walk away with numerous suggestions free of charge. There are so many simple things that can be done with less cost, yet we tend to employ bureaucrats and people who think they own the city and the rate payers monies etc. We attract big cruise liners to the city and most people cannot see them. We take ages to build a state of art stadium (vector stadium) which costs the ratepayers $71million dollars and yet the concerts cost an arm and a leg, while the councillors and their "pretty" wives sit in the corporate boxes for free. Dick has just got too big for his shoes. I am up to here to these guys! Please Aucklanders, I hope you vote in the next election with some responsibility, vote people you think, you can trust and kick the high flyers to make cereal and whatever else they do.
They simply have lost the human touch!
B Clark
Sister city? Oh brother! It is just a deceitful pretext for councillors to get free holidays all over the world at the long suffering ratepayers expense! Hubbard justifies his trip by saying he made a speech? I hope it was better than this pathetic line of BS he is feeding us! He is sick of junkets? So are we! Sack these parasites and bring back Mayor John Banks! He at least finished building spaghetti junction!
Nick
With the possibility of a large windfall for the city and country) can we not allow our representatives to travel there in comfort on our national carrier? If we were hosting them on a visit, I sincerely hope that they would be extended every comfort and courtesy and I feel sure that would begin at home with business class seats from Lufthansa. They are working to improve Aucklands profile around the world and should be commended for doing so, not condemned. Come on. It is three people in business class, not Air Force One with a 200 strong entourage.
Marcus
So when did the ACC become involved in trade deals? I thought we had a government that wasted money doing that. Pity they do not spend more time in getting more sporting events and venues into the city like they should be doing. I suppose they have all this money so they feel they should spend it. Pity they just do not give some of it back from where it came from.
K.W.Hunt
No! Sister cities serve no useful purpose except allow councils to have a free trip and enjoy themselves at the ratepayers expense. This cuts both ways with the council providing on the return visits with further entertainment for themselves and their guests,once again at the ratepayers expense.
E.A
Not happy at all with the council spending ratepayers money on their expensive trips. There are so much other areas in Auckland that need immediate financial attention. Sort out our back yard before thinking of splashing our money around the world. They should pay that money back to the ratepayers.
Raff Dellavaris
Sister cities ideally serve crucial purposes: comparing and contrasting similar city developments ; sharing innovative ideas; providing opportunities for cultural exchange and trade links. Aucklands sister city in Japan for example is Fukuoka. How many people are actually aware of Aucklands sister city in Japan, let alone have been there? I have lived in Japan, visited there twice and majored in Japanese at Uni but I still have not visited Fukuoka yet. So, randomly hoping or even expecting that Joe Blogs will contact councils, write to newspapers and discuss extensively the urban planning of Fukuoka city as he saw it on his 1 week vacation in Fukuoka might be plausible, but a somewhat reckless approach to ensuring we keep with international changes and trends. The main issue is therefore is ensuring we maximize the quality and quantity of information obtained by representatives by demanding accountability - full scale reporting back on fact finding missions. The next issue is streamlining the overall costs. Finally it might be very beneficial to select appropriate people actually living in sister cities around the world, to pay them a modest fee to explain the conditions of their cities as they live them. We then might get 20 opinions for the price of one representatives airfare!
Imm Irvine
Economy class would have been fine. This is not a high-level summit meeting! Just a fact finding and goodwill mission.
Judith Evans
I am in favour of the international contact, but if delegates want to travel business class, they should pay the difference between that and normal economy fare.
Aaron Bhatnagar
Make the next council junkets one way flights. This will save voters the hassle of throwing out the dozen wasteful, incompetent and self-centred councillors who have been running the council over the last two years. Hamburg and Bilbao will no doubt be delighted with the village idiots they will soon receive.
Kevin Hicks
No. The extent of rising rates (400 per cent in 13 years) and taxes is unsustainable for our economy and our ability to compete in the international marketplace. We need politicians that are honest and careful with our money on our behalf. All unnecessary expenditure would be best handed back to the tax/ratepayer or spent on stimulating productive lean green industry or on research and development.
Rohit
Its good that Dick Hubbard is keen on increasing trade between Auckland and other cities around the globe. But I do not personally agree to the high spending when ratepayers are up to their nose in rates. We as taxpayers expect a decent standard of living which would mean improving infrastructure (so that we dont sit in traffic jams for hours) or better road cleaning facilities in the suburbs etc. A underground metro tube connecting the north shore and the city would make life easier for many. These are a few things that can attract Auckland to global standards and thus improving trade. I do hope that some day this would happen, improving the demand of better infrastructure keeping in mind the growing population and increase in migration.
Steve
Of course we must keep our sister city relationships. In fact we should add to them. How else are our beloved councillors going to justify their ratepayer funded junkets otherwise? I would like to challenge our councillors to show one shred of benefit gained for the ratepayers from their junkets and soirees to date. They seem more concerned with preserving their champagne class status rather than making a real difference to our city – it is time to vote them off.
John Waterman
Auckland City is an ugly cancer on the face of this beautiful land. Instead of shovelling (ratepayers) money at this terminal illness, just let the bloody thing die! Then our parasitic high-flying Auckland City councillors will have to get themselves real jobs.
