What was supposed to be a mere procedural step became a rehashing of still raw, difficult decisions made in council chambers earlier this month
The signing off of the new Auckland Council budget passed this morning after a vote of 19 to one with one abstention.
But despite the overwhelming vote to formally adopt the budget documents, councillors were anything but united in their feelings.
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Thursday’s meeting was supposed to be quick and painless, a procedural step where the authority is delegated to the council organisation to start acting on the budget’s directives.
Blood had already been spilled earlier this month in the debates and voting on a difficult set of decisions for those around council table to swallow.
But after two days of heated back and forth, and two failed amendments attempting to save public airport shares from sale, a final compromise was made and a budget passed.
The final step of formally adopting the documents is supposed to be a technicality – at least according to Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown, who arrived at the Auckland Town Hall today to a cluster of councillors whose ire at the sale of the shares and defunding of council-funded childcare had not dimmed in the intervening weeks.
Manurewa-Papakura ward councillor Angela Dalton wanted to note her disagreement with aspects of the budget, even as she voted for the documents' final approval.
Brown encouraged councillors to leave their opinions at the door, saying they had already had several days in front of the press hashing the issue out and making their stances clear.
But for councillors such as Dalton and Manukau councillors Alf Filipaina and Lotu Fuli, noting their disdain for the sale of public assets was how they intended to represent their communities – many of the shares were inherited from the former Manukau City Council.
Noting opposition to particular clauses of a decision while voting for it overall is not unknown at the council – in fact, Albany councillors John Watson and Wayne Walker did that when they supported the budget but wanted it known that they were against the sale of airport shares.
The difference here was that there were no specific subclauses to the decision. It made other councillors wonder if the final vote would go through with opposition still strong.
Waitematā and Gulf councillor Mike Lee said that though the vote was “merely procedural, if we voted it down there would be people all around the place having kittens”.
Shooting down the whole budget at this stage would put the council in a tight spot, having to put something together before its new financial year starts on Saturday.
North Shore councillor Richard Hills said though he understood the practice of noting, he was worried about the “cascade problem”.
“If we have eleven notes on one of the issues, the whole budget falls down,” he said.
The mayor seemed somewhat frustrated by the asset sale opponents’ insistence on recording their opposition.
“Nobody's compromised more than I have, and I'm not going to note about all the things, that's how you get to have a grown-up group having a vote that affects 1.5 million New Zealanders,” he said.
Howick councillor Maurice Williamson seemed to be having a bit of culture shock after his years in Parliament.
“I'm really perplexed about this, having sat through a number of central government budgets where ministers just hated some of the elements of it, but when it was finally put together and the Minister of Finance presented it, they had to go out and sell it,” he said.
He was ready to come at the mayor for the title of elected member who made the biggest compromise.
“If anyone thinks that I got what I wanted out of here, I swallowed more dead rats than I've ever done in my life,” he said. “So if everyone's going to put their little bit in there, 'I don't want this and I don't want that', it makes a nonsense of it.”
But Dalton pushed back, saying the sale of the airport shares made this more than an ordinary budget process.
“We are grown up, I don't like the inference that we are not being grown up. We are advocating for our community … we have a right to do that … and Councillor Williamson, we are not in your caucus.”
Dalton said only 15 percent of eligible voters had voted for Wayne Brown: “There are a lot of people that didn’t, and we need to represent those.”
Brown wasn’t having that, asking how she could be representing people who didn’t vote for her.
“You can't say that, you can't say you represent the people who didn’t vote for you.”
Dalton said she represented members of her community who indicated a desire to hold onto the shares during consultation.
“They were their shares. They got nothing. Their shares were being used to pay down debt for every other council. They have nothing, they have no assets. There are some previous councillors around here that are doing pretty damn well, they look beautiful. We don't. And now our capital investment is going to pay down debt for things that other people have. And I won't be told that I'm not being grown up because I want to vote against the sale of the airport shares. That is unfair.”
It came down to whether the standing orders would allow councillors to note their disquiet.
Council staff said as there were no subclauses, it would be up to Brown to decide whether these addenda would be allowed.
As Brown took a moment to think this over, Filipaina spoke up, and said if he was not given the chance to record his stance, he’d be voting against the adoption of the documents.
That was enough for council chief executive Jim Stabback to step in, seemingly worried that the governing body would stumble at this final juncture and not get the budget over the line after all.
"The question we are asking of you today is not to approve the budget. That decision has been taken … we are asking you to adopt the budget for its implementation and to delegate authority to the mayor and the chief financial officer for any editorial changes.”
Brown finally decided he would allow the dissent to be recorded, although only after Filipaina had assured him he wasn’t planning to torpedo the decision.
Before the vote, the mayor cautioned elected members that he didn’t want to hear a speech, “but just a bit that you might feel grumpy about, if that makes you feel better”.
Only one councillor in the end voted against adopting the documents – Lotu Fuli, who had previously authored an amendment to try to prevent the sale of the airport shares.
“I'm still very grumpy, so I am voting against,” she said.
Eight other councillors noted their opposition to the sale of the shares, but still voted to adopt the documents.
Albert-Eden-Puketāpapa councillor Julie Fairey abstained from the original budget decision, and said it was only right that she did the same now. She said this move was more transparent than recording piecemeal disagreements.
The rest of the councillors voted the documents through, although a few took the opportunity to voice their own discomfort with the final result.
Deputy Mayor Desley Simpson voted for, but wanted it noted she had “compromised on everything”.
Williamson followed with: “I want to say exactly the same as Cr Desley Simpson but I want mine in large print and in bold.”
It seems the bitter taste of the “dead rat” budget hasn’t dulled for many of the councillors, and today almost all wanted it known that they hadn’t got what they wanted.
The results of today's vote to adopt the budget documents were as follows:
FOR: 19
- Andrew Baker
- Josephine Bartley
- Angela Dalton
- Chris Darby
- Christine Fletcher
- Alf Filipaina
- Shane Henderson
- Richard Hills
- Mike Lee
- Kerrin Leoni
- Daniel Newman
- Greg Sayers
- Desley Simpson
- Sharon Stewart
- Ken Turner
- Wayne Walker
- John Watson
- Maurice Williamson
- Wayne Brown
AGAINST: 1
- Lotu Fuli
ABSTAINED: 1
- Julie Fairey
