Tough day at the office

Saturday's election saw a convincing win to Citizens & ratepayers, who will take control of the Council with 11 of 20 seats. City Vision lost several Council seats and a number Community Board seats.

While there is still a lot of analysis to do, the result suggests that there was an old fashioned swing towards C&R in Auckland that was fairly uniform across the city. C&R picked up one seat in each of Tamaki-Maungakiekie, Western Bays, and Avondale-Roskill, while both Action Hobson incumbents were tipped out of Hobson to be replaced by C&R challengers. In Eden-Albert former C&R Councillor Mark Donnelly came back under the "Focus Eden-Albert" ticket to tip out City Vision Councillor Neil Abel by just 12 votes.

This was clearly a tough election for City Vision, and a good result for C&R. Congratulations and best wishes go all all those who were elected.

The mood at the City Vision E-Day function, and over the rest of the weekend has been interesting. After some intial sadness, particularly for several incumbents who lost their positions, the mood was energetic and determined. Councillor Glenda Fryer pointed out that City Vision was in a similar position in 2001, but with hard campaigning and good candidates came back to win in 2004.

Furthermore, there is a determination that we do not simply wait for the next election to campaign again, but that the work starts now. The Banks/C&R Council has an agenda of cutting services, transferring wealth from poor and middle household to the rich through the Uniform Annual Charge, and privatisation. While we wish the new Council all the best for their term in office they should also know that we will be there every step of the way to keep them honest and to campaign for a fair and green city.

City Vision Talk will be sticking around to keep you informed about all of this.

Nearly your last chance to vote

Voting in the Local Body Election closes at noon on Saturday (13 October).

Turnout so far remains low! It is important that everyone in Auckland city who values public ownership, diversity, and social justice votes to make sure that we can continue the good work started over the past three years.

If you have not yet voted, please find your voting papers now, complete them and post them TODAY.

For Mayor, vote Dick Hubbard as the only viable choice to defeat the intolerant, privatising Banks.

For Council, vote City Vision if you live in Avondale-Roskill, Eden-Albert or Western Bays Wards. Vote Labour in Tamaki-Maungakiekie Ward.

For Community Board, vote City Vision for Avondale, Mt Roskill, Eden-Albert and Western Bays. Vote Labour for Tamaki Community Board.

Vote City Vision for Portage Licensing Trust (if you live in that area).Vote Labour for Mt Wellington Licensing Trust (if you live in that area).

For Auckland Regional Council, vote Regional People across the city.

For Auckland District Health Board, rank the City Vision Health Team 1, 2, 3, 4. You don't have to rank everyone. You can stop wherever you want to!

If you miss the post, you can deliver them to the Electoral Office (Level 2, 360 Queen St, Auckland - opposite the Town Hall) any time up to noon on Saturday. Or deliver them to any library between 10am and noon on Saturday.

Happy voting!

Turnout Critical

Turnout for local body elections across New Zealand continues to lag badly. In Auckland, as of yesterday just 28.8% of votes have been received, as compared to 37.1% at the comparable point in 2007.

City Vision candidates have been continuing to run a hard on the ground campaign to encourage people to vote, including strategic doorknocking and phone canvassing, visibility activities in key shopping areas and meetings with community groups.

This activity is critical because, as with the 2005 General Election, it will be turnout that determines the result of this election. While we have a Ward system in Auckland city, turnout across the city matters because, with the possible exception of C&R stronghold Eastern Bays, every single mainland ward is somehow in play:

• Hobson - a tight contest between the moderate action Hobson team and a hard right C&R ticket desperate to re-claim their perceived birthright to represent Hobson.
• Tamaki-Maungakiekie - Labour hold 3 Council positions, with Independent Bill Christian (who can swing either way) holding the fourth. Christian, representing a heartland Labour area could potentially support a Banks/C&R Council if re-elected.
• Western Bays - City Vision has a strong and high profile ticket with Lindsey Rea and Graham Easte, but turnout in this ward remains low. Progressive voters need to turnout to ensure Lindsey and Graham are elected.
• Eden-Albert - A strange contest. The strong incumbent City Vision team of Glenda Fryer, Neil Abel, and Cathy Casey should see off a divided right, but again progressive voters cannot rely on this - people must get out and vote.
• Avondale-Roskill - C&R are relying on a gain in this ward to win a majority on Council. The City Vision campaign has been organised and focussed on turning out the natural centre-left majority. Above all other wards, turnout is critical to the final result.

