MEDIA STATEMENT - for immediate release
March 27 2009
Royal Commission Announcement met with Caution by Waitakere
Waitakere City Council has reacted with caution to today’s Royal Commission announcement on Auckland’s future
governance.
Just minutes after leaving a presentation on the report’s findings, Mayor Bob Harvey said Waitakere as an entity would
be retained with boundaries generally in tact.
“The commission has obviously recognised the need for distinctive communities to retain their unique identities rather
than becoming one big homogenous glob.”
Mayor Harvey said the report which runs to more than 800 pages needed further analysis before a detailed response could
be given however he said the commission had obviously studied and learned from the mistakes of forced amalgamations made
in places such as Vancouver.
Mayor Harvey said an overarching unitary authority with powers to rate and then allocate money to smaller councils gave
him real cause for concern.
“I find it difficult there is taxation without direct representation,” he says.
“We really do have to look at whether local councils should be able to rate and spend accordingly rather than having
funding decisions made remotely.
“The ball is now very much in the government’s court in terms of what it does with it. Obviously we look forward to
discussing with them the implications of any changes. The real work starts now.”
ENDS