Media statement 1st August, 2007

Polls leave no doubt: Aucklanders want change

Aucklanders have demonstrated their support for reform of local government through three opinion polls this week, and the support is probably higher than that, the Employers and Manufacturers Association (Northern) says.

To the question in the NZ Herald Digipoll: “A business group is suggesting the eight councils in the Auckland region should be replaced by one council for Greater Auckland. Do you agree?”
61.4 per cent of respondents said ‘yes’. 29.7 per cent disagreed.

Further support for the One Auckland proposal was confirmed by another self selecting website poll run by the Herald which recorded 85 per cent support from 2240 people.

A third and the ongoing poll on EMA’s Fix Auckland website, (www.fixauckland.com) records 95.1 per cent support from 2083 people.

“The polls completely vindicate the government’s decision to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry to examine and recommend a new structure for the Auckland region’s local government,” Mr Thompson said.

“They reject the plan put to it by the eight Auckland councils to modify the status quo.

“If the NZ Herald Digipoll question had not been prefaced with the words ‘a business group is suggesting…’ the reforms, the YES vote would have been 75 per cent not the 61.4 per cent recorded.

“Quite a few people are suspicious of anything promoted by business, and on that basis alone will vote against it.

“The One Auckland proposal was not just from EMA; it was promoted also by the NZ Council for Infrastructure Development and a community group called the One Auckland Trust.

“These three consulted 72 community, political and business groups to develop their plan for a single regional council and about 20 community councils.”

The EMA also consulted Aucklanders in 28 meetings attended by 2500 of its members, and established the www.fixauckland.com website to give all Aucklanders an opportunity to express their views.

“The Government is to be congratulated for committing to the Royal Commission which was the first objective of our Fix Auckland campaign.

“We did not set out to say how Auckland should be fixed – just pleaded with the government to get on with it.”

ends

© Scoop Media