With a close result likely, a swing of one additional Councillor here or there is likely to have significant implications. The message is simple - Aucklanders can sit back and accept a hard right privatising, intolerant Banks/Hay led Council, or turn out to vote for a City Vision/Labour Council that protects our public assets and invests in Auckland.

Big money tries to buy the election

Just as the Exclusive Bretheren used their millions in an attempt to win the 2005 election for the political right, it would appear that big money is also at work in the Auckland local body elections.

City Vision Talk posted a couple of weeks ago about this billboard that went up on Dominion Rd. The billboard personally attacks City Vision Councillor Glenda Fryer, and says "Don't vote City Vision. They're the fun police".

Since then there have been numerous sightings of these huge billboards being illegally towed around Auckland, with a large number visible in these crucial final days of the election.

It would appear that the vehicles towing around these anonymous billboards are owned by the Giltrap Prestige car dealership, which is in turn owned by Colin Giltrap (pictured), who with around $300 million is one of Auckland's wealthiest residents.

This makes lots of sense because Giltrap is a motorsport enthusiast who blames City Vision for the canning of the V8 motor race in central Auckland (forgetting that it was the voters who resoundingly gave the V8 race the thumbs down in 2004).

The real question here is what links are there between John Banks and C&R and Mr Giltrap's expensive anti City-Vision campaign. If there is any link then the huge expenditure on these fixed and mobile billboards should be declared by C&R and Banks, and the ads themselves should be authorised. Whatsmore, if C&R did have knowledge of this anti-City Vision campaign, they need to explain to the public why it is appropriate for a major political ticket to support anonymous attack advertising of this kind.

City Vision Talk wonders if we may end up hearing a repeat of this kind of interview, with Don Brash substituted for John Banks or David Hay!

It's about policy

Political campaigns can sometimes veer towards the sensational and the irrelevant - scandals, how photogenic a candidate is, their performance in a single debate, a clever marketing ploy, or any one of a number of factors that don't actually say a damned thing about what the candidate or the ticket will actually do if elected.

This is why properly analysing the policy of the respective campaigns is extremely important.

There are huge differences between C&R and City Vision on policy. Not only because the two groups hold philisophically different views on a range of major policies, but also because City Vision is actually stating in detail what our policy is!

Look here to see the rather short and extremely vague bullet point list of C&R policy. Is this collection of apple-pie banalities really a serious platform from which to govern a city? The question is, with so little up-front policy, what are C&R planning to do that they are not telling us?

Contrast this with City Vision's policy. While you may well find aspects you disagree with, our policy is comprehensive and detailed, with carefully developed papers on eight specific areas of policy.

With C&R who knows what you will get. With City Vision it is all up front.

Post your vote today!

Turnout for these important local body elections is currently very low, with only about 20% of eligible voters having mailed their forms in.

Every day (except for yesterday) has seen the number of votes coming in at a lower level than for the comparable day last election.

It is absolutley essential that all Aucklanders have their say this election - the issues are simply too big to stand back and let others decide upon. The big issues at stake include:

• Whether we keep or sell our city's assets.
• Whether we believe Council should support affordable housing
• Whether we embrace diversity or go back to Council as an old boys club.
• Whether water is provided at minimum cost.
• Whether rates are struck fairly (everyone paying their fair share vs. big rate cuts for the rich at the expense of the rest of us)
• Whether we proceed with the necessary infrastructure investments to make Auckland a great city.

