'Super city' bad for democracy - specialist

The Auckland "super city" proposal is not so super for local democracy, according to local government specialist Andy Asquith.

Dr Asquith, a lecturer in the Department of Management and International Business at Massey University's Albany campus, said today the Royal Commission into Auckland Governance report had tackled only one half of the issue and ignored the issue of community representation.

The report was released last Friday by Local Government Minister Rodney Hide.

It called for a single, region-wide unitary authority to replace Auckland's array of councils and community boards.

The commission proposed the dissolution of the Auckland Regional Council and all seven territorial authorities in the city, instead opting for a single unitary authority called the Auckland Council.

Localised democracy would continue through six elected local councils working within the Auckland Council community, and community boards would no longer be required, apart from on Great Barrier and Waiheke islands.

The new council would have 23 councillors. Ten would be elected regionally by all Aucklanders, eight in four urban wards, and two in two rural wards.

Dr Asquith has followed the issue closely and was involved in submissions to the commission on behalf of the One Auckland Trust and others.

He said that what had been recommended would lead to a loss of democracy as councils became removed from the communities they represented.

"The creation of six local councils representing large populations will not result in organisations that are closely connected to their communities," he said.

"Under the current structure, community boards were created as an option specifically because the four cities and three districts were deemed to be too distant from actual communities.

"In effect the commissioners are totally disregarding this aspect of the current system, instead proposing a structure that is anything other than `local' in nature."

He said that citizens in the proposed local council, Tamaki-makau-rau, would have to relate to one local council, rather than the current structure of Auckland City Council, underpinned by a strong network of 10 community boards.

"The commissioners are, in effect, removing the word 'local' from local government in Auckland."

As a trustee of the One Auckland Trust, Dr Asquith was heavily involved in not only its submission but also the submissions made by the Council for Infrastructure Development, the university staff union and the northern Employment and Manufacturers Association.

"All these submissions called for an approach to the Auckland question which brought together the essential nature of regional leadership with the underpinning support of localism - the need to provide an effective community voice for all Aucklanders," he said.

 

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