Bradford Sue: Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Bill — First Reading 
Bradford Sue: Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:642;Page:12048] 
SUE BRADFORD (Green) 
: 
 The Green Party is pleased to support this Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Bill through its first reading and into the select committee process. It is there that I am sure we will hear submissions from all interested parties including those who are already out there vehemently opposing this bill. As a North Shore resident I am well aware for example of Mayor George Wood’s concerns that this bill will push up rates on the shore and that it may lessen the support available for local community organisations. Mr Wood has pointed out that his council also helps to fund seven of the 11 amenities named in the bill and does not see why North Shore residents should do any more than they do at present. The Waitakere City Council has also raiseed a number of objections and I will come to some of those in a moment. 
However I would first like to say that at the heart of the Green Party support—at least so far—for what is intended here is our belief that firstly these organisations do deserve to be supported secondly they are all genuinely of regional significance and thirdly it is only fair that the job of paying for their upkeep should be spread across the region and not just be the responsibility of Auckland City with whatever ad hoc and piecemeal assistance it can muster from other councils. To those who might not be aware I say the 11 organisations included within the scope of this bill are the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra the Auckland Observatory and Planetarium Trust Board the Auckland Regional Rescue Helicopter Trust Coast Guard Northern Region Surf Life Saving Northern Region WaterSafe Auckland the Auckland Zoo the Auckland Festival Trust the Auckland Theatre Company New Zealand Opera and the National Maritime Museum Trust Board. I am sure most Aucklanders who have lived in the city for any length of time will be aware of the critical part these bodies play in the life of the city and of its residents and visitors. I also know that we are likely to have our own favourites depending on the interests and prejudices that we hold. 
One criticism of the bill—for example from the Waitakere City Council—is that this is not the right group of amenities that should be eligible for regional funding. I agree that the list is eminently debatable and there could well be other organisations that should be on it. But it is at least a place to start and Waitakere like everyone else with an interest is totally entitled to make strong submissions to the select committee on the nature of this list and on the processes for future decision-making about who should or should not be included. 
Further the bill itself establishes a funding board that will become the mechanism through which the named amenities—or whichever ones survive or arrive through the parliamentary process—will liaise with the councils on funding plans levy rates performance evaluations and so on. One option that some in the Green Party were keen on was for the Auckland Regional Council to become the funding mechanism for these organisations as it already plays a clear pan-regional role and has rates-collecting powers. However given that the Auckland Regional Council itself does not want to take on this job that is not an option we are able to pursue. 
We agree with the proponents of the bill that fundamentally a measure like this is necessary to achieve some kind of long-term security for key regional amenities. I would like to see all these organisations being able to survive and flourish in a situation where they know what their base funding level is going to be ahead of time and in which they do not have to waste as much effort as they do at present on making multiple funding and planning applications and approaches to all the different councils on top of all the other funding work they have to do. 
There are regional equity issues involved of course—for example in the undoubted fact that residents and ratepayers from the Rodney and Franklin districts are unlikely to avail themselves of these organisations to the same extent as residents of the four central territorial local authorities. However this can be addressed at least in part by ensuring there is a lower differential payment from the outer-ring councils as I understand is intended. 
A further criticism of the bill is that it should be put to one side pending the outcome of all the work being done at present around Auckland’s regional governance structures. Originally I held that position too thinking it was common sense but once I realised how long it was going to be until there was even the possibility of a concrete outcome from the special commission of inquiry on Auckland’s governance I realised that it was not a good idea to wait especially as I do not think there are any guarantees that any particular outcome will resolve this problem. This question of funding for regional amenities should certainly be part of the mix of issues for consideration by the special commission on governance and perhaps in the end any outcomes from the process we are going through in Parliament with this bill will be fed into the special commission process. But I do not think that that should stop us going through the submission and consideration work on this bill. It may end up being a stopgap measure but if we do the work of fine-tuning and improving it now that will only help the whole situation in the long run. I do not think any or all of the Auckland councils can go on being completely parochial and isolationist in the current environment; Auckland faces too many problems. 
It is good to see MPs from across the House coming out in support of this bill at least at these early stages. I think cross-party and cross-regional goodwill should apply at city level too. As Brian Rudman so cogently pointed out in one of his recent columns in the  
New Zealand Herald 
 all of us should be keen to reduce bureaucratic and administrative costs to work for equity between different parts of the region and to provide a secure environment for organisations that serve the needs of our region in so many different ways. I am sure there will be much more that can be done to improve this bill including looking closely at the list of organisations being supported. The Green Party is keen to help with that work and I commend the bill to this House.