Postal ballots should all be in the mail by Wednesday to ensure they are received in time.

For a prosperous, fair, and green city please post your vote for City Vision today.

The Mayor and the Pacific Community

Russell Brown has a link to a Radio New Zealand story about test that the mayoral candidates were asked to complete regarding their knowledge about the Pacific community.

These kind of things are always a bit of a gimmick, but they do give some idea about how much the candidate in question actually knows about the city, and how open they are to learning more.

John Banks comes out of the survey rather badly. As well as struggling to identify Doug Howlett as a current All Black (has this guy been living in a box?) he actually refuses to complete the survey. Now it's one thing to not do very well, and then concede that your knowledge is a little lacking (as Alex Swney did), but to start the survey and then throw your toys out of the cot when you start to struggle... not a good look for someone who is arguing that they have the goods to lead a major city.

Dick Hubbard (I understand) topped the survey, and had some useful things to say about the importance of community facilities in developing community cohesion.

Anyway, have a listen here.

City Vision believes that it is extremely important that our Council and Community Boards better reflect the diversity of our city, and has a range of outstanding Pasifika candidates standing for election this year.

Fair Rates

Rates are one of the issues that will be on people's minds as they vote in this year's local body elections.

While most people are comfortable to pay rates in order to provide the infrastructure and services needed for a vibrant, growing city, people also want to that any increases are reasonably justified, and that the way their rates are levied is fair.

It is this second point that has received very little attention in the mainstream media, and is a major difference between City Vision and Citizens and Ratepayers.

Citizens and Ratepayers policy is to levy a "uniform annual charge" (UAC) on all households. The UAC is a flat tax - all property owners pay it, no matter what the value of their property. So a modest working family in a $350, 000 home in Mt Roskill pays the same UAC as a wealthy currency trader living in a $2 million Parnell mansion.

City Vision believes that the UAC is fundamentally unfair. It places more of the rating burden on low-middle value property owners, and reduces rates for the very wealthy.

Our policy is to abolish the UAC. This term we have halved it (we didn't quite have the numbers to abolish it completely), and if elected as a majority on Council we will fulfill our pledge to make rates fairer by getting rid of the UAC completely.

The choice is clear - vote Citizens and Ratepayers to give the wealthiest people a rate cut with the rest of us paying more, or vote City Vision for a fair system under which everyone pays their fair share.

The Mayoral Decision

Here at City Vision Talk we have expressed some frustration at the strong media focus on the mayoral race at the expense of the more important overall balance of Council. Fundamentally, the best thing that Aucklanders who value public ownership of strategic assets, investment in our infrastructure, and better public transport can do is to vote for a City Vision led Council.

However Aucklanders do also have an important choice to make in deciding who will be Mayor. The Mayor has one important vote on Council, and acts as a nationally recognised voice and advocate for Auckland. The Mayor should be someone who has a positive vision and encapsulates all the things that are good about our city.

This writer had the opportunity of observing the two main candidates at close quarters at a candidate forum held at the Hillsborough Baptist Church a couple of weeks ago, during which my views about the respective merits of both candidates were confirmed.

The performance of John Banks was nothing short of a disgrace. Banks, who claims to have "transmogrified" sickeningly played up to the audience in a gross parody of a Christian preacher.

The first minute of his address was all about proving in the most craven tele-vangelist style that he was a Christian and should therefore be supported by Christian voters. Interstingly to this Christian he did not speak to any of the Bible's enduring themes of justice, concern for the sick and the poor, and love for all. Instead we were treated to a rant designed to whip the audience into a frenzy with frequent references to the "ho-mo-sexual" community, and repeated personal attacks on the mayor. Nowhere was there any positive vision for the city - just intolerant ranting and the same nasty and agressive approach rejected by Aucklanders three years ago.

