Auckland Chamber of Commerce Submission on the Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Auckland Chamber of Commerce strongly supports Government’s governance decision to establish a single, Auckland unitary authority to overcome long-standing fragmentation and coordination problems.

We support the Bill’s aim “to create one Auckland, which has strong regional governance, integrated decision making, greater community engagement and improved value for money.”

However, there are big gaps in the Bill which is unacceptable and need to be addressed if the Bill’s aim is to be ultimately achieved:

• The Bill fails to provide clear authority, control and accountability linkages between the Auckland Council’s governing body, its role to develop a spatial plan and associated strategies, implementation of these plans, and the delegation and control of the seven proposed council-controlled organisations (CCOs) to be established to deliver the policies and strategies set by Council.

• There is no detail on five of the seven CCOs, including how Auckland Council will achieve alignment and integration between, and maintain control and accountability of the CCOs to operate at ‘arms length’ from Council, even though this is stated to be a major aim of the Bill.

• Also missing is important detail on the functions, powers and duties of the tier of local boards that will (presumably) deliver the ‘greater community engagement’ and community based decision making that the Bill claims is a major aim.

Given the unique opportunity presented to reinvent Auckland as a single internationally competitive city of scale able to secure a productive and prosperous future for New Zealand’s advantage, it is critical that these gaps are closed. They reflect an inadequate process – lack of resources, lack of time, failure to apply a ‘whole of government’ approach with the result that Wellington and Auckland seem poles apart in their vision of what they are se/eking from reforming Auckland’s governance.

The end point of reforming Auckland’s governance has to be about a better Auckland for all New Zealanders, and a truly internationally competitive city. We need a governance model that is easy to do business with in every sense of the word and easy for all of us to participate in. A culture of excellence in everything Auckland Council does needs to be established supported by efficient and cost-effective services which don’t become an unnecessary burden on ratepayers and don’t constrain the Council from making the investments needed to secure Auckland’s future as a great city in our history.

It will be unforgiveable to accept mediocrity given what Auckland needs and the people of Auckland expect.

To address these gaps, our submission recommends the following changes:

Overall governance arrangements

As a unitary authority, the CCOs and other constituent organizations of the Auckland Council – the 19 elected Local Boards, and Maori, Pacific community and Social issues boards - are all an inherent and essential part of an integrated and cohesive organisation that represents Auckland in national and international arena and delivers meaningful and efficient (‘value for money’) local democracy.

It is therefore imperative that the Bill be strengthened to:
• Provide for establishment of a unitary Council under-pinned by a single, integrated structure in which all component parts adopt shared principles of the whole organisation and are aligned and accountable to the elected Council.
• Provides a framework that allows for transparent and appropriate delegations of roles and responsibilities across the total organisation; including to and between the CCOs and other Boards (Maori, Pacific and Social); and
• Provides a minimum but constructive community-building role for local boards.

Governance of CCOs

If Auckland’s governance reform process through establishing ‘arms length’ CCOs is to provide enduring solutions, it is critical that the Bill’s provision for Auckland Council to govern and control the CCOs through a ‘statement of intent’ (SOI) process be clarified, strengthened and made robust and transparent.

The Chamber strongly recommends the Bill clearly require for all CCOs to have a consistent and robust SOI framework setting out accountability arrangements with Auckland Council covering:
• The nature and scope of the CCOs activities;
• The outcomes, objectives and outputs of the organisation; and,
• The performance targets and other measures by which each CCO may be judged (by Auckland Council and the wider community) in relation to its outcomes, objectives and outputs.

Our submission makes specific recommendations to streamline and strengthen SOI provisions in the Bill for transport and water services and for the other CCOs on which the Bill is silent, to embrace broadly similar principles and performance requirements. To achieve this outcome, we recommend the Bill be amended to include an explicit provision for all CCOs to have an SOI that complies with Schedule 8 of the Local Government Act 2002 (LGA), and that the SOI include a shared narrative setting out Council’s overall objective and some guiding principles, as Cabinet has suggested.

Consistent with LGA 2002 provisions, the Chamber believes that appointments to the Boards of CCOs should be a matter for Auckland Council to decide. Consideration is required on whether the powers of the Auckland Transition Agency (ATA) to appoint inaugural Boards of CCOs should be for an interim period only (say 18 months), to allow Auckland Council time to develop and implement its own appointments policy consistent with the CCO provisions of the LGA 2002.

Governance of local boards

Our submission seeks considerable clarification and strengthening of the Bill in respect of setting a clearly defined role and function for the 19 Local Boards.

