Unfair volumetric charging for wastewater opposed

George Wood seems to have developed something of an obsession over an error made in one of the recent Council? media releases (NST 15 July 2010). The error was made by the author of the media release in good faith, is regrettable, but was corrected (removed: and I have apologised for it and moved on). I have accepted the person’s quite reasonable explanation for the error and am not prepared to indulge in the sort of 'witch-hunt' Mr Wood seems to be suggesting.

The substance of the issue is whether or not North Shore residents and ratepayers will be hit with volumetric charging for wastewater. Although recent legislation does not require it, it does not rule it out either.

The adoption of volumetric charging on the Shore will almost certainly lead to higher household water charges as the pricing regime is rationalised across the region over time.

If George Wood is so certain that volumetric charging will not come to the Shore, and that water bills to households will not increase under the super city arrangements, then I will certainly look forward to holding him to account when it does.

My priority is ensuring that the best interests of North Shore communities and families come first under the new Auckland Council, rather than spend time defending the obvious flaws in its design.

No entrenched right to vote in local government elections

New Zealanders, might be surprised to know that there is no entrenched right to any form of local government at all in New Zealand. As such, we do not enjoy any entrenched right to vote in local government elections. Aucklanders are currently feeling the brunt of our local democracy being at the mercy of our central government politicians.


NZ is one of only three countries in the world without a single written constitutional document (the others are Britain and Israel). Our system is of parliamentary supremacy means that New Zealand suffers from inadequate constitutional safeguards in the form of a single-document written constitution, elected head of state, upper house or recourse to the Supreme Court for constitution infringement. What constitutional rules we do have reside in a wide range of documents, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, conventions, common law and some statutes. For example, the Constitution Act 1986 also only deals with matters of Parliament and does not even mention local government. The Bill of Rights Act 1990 (s.15) clearly spells out that every New Zealand citizen has the right to vote for members of the House of Representatives but is silent on our right to vote in local elections. The Electoral Act also contains an entrenched right for New Zealander’s to vote for MPs.

However, the right to vote in local body elections is only contained in ordinary statute and can be easily and quickly changed by the government. The only safeguard is the fear of a potential political backlash by angry residents.

Current proposals, to change the way Auckland is governed, illustrates the importance of having entrenched rights to local government and guaranteed rights to vote for that government. Central Government has legislated to transfer 75 percent of Auckland’s local body assets and duties into business units (called CCOs) with mainly closed meetings and almost no obligations to the community. These duties are those most people associate with their local councils such as providing drinking water and wastewater services as well as roading and footpaths. With this ‘Auckland’ legislation the government has been easily able to erode the services provided by local councils because they are only established by ordinary statute and convention. Frighteningly, ordinary citizens’ rights to local government itself, let alone voting in local body elections, are at the whim of the government of the day.