Late last year, as part of a six-yearly representation review, the council’s ‘Joint Governance Working Party’ rejected the council officers’ Initial proposal which was to restore the ward’s original boundaries to once again include Parnell, Newmarket and Grafton.
Instead it decided, with some adjustments, including Grafton, to keep the eastern city boundaries of the Waitematā & Gulf ward and the Waitematā Local Board separated. Essentially upholding the 2018 decision of the previous Working Party to exclude Parnell and Newmarket. It should be noted the 2024 working party was chaired by City Vision’s Julie Fairey and the 2018 Working Party was chaired by City Vision’s Richard Northey, who also played a leading role in 2024 Working Party. The Final proposal was signed-off by a majority of council’s governing body in late September.
But due to the number of objections and appeals from members of the public in support of the council’s Initial proposal, the Local Government Commission, early in February convened a formal hearing in the Town Hall, to enable members of the public to make their case in person. After battling this injustice for nearly seven years, I took the opportunity to join them. Here is a summary of the case I made to the Commissioners:
It has now generally conceded that the 2018 recommendations by the Joint Governance Working Party, separating the ward and local board boundaries was based on population figures that were wildly inaccurate. The claimed ward population in 2018, used to justify slicing off Parnell, Newmarket and Grafton was 119,100. But the 2018 census figures (released immediately after the 2019 local body elections), revealed the true figure to be 92,865. A difference of 26,235. An overestimate of 28%! Moreover, instead of enhancing the democratic process, the confusing changes resulted in voter participation to fall from 42% in 2016 to a miserable 35% in 2019, recovering somewhat to 39% in 2022.
Six years on, council officers recognising that the 2018 population figures were seriously wrong and aware of the dysfunctionality, notably coming to light during the Erebus memorial controversy, of these changes, tried to rectify the situation with their Initial proposal that went out for public consultation. This essentially reversed the 2018 changes, to restore the ‘community of interest’ in place from 2010-2019 – an important requirement of the Local Electoral Act.
But the Initial proposal though supported by 68% of public submissions, particularly from Parnell residents from 2019 placed in the Orakei ward but confusingly remaining in the Waitemata Local Board area, was effectively over-ridden by the Working Party.
The written submissions and those made at this hearing explain why the present situation is insupportable to many residents. Why the 2018 figures, which showed an apparent huge gap between population and those on the roll, (which I accepted at face value), were so wrong is another question. But despite the availability of accurate figures from the 2023 census - and with council officers now strongly advising that the boundaries be realigned, the politicians were still not persuaded. Why this was, one can only draw one’s own conclusions.
The business of making and changing local electorate boundaries should not be made by partisan local politicians who have a party political, or personal interest in the outcome (including myself). I note in reference to the ‘Principles’ of the Local Electoral Act section 4 (ii) ‘the provision of elections that are managed independently from the elected body’. As in the case of Parliamentary electorates an independent organisation should undertake this task.
The Local Government Commission which so carefully set up the Auckland Council wards and local boards boundaries in 2010, is the independent body which should have been given this task. There is nothing to stop the council asking the Commission to do this, and I would recommend the Commission be given this role in the future. And of course given the problem with dodgy population figures, representation reviews should always be timed to enable the use of the latest census figures from Statistics NZ. Local government democracy, coherent communities of interest and the fair and effective representation of people (real people, not phantoms) is too important to allow this debacle to ever happen again.
I ask that the Commission rejects the Final proposal and that the restoration of the original boundaries of the Waitemata & Gulf Ward, as set out in the Initial proposal, supported by 68% of local submitters, be upheld. (Mike Lee)
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