Last week I joined two very effective Auckland local government politicians, Kate Sutton (Chair of the Tamaki Community Board) and Penny Hulse (Deputy Mayor of Waitakere City) at an Auckland University Society debate. The moot was “The Super City – Is it Superb or is it insuperable?”. Kate, Penny and I were facing an affirmative team made up of Simon Wilson (writer), Cameron Brewer (Newmarket Business Association) and Doug Armstrong (Auckland City Councillor).
Funny word ‘insuperable’ – having looked it up I discovered it means impassable or insurmountable. It has been most frequently used in Darwin’s ‘The Origin of Species’. Having defined Super City for the purposes of this debate as the whole Government proposal for Auckland local government (as opposed to just the Auckland Council) Kate, Penny and I certainly argued that given the level of opposition, which most recently has been strongly articulated through the Auckland Governance Legislation Select Committee, these proposals may not be insuperable but they were most certainly not superb.
I have to say that a number of the points made by Simon Wilson regarding a vision for Auckland were more aligned to what our team was saying.
The discerning crowd at the debate overwhelmingly agreed with our view that the Government’s proposals for Auckland’s governance were not at all superb for a range of reasons: the arrogant and undemocratic process being used to force through change; the actual changes which concentrate power and reduce democratic participation and the huge lost opportunity to make positive changes that could create greater knowledge about and participation in local government in Auckland.
Here’s a PDF of my speech for those who are interested.
