Is National's survey an Auckland Council election play?

Thursday, 20 June 2019

Business executive Vic Crone in 2016 was the last openly National Party-backed mayoral candidate in Auckland

OPINION: It looks like a survey but is the National Party's 'Rate your Council' questionnaire really a way to play a part in October's Auckland Council election?

Party leader Simon Bridges, and National's local government spokesperson for Auckland Denise Lee, launched on Thursday what they pitched as a means to gather views to help form policy for the 2020 General Election, and rejected a link to the upcoming local body vote.

It's yet to be seen if the new survey is a genuine policy-building exercise, or campaign fodder to fire at Phil Goff.

'What can central government do to make your day-to-day interactions with Auckland Council easier?' Lee asked in the online preamble to 21 questions covering transport, building consents, and the council in general.

The outcome of the survey, which people were invited to complete online, should be made known before voting closes for 1.1 million eligible electors in Auckland, depending on the response.

John Tamihere announced his bid to be Auckland Mayor, with former National MP Christine Fletcher by his side.

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The major political parties have different ways of taking part in Auckland Council elections.

The Greens are involved in left-leaning tickets such as City Vision, a joint venture with Labour and the like-minded in central Auckland.

Labour stands council candidates directly in its strongest bases in the south and west.

Until the survey launch, National appeared to be having its lowest-profile role in Auckland local body elections since the 2010 formation of the amalgamated Auckland Council.

For the first time in four elections, it doesn't have a favoured mayoral candidate in the mould of John Banks, John Palino or Vic Crone in previous campaigns.

National's Tamaki MP Simon O'Connor publicly pondered a tilt, but over last summer decided against it.

Delegates at the party's annual conference last July watered down a bid by Auckland members to stand National-branded candidates in the city election.

The party-backed Auckland Future ticket, helped in 2016 by National MPs Nikki Kaye and Paul Goldsmith, failed to fire and is parked-up this year, citing 'the absence of a long-term strategy for the centre-right in Auckland.'

The Auckland Future flag was flown by Denise Lee, who became the ticket's only councillor when she was re-elected in the Tamaki-Maungakiekie ward. But she left soon after and won the Maungakieie by-election for National.

That left National represented mainly by the traditional, central Auckland brand of Communities and Residents (C&R).

It's a small platform in a region which is both politically important to Parliamentary parties, and which poses major challenges to any government trying to meet increasingly complex and growing demands.

Former National Party president Michelle Boag is on mayoral challenger John Tamihere's team, as is his running mate, former National MP Christine Fletcher.

The language in the new survey leaves open the question of whether it is a genuine policy-building exercise, or campaign fodder to fire at the mayor Phil Goff and the Labour-led government which had been his political life for the previous 33 years.

'When you have previously dealt with Auckland Council, what has been the biggest obstacle to achieving your outcome?' is a question which pre-supposes a bad outcome.

'How would you rate the current partnership between Auckland Council and the Government in its ability to deliver successful outcomes for Auckland?' will be a hard one for anyone to really know.

The preamble to the section on building consent processing includes the line: 'Only half of the building consents sent to Auckland Council are processed within the legal time frame required.'

Latest council figures show 85 per cent of consents are processed within statutory timeframes. For new dwellings - running at levels unseen for nearly three decades - the figure is 54 per cent, but includes complex developments such as apartment blocks.

Scrutiny of Auckland Council's performance is important. Whether the National Party's survey is a useful form of scrutiny will become clearer when and how they use its findings.