No Evidence Super Council Would Make Life Better For Aucklanders

The PSA believes that a proposal to replace all of Auckland's local bodies with a single council would be extremely expensive and would not produce the savings or benefits for Auckland's ratepayers, that the plan's proponents are claiming. The plan has been developed by the Employers' And Manufacturers Association, the business lobby group, the NZ Council for Infrastructure Development and the One Auckland Trust. They propose abolishing Auckland's eight councils, including the Auckland Regional Council, and replacing them with a single council.

"Abolishing all of Auckland's existing councils and establishing a brand new super council would involve a major cost for Aucklanders," says Warwick Jones, Assistant Secretary of the PSA, which represents around 2500 staff working for Auckland's local authorities. This is proven by experience of council amalgamations overseas. It's estimated that it cost $400 million to establish a Toronto mega city in Canada in the 1990s. A survey conducted three years after the creation of the super city revealed rising opposition to the merger.

"This was because there were inflated claims about the benefits of the super city, which was imposed on the people," says Warwick Jones. "It's absolutely vital that these mistakes are not repeated in Auckland."

The PSA also questions the claim that a single Auckland council would reduce costs by $200 million, saving each ratepayer at least $400 a year. "Council mergers in South Australia, in the mid 1990s, were initially going to save $150 million a year," says Warwick Jones. "When the mergers began the savings were reduced to $19 million."

Ten years later, in 2005, it was revealed that there was a $300 million backlog in renewing and replacing infrastructure in South Australia. "There was also increased unemployment, lower economic activity and a loss of services, which threatened the existence of small communities covered by the council amalgamations," says Warwick Jones.

The PSA acknowledges that there are infrastructure issues in greater Auckland and concerns about the cost of local government on ratepayers. "But experience overseas shows that simply scrapping the existing councils and replacing them with a single council will not magically resolve all of Auckland's problems," says Warwick Jones.

"It makes more sense to work together to improve the region's current local government to ensure that it's able to provide the local services that Aucklanders need," says Warwick Jones. "We won't be able to achieve this by axing skilled and experienced staff through a massive restructuring."

"In fact, councils require quality staff, to deliver quality services, so they need to provide pay and working conditions that will attract and retain people with a high levels of skill and knowledge."

Research shows that people want to have a real say in how their communities are run. "In England there's a move away from creating larger local bodies because it makes it more difficult to achieve the genuine local democracy that people want," says Warwick Jones.

"Concern over the rising cost of water in Auckland City, also shows that people want control over their community's assets and services, so this must be a priority of any local body reform in the region."

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