JOHN PALINO For Mayor

OUR AUCKLAND

Authorised by John Palino, 63 Ponsonby Road, Auckland

Our Auckland

“I see a bright future ahead.”

I see an Auckland where the finest attributes of our region are protected and enhanced. Where new technologies lead a revolution in public services built on a platform of community engagement and local decision making. Where faster, better and more transparent Council decisions create certainty for residents and businesses, improve the efficiency and effectiveness of local governance and provide accountability for all. And where each year the people of Auckland are more prosperous and secure, the environment cleaner and the opportunities for regional and personal growth and development are better than the year before.

But to deliver Our Auckland it will take the input, commitment and support of Auckland’s 1.5 million residents, the communities they comprise, the businesses they create and the public bodies, both central and local, who represent them. We each have to play our part and play it as best we can.

And it starts with you. It is time to give residents a say in developing their own neighbourhoods. You are the stakeholders; it is your hard working dollars that have built the homes and the communities. Who better than you to know what your neighbourhoods require. Every community is different and has different needs. The direction of each should and must be driven by those who have their hearts and hard work embedded in them.

I am standing for the office of Mayor because I am passionate about our city, our region and its people and I want them each to flourish. But to do so, we need new direction. We need a community voice. We need a new Mayor for Our Auckland.

What I Stand For

“To seize our opportunities, we’re all going to have to work together. Communities, central government, business and all the various components of the Auckland Council.

Each knowing our role and how we can best contribute to the kind of city and region we want to live in is critical to achieving our shared objectives.“

To deliver our Auckland we have to do three things:

• Protect those things we love and value about our region.

• Address the major outstanding issues affecting our city.

• Enhance Auckland so that it delivers more opportunities, greater prosperity and a better quality of life for all.

Protect Our Auckland

1. Engage We must protect the things we value or we risk compromising things we love in an effort to obtain things we may not need. Understanding what Aucklanders value is the first priority of Council. I’m going to get out into the communities and neighbourhoods of Auckland and find out what those communities and neighbourhoods value.

2. Communicate For residents to protect the things they love about Auckland, the Council must communicate proactively and transparently. Communities have to know what is happening in their neighbourhoods, when and why and they have to know where their rates are going. I’m going to increase the resources to Local Boards so that they can communicate directly with communities to reduce friction created from misunderstanding.

3. Inform The Council’s role in protecting the things Aucklanders value is to provide expert input supported by research to inform residential decisions – it is not to make decisions for residents. I’m going to find out where it is most cost effective to grow the city and provide that information to residents to inform their choices, not to limit them.

Address The Big Issues

4. Congestion We have to reduce the time Aucklanders spend in traffic. To do this we have to take advantage of our city’s existing networks and maximise our future investments. We have good road systems and an improving rail and bus network. Let’s leverage the best qualities of each. I’m going to expand and construct park and ride facilities where they’re needed so that people have better options, not fewer.

5. Unitary Plan The Unitary Plan touches every single resident, business and community in Auckland. It therefore belongs to every single resident, business and community. The Unitary Plan must be put back out to the people of Auckland for them to say how they want their neighbourhood, business and community to grow and develop. I will go back into every suburb and commercial area in Auckland and ask those residents and businesses what they want. Once we have community agreement, we can allow more housing to be built in accordance with that agreement and release the pressure on Auckland house prices.

6. City Rail Link Auckland is going to get an underground rail tunnel in the CBD, but the project in its current form is not as good as it could be. We have to work harder to ensure the CRL meets Auckland’s needs and as many people as possible can benefit from it. I’m going to review the details of the CRL project and the planning rules near stations so we can maximise patronage and reduce the impact on ratepayers.

7. Housing Affordability We have to make Auckland a city where people can afford to live. The Council’s role in delivering affordable housing is to ensure that land supply is sufficient to build out and that height and other restrictions are adequate to build up. The Government’s Housing Accord with the Council must be signed and implemented with urgency, but priority development must occur in those areas where there is community support and be attended by community benefits. I will work with the Government to streamline consents, reduce regulatory impediments and deliver new affordable living for Aucklanders.

8. Rates and Financial Management Rates are an efficient taxation source, but they should not be taken for granted. The Council must constantly be reviewing its spending to ensure that each dollar of rating income provides value for money to Auckland. I’m going to have an independent body review all Auckland local government spending over the last three years, assess future projections and publish the findings so we can cut waste and keep rates below the level of inflation. PAGE 5

9. Council Operation It’s time to take a close look at how Council decisions are made and the efficiency and effectiveness with which they are implemented. Major opportunities are being missed and problem resolution delayed by protracted and obscure Council processes. I’m going to launch a review of Council processes and invite stakeholder feedback on dealings with the Council. This information will be published and used to reform and improve the way Council operates.

