They’re lining up to lease our Auckland Port from Dubai to NZ Superfund. Why?
Because there’s obviously a lot of money to be made. Giving this profit to foreign investors is foolhardy when we could use it to reduce our $12.4 Billion debt.
Port Turnaround
By mainly importing, the Port has a low carbon footprint. It has paid council a $20M six monthly dividend. Their ‘Statement of Corporate Intent’ predicts continued profits. This revenue-returning-asset could generate more by building a larger cruise liner wharf, keeping Bledisloe Wharf for expansion and operating the ferries.
Stop the Slush Fund
Our ‘once-in-250-year-flood’ and ongoing unpredictable weather are cause for concern. We can guarantee our long-term financial resilience for a rainy day, only if we resurrect the highly competent ‘Auckland Council Investments Ltd’ to manage our $2.3B council’s assets, instead of Panuku. Those inter-generational investments are our ‘Future Fund’. Selling and cashing up would result in a ‘slush fund’ that would be spent, as happened with the $400M ‘Diversified Asset Fund’ inherited from the ARC.
Enough ‘Future Investment’
Aucklanders are afraid to come into the city they paid to renovate – the Viaduct, Wynyard Quarter and CRL. The ‘City of Sails’ has turned into a ‘city of orange cones’. Time to stop the construction zone and experience the good, bad and the ugly decisions, allowing ratepayers to access and enjoy the city they financed. The ‘Centre City Master Plan’ must go along with Panuku. They are responsible for turning our Civic Centre into a maze and creating a $20M fine trap for AT; narrowing Queen Street, K' Road and arterial roads to single lane causing congestion; and dividing the city in two with the Victoria St Linear Park.
Decrease Debt
Mayor ‘Mr Fix-it’ was voted in to surgically remove the cancer, not the family silver. To cauterize the money hemorrhaging from a broken system that is gorging itself on rates. It’s totally dysfunctional with the wrong upcycled personnel appointed to key positions. The budget’s ‘pay less, get less’ scenario, threatens core services instead of carving up the beast and cutting the waste by restructuring out middle management and dysfunctional CCOs.
Cancel CCOs (requires legislation)
Council-controlled organisations consume $490M and AC $609M in yearly salaries. Why are CEO’s salaries twice the Mayor’s?
· Eke Panuku Development has the worst real estate sales track record, eg, selling ex-AC building on 5000 sqm land for $3M (worth $54M) and Downtown Carpark $133M less than the counter offer. Panuku alleges “to deliver ‘urban regeneration’, the planning and improvement of neighbourhoods to strengthen communities around thriving town centres.” They’re miserable failures at this ‘social engineering’ as proven by Henderson blue-road-graffiti. Yet the Budget proposes $100M for Panuku’s “strategic development fund to enable faster regeneration of rundown parts of Auckland,” these communities don’t want.
· Tātaki Auckland Unlimited claims to “push Auckland towards a bright future, creating world-class major events and supporting Auckland businesses to grow and thrive.” TAU mismanages venues and allows road narrowing and AT’s restricted parking in shopping villages that is detrimental to ‘thriving'. Council departments and other CCOs all run events making TAU redundant.
· Auckland Transport is spending $1.058B on our transport network during next financial year. This is the highest ever annual spend on building infrastructure but these ‘traffic calming’ techniques and cycleways have wasted ratepayers' funds, without maintaining roads and footpaths. The ‘Regional Transport Plan’ will be released.
Stadium Dominos
As Auckland intensifies, all areas need their own amenities. The non-viable waterfront stadium appears to be part of a real estate land-grab by defunding Eden Park. The domino effect, starting with moving cricket from Eden Park to Western Springs, replacing Speedway, including the unnecessary $20M demolition of North Harbour Stadium to sell the land, after TAU ran it into the ground.
Trees Please
Funding Tupuna Maunga Authority to cut down mature trees is counterintuitive to the city’s 'Urban Ngahere Plan’ goal to increase the tree canopy to 30%. The removal of ‘Tree Protection’ has decimated our engendered nature bat population by 70% in 10 years. Treescape was paid $722,461 for Mangere Mountain and $917,800 for Mt Wellington (LGOIMA) for ‘exotic’ tree removal. Stop this bird habitat removal.
Rubbish Decision
Adding recycle bins rather than removing bins from parks and beaches would allow less frequent emptying. Who wants to take bagged dog poo home to their household bins? Consistency issuing the whole of Auckland red top wheelie bins, with larger bins for households over four inhabitants, and weekly collection of smelly food scraps, could reduce collection to fortnightly.
Ratepayers aren’t ‘cash-cows’
The LTP is full of gems like “$171M to achieve positive Māori outcomes.” (Gael Baldock)
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Published: March 2024