Last Friday we discovered that the Auckland mayoralty has just two candidates with a real shot at the prize. Ex-Labour MPs Phil Goff and John Tamihere will square off ahead of the pack of 19 others after ex-mayor John Banks withdrew his nomination closely followed by John Palino who threw his support behind Tamihere.
Amidst Goff’s controversial fuel tax, Auckland’s worsening road congestion, council overspending, murmurs of corruption and customer dissatisfaction with the council consenting process stifling new housing, Goff is a large target.
Tamihere’s campaign slogans “shake it up” and “sort it out” fit with his abrasive leadership style and he is counting on his running mate, current councillor and ex-mayor Christine Fletcher, to support the demand for change. Was Tamihere the best a bunch of “councillors wanting leadership change” could come up with? Over a year ago councillors wrote to Phil Goff complaining about his lack of transparency and non-inclusive leadership style.
“Tamihere wants to shake up Auckland’s council controlled organisations (CCOs) – the likes of Auckland Transport and Panuku.
He is already gunning for the for AT board, announcing he would sack the lot of them if elected, while also pledging to stop AT’s so-called “anti-car strategy”. He has taken shots at AT’s widespread speed limit reductions, as well as wholesale traffic changes in St Heliers.
[…] In Tamihere’s view, elected councillors, accountable to ratepayers, have no oversight of the CCOs, which he estimates are responsible for 75 per cent of the city’s operations.
[…] In his capacity as chief executive of Te Whanau O Waipareira, he lobbed a corruption claim into a stoush between the trust and Panuku over the level of social housing at the Tavern Lane development in Papatoetoe.
[…] “When 75 per cent of your business is run by people who in effect are unaccountable to elected politicians, who are accountable to the citizens, and that’s the only accountability we’ve got, you need to drag those CCOs back in.”
Stuff
The only other realistic candidate offering a fresh approach is relatively unknown political rookie Craig Lord – former engineer, turned media freelancer and motorsport commentator.
Lord appeals to ratepayers sick of professional politicians with empty promises.
“My intention is to be the people’s Mayor, to communicate and do the job that the Mayor is meant to do – represent and promote. It’s what I do for a living anyway.
Scoop
He promises full liaison with councillors and the public before decisions are made.
“No more politicians, let’s get a grassroots, normal, everyday Auckland person who’s lived life, got life experience, a communicator, into the position to do the job that a mayor should do.”
“If you keep getting politicians, you keep getting the same people that promise things and promise things and promise things, but generally don’t follow through.”
Like fellow challengers John Palino and John Tamihere, Lord is highly critical of Auckland Transport’s moves during Goff’s tenure as mayor.
“BAD COMMUNICATION, BAD DECISION-MAKING, OVER-SPENDING ON STUPID THINGS.”
Lord says Tamihere is also making promises he can’t keep.
“When JT’s giant billboards went up around town – ‘I’m going to fire the AT Board’ – I went, ‘OK how, mate’?”
Lord said he submitted a question during the recent Local Government NZ conference asking whether it was possible.
The response? “They all laughed.”
“What JT’s done is bamboozled the public again, like central [government] party politicians do, promising, ‘I’m going to fire the AT board’,” Lord says.
“Same things, same result – promises, no result.”
Goff faces much stronger opposition than he did in 2016 and has earned criticism along the way. He is rolling out his promises for re-election.
Goff said general rates would increase by 3.5 per cent a year in his second term — an increase on the 2.5 per cent annual rates rises in his first term.
The mayor came under fire from some quarters over the replacing of a targeted rate for transport with targeted rates for the environment and improving water quality.
Goff said the environment was among his biggest achievements in his first term, saying Aucklanders had got behind the targeted rates to clean up beaches in 10 years, not the 30 years set down, dealing to predators and planting one million trees.
He also introduced a regional fuel tax of 11.5c a litre in July last year and a “bed tax” on hotels, motels and online rentals such as Airbnb and Bookabach.
The mayor said he would keep looking at new ways to raise revenue and said the 10-year budget had efficiency savings targets of $1 billion to spend on things Aucklanders wanted.”
A Newspaper
Of course, we want clean beaches and a crackdown on pests but not at the cost of roading. Why can’t we have both? Auckland needs a new mayor to breathe life into the council and to fix the dysfunction.
Craig Lord promises to do it but has little chance of getting enough votes. Tamihere has a good shot at unseating Goff, but doesn’t bring that breath of fresh air, is already making dubious promises and may be motivated by the smell of the public trough. In other words, no improvement on Goff.
Auckland ratepayers desperate to see the back end of Goff will take a punt on Tamihere but anyone wanting a new broom will probably have to wait another three years.