Hide Looks For Rates Gains
March 5th, 2009
Rodney Hide has been telling people he’s the Minister for Ratepayers rather than the Minister of Local Govt. He wants to keep rates down, for Councils to focus on necessities, not luxuries, and get the consent of ratepayers before increasing rates faster than inflation. He is also calling on Councils to make their processes “less murky and confusing.” So what will this add up to when the Govt receives the report of the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance, particularly if it promotes the “super-city” concept? Some of Hide’s critics have alleged the idea of a “super-city” was neatly planted in the NZ Herald to soften up the public as a result of Wellington bureaucrats being kept abreast of the Royal Commission’s thinking.
But, apart from feeding the ambitions of would-be Lord Mayors of Auckland, the concept of a super-city will achieve Hide’s goal of keeping rates down only if the Royal Commission’s findings produce rationalisation of the region’s key assets. Port of Tauranga chief Mark Cairns says he is optimistic there will be some “quite radical reforms” proposed, with consolidation of local Govt agencies. Tauranga’s submission to the Commission argued its Auckland port rival had performed poorly under Auckland Regional Holdings, which may be impeding rationalisation of port operations. The Auckland and Tauranga ports ended talks last week over a possible alliance. Cairns says Auckland’s proposal was too clunky, lacked cost efficiencies and risked falling foul of the Commerce Commission.
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Duncan Cotterill