To spend considerable time and money electing more than 100 Local Board members at local government elections later this year, without constructive roles and responsibilities for them to play would be unacceptable and undermine efforts to build a better local governance system Aucklanders can respect and benefit from.

Auckland Spatial Plan

To give greater clarity and certainty to the Bill’s provisions requiring Auckland Council to prepare and adopt a spatial plan, the Chamber recommends the following changes to this section of the Bill:

• Provides for a firm timeline for when Auckland Council must have prepared and adopted a spatial plan. We recommend a clause be added to require an inaugural draft spatial plan to be completed by the end of 2011 and be available for consultation and submission with a view to adoption by Auckland Council before the 2013 Local Government Elections.

• Strengthens provisions to involve community and private sector participation to take account of existing ‘local area’ spatial plans.

• Provides for relevant Government policies and strategies for Auckland’s growth and development such as the National Policy Statement, National Infrastructure Plan and Transport GPS and nationally important energy, water, telecommunications and social infrastructure programmes and projects to be taken into account.

• Provides a clear requirement for the spatial plan to be implemented, and sets a clear expectation that Auckland Council and its CCO subsidiaries will give effect to the spatial plan in a timely and efficient way; and implementation will be closely monitored through the appropriate SOI process established by Council.

• Specifies that the Auckland Spatial Plan has a formal statutory status, and clarify a single statutory hierarchy under which implementation should proceed (e.g. the reviewed Resource Management Act, Local Government Act 2002 and/or Land Transport Management Act 2003).

Missing CCO details

Substantial detail on the proposed tier of seven CCOs needs to be inserted in the Bill, including, for each CCO:
• What their functions, powers and responsibilities will be;
• How they will be controlled by and be accountable to the Auckland Council governing body;
• How they will be expected to work together to deliver Auckland Council (and central government) key policies and strategies;
• How they will be structured in order to achieve the aims of the Bill (to deliver integrated decision making, greater community engagement, and improved value for money).

In respect of the two CCOs for which substantial detail is included – Auckland Transport and Water Services Limited – the Chamber submission makes recommendations seeking:
• Streamlined and consistent provisions with other CCOs for the appointment of Boards. For example, we see no compelling reason why the appointment process for the Auckland Transport board departs from compliance with the LGA 2002 provisions and other regions of New Zealand, and should be different to other CCOs.

• Streamlined and strengthened clauses covering the objective and operating principles of Auckland Transport; and,

• Strengthened provision for independent monitoring of the performance of Water Services to ensure that water services are efficient and price competitive.

Auckland Waterfront Development Agency

Our submission questions the need to establish an Auckland Waterfront Development Agency as an ‘arms length’ CCO, and instead – to avoid duplication between the Auckland Council and Agency in planning and approval processes - suggests an ‘in house’ Council committee as a more efficient option.

Economic Development, Tourism and Events Agency

Noting government agrees that a key driver of Auckland’s governance reform is to build a more internationally competitive city, the Chamber submission strongly encourages the Select Committee to ensure the Bill supports the establishment of a robust, energetic Economic Development, Tourism and Events Agency that enables Auckland’s economic development plan to be prepared by the region in partnership with central government rather than by a process imposed on the region.

If the governance reform is to achieve its economic development potential and aims, Aucklanders across a wide spectrum of ‘communities of interest’ must be empowered to lead and take charge of the city’s destiny. We strongly believe and urge the Select Committee to note that international advice from experts assisting other cities to reform governance arrangements in order to cope with emerging global challenges and opportunities requires a permissive legislative and regulatory framework supporting application of proven collaborative methodology and strong results-focused energy. This is available to be enabled within the Bill by way of the Metro Action Plan adopted by the region in 2006 after 18 months wide consultation, but with appropriate refreshment and alignment to Auckland Council’s governance framework can assist to:
• Embed a cross-sectoral partnership arrangement into the Auckland Council support network;
• Monitor the Auckland economic and business engine room and bring its needs with appropriate urgency to the attention of Council;
• Develop an economic development plan that accurately represents Auckland’s creative and innovative economic needs and opportunities;
• Marry the Auckland economic development plan with national priorities;
• Facilitate ongoing, cross-sectoral cooperation and collaboration in delivering Council’s economic development activities.

This Agency needs to be the business community’s forum for focusing the region’s growth and development aspirations.

Rugby World Cup 2011

The Chamber notes that RWC 2011 preparations have been ring-fenced and are being co-ordinated through a combined Auckland-Wellington framework.

Our submission supports the Bill enabling an early decision to bring this task within the framework of Auckland Council’s economic development planning process (as recommended by the Royal Commission) in order to give continuity and certainty to this vital work when the new Council comes into force on 1 November this year.

ENDS

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