Aucklanders abandoning the Nats is no surprise after their city deal backtrack – Wayne Brown

Detailed summary

OPINION: I've escaped the NZ election while in China and learned some lessons.

For the last two weeks, I’ve been leading a delegation of Auckland businesspeople on a six-city tour of China, so I have escaped the facile interviews and responses to the New Zealand election.

That has been a mercy as the whole election thing had the interest, clarity and clear result of a drawn five-day cricket test.

Nevertheless, at least two very important messages have emerged for the new Government, no matter who it is or when it happens.

Number one is that the new Government needs to dramatically improve its relations with Auckland City – and number two is to do the same with China.

Auckland voters who overwhelmingly supported my election as mayor abandoned the Nats in large droves and this is undoubtedly a reflection of items like the National Party insisting on a city deal with Auckland, the nub of which was to treat the city as a grown-up entity, only almost immediately to backtrack on what had been signed.

Auckland Council (and others) have complained for years about bureaucrats in Wellington determining everything from parking fines to town planning rather than letting us do it ourselves. It’s very annoying that a town the size of Howick, that can’t even manage a sewerage system, so often instructs a city many times bigger that they know best.

The Government gave Auckland Council the responsibility of creating a 30-year transport plan, only to insist on the unfunded, unneeded Roads of National Party Significance to be shoved into it.

Having cancelled next year’s planned increase to the fuel tax, the Government has compounded that by foolishly signing a $3.6 billion contract for a 25km motorway from Warkworth to Te Hana that only saves seven minutes from a journey north.

On top of that, the promise to seriously consider a bed night levy to fund events was kicked into touch. The Government decided that Aucklanders and international TV audiences won’t see SailGP but we can watch a tattooed Pom sing at Eden Park. Enough is enough!

Opening of the article, excerpted from NZ Herald Business. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.