Auckland supercity 15 years on: success or failure?
Many Aucklanders say the supercity model has failed, with progress on delivering transport and infrastructure and solutions a particular sticking point for residents according to new research from Auckland University. The findings come as Auckland leaders gather to examine the region's progress since the creation of the supercity 15 years ago. The survey shows Aucklanders overwhelmingly support a long-term infrastructure plan, and there is near-universal agreement on protecting the natural environment. However only half of those surveyed said the amalgamation had succeeded in unifying Auckland's voice, and just 18 percent feel they have influence over Auckland Council decisions. The consulting firm Deloitte has produced two of three annual State of the City reports which benchmark Auckland against similar cities globally. Deloitte NZ Chief Executive Mike Horne says it's clear the city is falling behind.
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11 minutes ago
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West Coast council staff kept busy by information requests
File photo. Photo: 123rf Requests for official information are on the rise on the West Coast, including some described as 'vexatious'. A report to Tuesday's Operations Committee meeting shows the West Coast Regional Council handled 39 LGOIMA (Local Government Official Information and Meeting Act) requests in the June quarter. Nine involved the Taylorville Resource Park consent application. A resource consent hearing for the controversial private dump near Greymouth is set down for two days next month. Compliance visits to mining sites; council staff and contractor numbers; Buller plateau mining consents and all records on historic demolition waste also featured in the list of LGOIMA requests. All but two of the requests were processed in the statutory timeframe, the report said. The Ombudsman had contacted the council once over a report the council initially refused to release. The council had revised its decision but due to an 'internal error' still failed to release the report. That had been rectified, and an apology provided for the error, the report said. The majority of requests were granted in full or in part. The council withheld information on some requests involving the Taylorville Resource Park, on the grounds of protecting commercial information, legal privilege, privacy and free and frank expression of views by or to council staff. Chief executive Darryl Lew said the council had to be mindful of the Privacy Act and be meticulous with redactions in its responses. "It is an ever-increasing and concerning amount of time we put into this. But it's part of transparency (requirements for local government)." Some of the LGOIMA requests could be considered frivolous, he confirmed. "In the legislation, whether they are frivolous, vexatious, recidivist…we've still got to meet their requests. " Chair Peter Haddock said council had been criticised for having too many staff but dealing with 13 or 14 LGOIMA requests a month meant a massive amount of work. "Just looking through some of them, some are coming from the same people all the time, you can read it like a book, and it all comes at a cost to ratepayers. " The simpler requests were being handled in-house, but the more complex ones were still managed by a contractor, staff confirmed. LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
The Panel with Ali Jones and Simon Pound Part 1
Tonight, on The Panel, Wallace Chapman is joined by panellists Ali Jones and Simon Pound. First up, thousands of secondary school teachers walked off the job today in a dispute over pay. The Panel talks to Paul Stevens, a teacher at Auckland's Rangitoto College and a PPTA representative. Then they hear from independant Cameron Bagrie about the Reserve Banks decision to whack 25 points off the OCR - what does it mean for mortgage holders looking to refix? To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
Government 'revising' pay offer to teachers but says union must compromise too
Teachers strike outside Parliament on Wednesday. Photo: JOHN GERRITSEN / RNZ The government is revising its pay offer for secondary teachers, following a nationwide strike, but the union would need to compromise too, Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche said. Thousands of members of the Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA) walked off the job to protest their pay talks , forcing the closure of many secondary schools. Teachers on picket lines told RNZ the government's offer of a one percent pay rise every year for three years was "despicable, insulting and terrible". The Public Service Commission, which was overseeing the government's side of the pay talks, had been at pains to note that teachers in the first 10 years of their career get annual pay rises of about 13 percent a year as they progress up the pay scale. But teachers said most of them were at the top of the scale and the one percent increases would be all they received. Roche told RNZ in a statement: "This was always going to be a difficult bargaining round - the strike is evidence of that. Now that has happened, we have to find a way forward - we owe that to the students, parents and teachers." "Our initial offer clearly hasn't hit the mark, and we are doing work on a revised offer." He said the union's claim was not realistic. "The PPTA's current set of claims would cost taxpayers $1.7 billion over four years. That's equivalent to an extra $67,000 for every full-time secondary teacher. It's unaffordable, unreasonable and unrealistic. Sir Brian Roche is the Public Service Commissioner. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone "Bargaining is about compromise and to date, and somewhat regrettably, the PPTA has refused to offer any real compromise on these claims. The government is committed to working with the PPTA to get a resolution." Education Minister, Erica Stanford, said the union should have called today's strike off because it had agreed to further talks. But PPTA president Chris Abercrombie said: "The government knew it had an opportunity yesterday to make a reasonable offer to us which could have encouraged us to reconsider our action. Unfortunately, no such offer was forthcoming." Meanwhile, on picket lines, teachers said they were frustrated that they had to strike to try to force a better offer from the government. Wellington teacher Catharine de Montalk said she and her colleagues would be losing money if they accepted the offer. "I don't particularly want to be here. I feel like since my career started 20 years ago that I've been doing this every single pay round and it does get tired, it does get old but one percent is actually the lowest... it is an insult," she said. A teacher outside Parliament during the strike. Photo: RNZ / John Gerritsen Outside Parliament, maths teacher Jennifer Crisp said the government's offer was not reasonable. "We think that's entirely incorrect. It's not a reasonable offer in this economy. Not when MPs have been given more than double that," she said. In Christchurch, teacher Richard Allen said the government's offer was never going to fly. "The knew that that wasn't going to be acceptable right from the start and so it's a shame that it's come to this. To be fair we all want to teach so give us something more reasonable that we can work towards," he said. Several Wellington commuters said they supported the striking teachers. Christian Shaw said the picket at Wellington Railway Station prompted him to do some online research which showed politicians were getting much better annual pay rises than what teachers were being offered. "They're willing to line their own pockets, more than happy, year after year, but they don't want to give our teachers, our nurses... they just cut pay equity which is so important to so many people and they're just taking the absolute piss," he said. His mate Jack Dyer said teachers were not paid enough - and he'd know, having abandoned the profession because of the pay rates for new teachers. "I studied to become a teacher. I got my diploma of teaching for secondary schools and the starting rate there is just atrocious. Like after four years of study, a bachelor's and a diploma, you're coming out and making less than the median wage in Wellington, which is just bizarre," he said. Meanwhile, primary school teachers, support staff and principals belonging to the Educational Institute, Te Riu Roa, were holding stop-work meetings this week and next to discuss their pay talks. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
