Feature
Oh, Super Mayor
by Bill Ralston
Is it a bird, is it a plane, No, it's a flurry of politicians and wannabes pretending they're not interested in a powerful new job coming up next year.
Situation Vacant: Mayor, Auckland super-city.
Interested in a new career running the fourth-best city in the world in terms of quality of life? That statistic is from a recent international study by Mercer. Yes, I know it sounds like the Conchords’ proud boast of being the fourth-best folk comedy duo in New Zealand, but Auckland did beat 210 other cities worldwide.
Despite its attractions and a plethora of ambitious local body politicians in the city, at the moment only one man has his hand up high in the air for the job: John Banks. The other mayors, councillors, chairmen, businessmen and celebrities – some if not all of whom may be seriously interested – remain coy.
If you go into politics or public life, chances are you like power, and the mayor of greater Auckland will be one of the most powerful people in the country, thanks to the sheer size of the Super-Mayoral fiefdom: from Wellsford, just south of the Brynderwyns, east across the Hauraki Gulf to Great Barrier Island and west swallowing half the vast Kaipara Harbour, then 140km down as far south as Tuakau on the northern banks of the Waikato River.
In theory, the Super-Mayor will be able to look John Key squarely in the eye and say “Nah!” if he or she doesn’t like what the Government is doing, thanks to ruling a third of the New Zealand population. The number of people ruled is expected to swell to more than two million by 2040, and that’s a lot of votes that can be swayed for or against a Government if Your Worship decides to exercise the muscle. Mr Key, Mr Goff and their successors will have to be very nice indeed to the Super-Mayor.
Thanks to the patronage the job dispenses, local movers and shakers will have to suck up, too, because the Super-Mayor appoints the deputy mayor and the council committee chairpersons, proposes the policy direction of the entire region and drafts the super-city’s budget. Oh, yes, the first Super-Mayor will also get to appoint the chief executive and all the top council executives in the new council structure.
Spending more than $3 billion a year in operating costs and capital expenditure, and balancing the books to cope with some $3 billion of debt against the $28 billion of assets accumulated by the one big council, the Super Boss could have as many as 6000 employees, as well as about 150 local board members and 20 city councillors.
A Super-Mayor will have huge economic clout nationally because his subjects – sorry, citizens – pay more than a third of the country’s taxes and create a slightly bigger share of New Zealand’s GDP. As we are continually told, Auckland is the country’s industrial and economic powerhouse.
Who will be Super-Mayor? That won’t be decided until later next year, but UMR Research did a poll in March listing likely con-tenders.
Auckland’s current mayor, John Banks, was the leader with 17% support, Waitakere’s Bob Harvey was second with 10%, The Warehouse founder Stephen Tindall trailed him narrowly with 9%, while Manukau Mayor Len Brown, former National Party leader Don Brash, and Winston Peters came fourth equal with 6%.
Deposed Auckland Central Labour MP Judith Tizard limped home on 5%, along with broadcaster Paul Holmes, and ex-All Black Michael Jones and former Labour MP John Tamihere each got 4%.
UMR’s addition of a few celebrity names and the support they gathered would have sent a shiver down the spine of Richard Northey, an Auckland councillor from the Labour-aligned City Vision group. When the Government announced the super-city framework, he warned of the new Super-Mayor’s “excessive executive powers”. Worse, according to Northey, “The Super-Mayor, by being elected across the region instead of by fellow councillors, could still be a TV personality or star of the Sunday gossip columns and could well be just a political frontman directed at the whim of unelected advisers.” The spectre of Mayor Holmes is invoked or, perhaps marginally better, Her Worship Nicky Watson.
But according to another City Vision councillor, Leila Boyle, the super-city region-wide electoral system for Mayor is most likely to produce a Pakeha male from Remuera or Epsom. Labour and City Vision quickly made up their minds to oppose the Super-Mayor concept tooth and nail.
Councillor Cathy Casey warns, “If the Super-Mayor is to set policy and strategic direction, solutions to social issues will be politically and ideologically driven.” This implies, of course, that any decisions she and other City Vision councillors have made have never been political or ideologically inspired. I suspect she really means the Super-Mayor may have political leanings and an ideology she does not agree with.
In their fear and loathing of the Super-Mayor concept, they echo their central government leader, Labour’s Phil Goff, who declares, “We are also concerned at the concept of a Super-Mayor with very few checks and balances on his or her power. Over-concentration of power in the hands of a few people guts local democracy.”
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