Dick Hubbard was plainly upset by Bank's approach and veered slightly off track as a result. He did talk about his positive vision for a city that is greener and fairer, but sometimes became distracted by Bank's jibes. This more or less confirmed my view of Hubbard and his mayoralty - that while it has been far from perfect, he is basically a decent man who has positive plans for Auckland.

I personally disagree with Hubbard on a range of issues, from Metrowater to the Uniform Annual Charge. But given the choice on offer this election I will happily vote for his fallible decency over Bank's intolerant nastiness, and I encourage all other Aucklanders to do so too.

A new park for Auckland?

A hot local topic in Mt Roskill is the future of the Three Kings Quarry site.

Tucked away beside 'The Big King' (which is the one remaining volcanic cone of the original 3 Kings that the suburb is named after) is the Winstone Aggregates quarry that has been operating since the early Twentieth Century.

For many years locals have been extremely concerned by the quarry's de-watering activities that it is believed may lead to subsidence and stability issues in the surrounding resedential area. City Vision Community Board member Corinne McLaren has been at the forefront of these issues as President of the Three Kings United group.

The good news is that it is now confirmed that the quarry will cease operations in the short-medium term. The big question is: what happens then?

City Vision is strongly of the view that the site should be developed as a major new multi-purpose park for the people of Auckland. With SH20 cutting across Mt Roskill and increasing population density it is critical that we develop quality open space for the community. City Vision Talk thinks that there are huge opportunities for an imaginative development that includes open parkland, regnerating native bush, and community facilities.

However Winstone Aggregates track recorcd of listening to the community is not good. There is a real concern that Winstones will try to make as much money as possible out of the site by selling it off to greedy developers to put up tacky commercial and resedential buildings.

City Vision candidates in Roskill have publicly pledged to campaign for the site to be developed as community open space.

Keeping it Democratic

Living in a democracy is about more than voting once every three years (although that's a big part of it) - it's also about decisions being made in a democratic way in between elections.

That's why the proposal of John Banks and C&R to stop Councillors sitting on consent hearings is a terrible idea.

The reason that elected Councillors sit on these hearings is to ensure that the community, through their elected representatives actually get a say on proposed developments that will have a direct impact on the community. Elected representatives have a special role in this sense as they are directly accountable to the community.

It is essential that developments such as the proposed mega McDonalds at Balmoral are actually considered by representatives of the community.

While independent commissioners will bring certain expertise to the table, it isn't commissioners who will have to live with the consequences of a shonky development in their backyard - it is the community. City Vision Talk is also extremely concerned by who a C&R Council would appoint as independent commissioners - the last thing we need are greedy property developers and zealous free-marketeers opening our city up to their rich mates.

Whatsmore, independent commissioners will cost ratepayers more that having Councillors on hearings panels! A case of wasteful spending if ever we've heard one.

Only a vote for City Vision will ensure local decisions get made by accountable elected representatives.

Avondale-Roskill Cavalcade

The Avondale-Roskill team of candidates picked a beautifully sunny Saturday for their cavalcade across the Ward, with the aim of raising profile and reminding people to cast their votes.

The cavalcade set out from Roskill in the morning and drove around large parts of the area. At shopping areas and strategic residential areas, candidates would stop for a 20 minute burst of doorknocking, leafleting, and a good old fashioned street corner meeting. After lunch at the Cock n' Bull Lynfield we continued on to Avondale.

David Rhodes (Avondale-Roskill Council), Carmel Sepuloni (Roskill Community Board) and Michael Wood (Roskill Community Board) did the honours with the megaphone at street corner meetings. The public response was overwhelmingly positive. People seemed to appreciate seeing candidates being out and active, and openly stating our views on the important issues.

The crew finished off in Avondale town centre at the end of a hectic day, managing to cap things off in style by reminding voters of porn king Steve Crow's shady credentials as he paraded a gigantic sign down the mainstreet behind a large 4-wheel drive.

All in all, an excellent day of campaigning.