National Party stalwart Bill Cashmore criticises the party's Auckland Council 'survey'

Tuesday, 25 June 2019

Auckland's deputy mayor and long-standing National Party member Bill Cashmore has branded a survey by the party as 'petty' and a 'stunt.'

The party's 'Rate Your Council' online survey is pitched as way to gather views for policy-making, asking 21 questions about how well Auckland Council is doing.

Cashmore said the questions were unbalanced and he thought it had 'stunt written all over it'.

The deputy mayor attended the launch of the questionnaire by party leader Simon Bridges, and Maungakiekie MP Denise Lee, who's a former Auckland councillor, in a closed forum with the Employers and Manufacturers Association.

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The survey is timed to deliver its findings soon before October's local body elections, although Lee said that was not what it was about.

'We're not getting involved in the elections, we're building our policy platform for 2020,' she said.

When the mayor Phil Goff heard about the survey, he told Stuff that 'opposition parties have a lot of time on their hands'.

One of three sections is devoted to transport, and asks about the responsiveness of, and confidence in, the council agency Auckland Transport.

AT has come in for recent criticism, and mayoral challenger John Tamihere intends to sack its board of directors if elected.

Cashmore said at the launch, Bridges had said it was less about the council and more about Auckland Transport.

'Auckland Transport is Auckland Council - we are one and the same, we are part of a family,' Cashmore told Stuff.

'AT's got a target on its back at the moment, which is not necessarily fair.'

'It's easy and populist to give AT a bit of a kicking, I'm not going to be a part of that game,' he added.

Cashmore said the pair explained they got a lot of complaints about AT, but said most of the grumbles he got were about motorways or rail, which were government-funded.

'If this was an objective chance to try to make things better in transport for Auckland why wouldn't they come and speak with us and AT,' he said.

'That would be a far better way forward than putting out a half-pie survey.'

Cashmore had sent the party ten questions of his choosing, focussing on core council business such as rubbish and sewerage, but knew they wouldn't be added.

He said Auckland was growing faster than infrastructure could be built, and described the rail network as 'broken-down kit' that had been under-funded by governments for 50 years.

Cashmore acknowledged his comments might be a bit unfair on Lee, whom he sat at the council table with for four years before she won the Maungakiekie by-election, and described her as a good person.

He said he was a lifelong paid-up member of the National Party and apart from one occasion had always voted National.

Cashmore represents the rural, southern Franklin Ward, and has been Phil Goff's deputy during this council term.