Policies

Stop Wasteful & Unnecessary Spending

As well as fighting rate increases Greg works to stop Council’s unnecessary spending.

Council must stop its over-indulgent spending and putting its hands deeper into ratepayers pockets – especially Rodney’s.

It must put a stop to jobs being done, only to be ripped up or be redone again! Wasteful spending is pushing up rates and increasing Council’s debt, while maintenance levels are falling.

Council’s wage bill and external consultants payments are still increasing year-on year and we need Councillors like Greg to rein them in.

Councillors must focus the Council, and the CCO's, on living within their financial means. This includes finding ways of stopping ratepayers having to subsidise activities which might be better privatized, or repositioned to become financially economical.

Therefore, Greg supports the Royal Commission recommendation of Auckland having a fully independent Service and Performance Auditor (not implemented by Mayor's Len Brown or Phil Goff) who acts as a public watchdog holding both elected members and council staff to account on being financially prudent, but also with the ability to fully investigate and independently comment on the Council's performance at any level across the organization.

Get Council Back to Core Business

Greg has been the leading voice in calling for the Council to get back to core business.

In these difficult economic times it is essential the Council refocuses on its core business.

If Auckland is really about equality across the Region, then Greg wants Council to be honest about ensuring Rodney’s roads, footpaths, walkways, public transport and general maintenance levels are comparable with the rest of Auckland.

We need to get Council back to core business and the “need to haves”, like dealing with Warkworth’s and Kumeu’s traffic congestion; rather than the “nice to haves”, like pink cycle-ways, white-water rafting parks or giant hanging mirrors in the CBD.

Not only do we need to catch up - we need to be ready for the growth that is coming.

Auckland’s population is going to grow by almost 1 million people in the next 30 years.  Rodney’s population will grow by 115,000 people, which is almost 3/4 the size of Hamilton. That means Rodney will need another 47,000 new houses and 20,000 new jobs will be needed. We need the planning of our core services done in advance so our infrastructure is built in time for this rapid population growth.

Local Rates to Be Spent Locally

Greg wants rates, development contributions and fuel taxes spent back on Rodney’s needs – not on Auckland CBD projects, or funding a massive bureaucracy that thinks it knows best how to spend ratepayers money.

Council needs to give Rodney it’s fair share of Council’s budgets. Greg is continually pushing hard for this on the ratepayers behalf.

With our area paying $101 million in rates a year, Greg is working closely with the Rodney Local Board and jointly push for a fairer share of Council’s spending and he will always promote local projects.

Too Many Red Tape Hurdless

The time delays and cost to do business with Auckland Council is out of control. Rodney volunteer groups, business people and ordinary residents have had enough.

“Local Boards need to be empowered to allow local contractors, local community volunteers and community groups to deliver local community project more cost effectively,” he says.

License costs, user charges, compliance costs and consent costs that have all skyrocketed – without any improvements in customer service levels. Greg wants this reversed.

Additional bureaucracy is also unnecessarily adding costs and time delays to delivering much needed housing.

Rodney's Roads Must Be Prioritised

Traffic congestion in Warkworth and Kumeu is getting worse by the day. At peak times there is already ‘grid lock’. Greg is regularly hounding the Government who owns the State Highways to get it fixed, and is a strong supporter of the local action groups who want this to happen!

Councillors control the budget given to Auckland Transport, but Auckland Transport alone decides how it can be spent. AT changed its funding priorities away from building and maintaining roads and into building and maintaining buses, ferries and cycleways. Roads need a fairer budget!

This includes road sealing and maintenance, significantly improved bus services throughout Rodney, rail services to Huapai, and Park’n’Rides for Kumeu and Warkworth - and “greenway” paths to better connect our townships through safe pedestrian, cycle, and equestrian links.