MEDIA RELEASE

INVITATION FOR RATEPAYERS TO HAVE A SAY ON ANNUAL BUDGET REVOKED

13 APRIL 2017
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Auckland Council is again refusing to acknowledge any ratepayer group as a 'key stakeholder' for the purposes of allowing an oral submission to councillors on this year's Annual Budget, which sets the rates for the 2017/18 financial year. Earlier in the month, the Council said that it would allow ratepayers an opportunity to be heard in a similar manner to other representative bodies it had earlier selected – only for that offer to be subsequently revoked by Councillor Ross Clow.

Last week, more than a thousand members of the Ratepayers' Alliance emailed the Mayor and the nine councillors who voted to block the individual ratepayers, organisations and motel owners (who were most affected by the proposed accommodation-targeted rate), from presenting to councillors about what a hike in rates will mean to their business and livelihood.

Ratepayers’ Alliance spokesperson Jo Holmes says, "More than a thousand of our members contacted Councillors calling for them to allow the public to fully participate in this process. Their first response was to say that not including the Ratepayers' Alliance among its list of 'key stakeholders' was an oversight, but that they would not be allowing individual organisations to present."

"Having offered to let us speak as a representative body, the Chair of the Finance and Performance Committee, Ross Clow, has now broken his word and revoked the invitation to speak. Apparently being Auckland’s largest ratepayer group, with 16,000 members, is not enough to have a say on how rates are spent."

"The Council claims that 'have your say events' run by staff and local boards at places like shopping malls are sufficient for public participation in its consultation process. Apparently only the hand-picked groups (most of which are funded by the Council) are allowed to access councillors and present. Even that process was conducted prior to submissions ever closing.

"These people are shameless in blocking the very people their decisions affect the most."

ENDS

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