10. Community Safety Some residents across Auckland do not feel safe in their homes or walking home at night. Roads and footpaths are dark and many of our houses are not secure. The Council must help police and the judicial system interface with affected communities and build a neighbourhood response to safety. I will help communities establish street patrols in affected areas and liaise with the police to ensure good urban design solutions which reduce offending.

Enhance Our Auckland

11. Satellite Centres

To protect our existing way of life, meet public demands for different housing types, reduce congestion pressures around central Auckland, provide accommodation for Auckland’s growing population and develop in a carbon efficient and environmentally responsible way, I envision intensified micro cities along select rail stations on Auckland’s periphery. Where there is local support for such development and where existing infrastructure networks have capacity for growth, we should look to create energy efficient, intensified urban living where Aucklanders can experience great environments and amenity without compromising the neighbourhoods people love.

12. Digital Auckland

I’m going to move the Auckland Council into the 21st century. Paper trails, poor engagement with communities, fractured communication between Council bodies and outdated approaches to transport are all going to be targets of a new, high tech digital Council which minimises waste and speeds up decision making. I will appoint a digital liaison adviser to the Mayoral office who will lead the Council’s revolution in public services. PAGE 6

Key Council Duties

We can’t deliver the city and region residents deserve without a high performing Council. I want to deliver the best performing local government institution in New Zealand. The principal duties which the Council must execute well are:

1. Engage

2. Plan

3. Invest

The council needs to perform the above three functions efficiently, effectively, transparently with accountability.

1. Engage Engagement is the first order priority of local government. It involves intimate connection, consultation and communication with residents, communities, businesses, activity groups and central government. Engagement provides the input and understanding of community needs necessary to develop policy. It is an efficient and effective means to both establish direction and engender public support.

2. Plan Planning is a broad term that includes much more than preparation for future activity. It includes Council’s responsibilities around research, regulation and zoning. It includes the establishment of rules directing housing density, height and the decision to enforce an urban limit.

3. Invest The Council is the second largest investor in Auckland after the Government. Rates, levies, charges and other revenue all materialise as investment. The largest investments the Council makes is in transport and water. Of these, transport is the most important because it determines the nature and extent of activities in the region and because it is also the major influence on rates.

Good investment by the Council supports Government investment and direction, leveraging off major spending on motorways, railways, facilities and social services. Good Council investment also guides and supports private investment, providing transport funding and access when and where required so businesses can grow, employees can work and the abundant activities of Auckland can thrive.

Council Performance

The Council must engage, plan and invest efficiently, effectively, transparently and with accountability. Ongoing reviews of Council activities, spending and decision making are essential to ensuring expenditure is contained and that residents get optimum value for money.

Auckland’s Big 4 Issues

1. Transport

Transport is the key to a successful city. Good transport networks and systems connect friends and families, employers and employees and enable cities to grow. But Auckland’s road network is nearing capacity. Small accidents and breakdowns are leading to failures across the entire network and alternate modes are inadequate. Projects like the city rail link and an additional harbour crossing require vast public investment that must be supported by careful planning and policy. But wider public policy is not supporting these projects and a result they are not meeting Auckland’s needs. As a result congestion in our city is projected by the Council’s transport body to get much worse at the same time as transport is planned to cost much more.

2. Housing

Auckland is unaffordable. The cost of housing is so great now that young people are being locked out of a future the generation before them took as a right and are leaving our city. It now takes over six median annual household incomes to buy a house in Auckland, when a decade ago it was almost half that. High housing costs hit everyone, especially those on lower incomes. Money spent on housing is money that is not spent elsewhere in the economy and the housing debt burden is now so great that it threatens to destabilise the national economy.

3. Rates

Rates have been increasing above and beyond the level of inflation in Auckland for over a decade. Even through the recession, when times were hard for Aucklanders and incomes falling, the Council raised spending and increased costs to residents. Elderly and many of Auckland’s most vulnerable were hit the hardest and there is no end in sight – rates are planned to increase every year for the next decade at 4.9 per cent per annum.

4. Unitary Plan

The Unitary Plan is the rule book for Auckland’s growth and development. It should be celebrated as the people’s guide to how they want their communities to evolve. Instead, it is divisive and has caused widespread anger and concern. Quiet neighbourhoods are being told they must accept high rise apartments and property owners are being forbidden from developing their land. Community engagement over the provisions of the Unitary Plan has been poor at the same time as the ability of residents to question new development is being reduced.

ENDS

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