Well it has now been somewhat confirmed: Auckland most definitely is becoming a super city. The government’s response to the Royal Commission’s findings doesn’t change that fact, but does change a few other things quite interestingly. A brief summary of the changes are shown below:
The big changes from the original Royal Commission report is the 20-30 local boards rather than the 6 local councils, and the fact that Maori seats won’t be specifically allocated in what’s now proposed. I’m kind of mixed on the Maori seats issue – as I can see both sides of the story – but I think that going from 6 local councils to 20-30 local boards is going to have some pretty significant benefits in terms of “keeping the local in local government.” I had kind of worried that the 6 local councils would have spent most of their time fighting tooth and nail to retain control over things they do at the moment, rather than acting as the local branch of the main council – which is kind of how I envisaged them to work. With more local councils that are smaller, I can more easily see how the local aspect of local government is being retained. I do hope that the local boards get a reasonable amount of control over what they can do, and their power to ask for targeted rates for local projects actually happens.
Regarding transport, well it is fairly early on in the piece to see what’s actually going to happen here. The government is even putting a scary asterisk next to the Regional Transport Agency, in that it’s agreed to in principle but the details still have to be worked out. There also seems to be a change in funding, away from the “outcomes based funding” that was (seemingly, I never really came across it) proposed in the Royal Commission’s Report and back to what happens at the moment. That could potentially be a significant loss, but I think clearly overall the outcomes are good for transport. The other main change for transport is that the RTA would have responsibility for local roads, rather than local councils. I actually think this is a good idea – one agency for transport please. Simple is good.
Below is the summary of transport related decisions:
The other loss is that the RTA won’t seem to have as much power over state highways and railway developments – with those remaining largely under the control of the government. In my opinion that is a pity, especially when you consider the current government is obsessed with pursuing a highly imbalanced roads-centric transport agenda, but it’s not necessarily that surprising. Overall I still think we’re much better off under the changes.
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