'Butt out of our business': Brown threatens Auckland Deal exit over Māori board voting ban
“Butt out of our business.”
An angry Auckland mayor has sent a terse message to Local Government Minister Simon Watts today over claims the Government is meddling in the council’s democratic processes.
The Government today announced it is moving to ban voting rights for non-elected members of council committees.
Watts said the changes would “strengthen local democracy and accountability”. They would apply to members of Houkura, the Auckland Council’s Independent Māori Statutory Board, he confirmed.
Brown responded swiftly this morning, firing out a press release accusing Watts of “picking a fight” with the council and breaching promises made to elected members earlier this year.
He also released a letter he sent to Watts in July, in which Brown warned any such move would be completely unnecessary and “counter to the principles” of the Auckland Deal agreement.
Any move to ban voting rights for Houkura members could result in Auckland Council walking away from the Auckland Deal arrangement, Brown warned in the letter.
“This is another ill-thought-through policy that will wind up costing the ratepayers with no real benefit to Auckland,” Brown said today.
He said the council was earlier told any changes to Houkura were out of scope of local government legislation, “but it seems now the Government is doing changes through an amendment paper without consulting us about it”.
“I don’t know why the Government is picking a fight on this or what the problem is they’re trying to solve? Is it their poll numbers?”
Committees and advisory forums allowed for robust discussions, Brown said – contributing to, rather than taking away from, our democracy.
“My suggestion to Wellington is butt out of our business. Auckland is quite capable of making decisions that work best for us.
“We also have a Regional Deal that says we work together as partners, not just find out what’s happening in an amendment paper or sending me a text five minutes before I can read it in the Herald. Sometimes the Crown needs reminding of that.
“If the problem is unelected people making decisions, perhaps they might like to get rid of NZTA and list MPs while they’re at it?”
The Herald has sought response from Watts’ office.
Local Government Minister Simon Watts.
In his July letter - signed by Brown, deputy mayor Desley Simpson and senior councillor Richard Hills - Brown made the council’s position crystal clear to Watts.
“Despite your assurances to us at the last Regional Deal meeting that it would not be, we understand central government may be considering changes to Auckland Council’s statutory governance arrangements and Houkura Independent Māori Statutory Board.”
Brown said it appeared the changes would be “tagged on” to the Local Government (Systems Improvement) Bill through an amendment paper “without transparency, public scrutiny or any consultation with the community or iwi”.
Such significant changes would be counter to the Auckland Deal principles and “directly contradict commitments you have made to us as a minister of the Crown”.
“Should central government decide to take this path, we would look to pull away from the Auckland Deal given as recently as last month, you advised us that Houkura would not be part of this bill.
“Alternatively, we would encourage central government to consider policy changes within the principles of the deal you signed with us. This would be the mature, sensible way of working with local government that the Prime Minister signed up to in April this year.”
Brown wrote that Houkura had positively to Auckland’s governance for 16 years.
“We are unclear what problem your colleagues are trying to solve, other than boosting their polling numbers.”
Lane Nichols is Auckland Desk Editor and a senior journalist for the New Zealand Herald with more than 20 years’ experience in the industry
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