Labour Party Conference Welcome

Friday 7 November 2003

Good evening. I'd like to kick off by saying how great it is to be doing this greeting at a time when central and local government are holding hands. It has not always been that way.

When I became Mayor, I was invited to a “Mayors’ Grooming Session” in Wellington. Many would argue that it was a waste of time. Look how I behave! At this the then Minister of Local Government, Tony Riall, was asked if central and local government were in partnership and he said “no”. That said it all.

The Labour Party has instead given us the new Local Government Act which potentially tips the old political balance of power upside down in favour of the cities and regions. I'm really not sure what mental gymnastics the critics go through to dance around this achievement.

I guess like many things involved in viewing through the Looking Glass and into that Fantasy Island of the free market that passes for much of the Opposition these days, the idea of true democracy is just too awful to face. I guess like the late, great Robert Muldoon in the Rocky Horror Show, they are all too busy singing "Let's do the time warp again.''

No government with any degree of affection for addiction to central control would have ever passed the Local Government Act. It is far too democratic.

It puts paid to well over a century of centralised "top down" political power and gives us the potential for real active "bottom up" participation in democracy.

It is a stunning gesture of trust and maturity that puts some real meat and muscle back onto the bones of local body politics and democracy. In my view it is the most significant transfer of power for the regions since the abolition of the Provincial Governments took place.

As you may have guessed I rather like the Local Government Act and I wanted to take this opportunity to publicly thank you all for it.

Now coming to that theme of active listening, I'd like to make the point that Christchurch shows what can be done with a city where the voice of the people has never been stilled.

We are famous as the "People's Republic of Christchurch". In part that is because we sat out the economic and social excesses of the 80's and 90's. We were named this by the Business Roundtable because we dared to be different.

As a city, Christchurch people simply said at every chance they got "no thanks." The voters backed those keen to not only hold onto, but to polish the family silver. We even bought some more. The majority of people in Christchurch hated the ideologues and hucksters pushing the idea of giving the public a one-off payment; remember them? When the real control of people’s destiny and their city’s assets went to the highest bidder. In Christchurch we kept the faith.

When the monetarist dust finally settled, Christchurch emerged with the lowest rates of any major city. That is because about 25% of the possible rates take is offset by the dividend flows from our publicly owned assets.

We are the second largest landlords in New Zealand. We expanded our housing stock and built new partnerships with community providers. The only difference between us and Housing New Zealand is that we never charged market rents. That's because Christchurch folk have this quaint idea that even the old and the sick are entitled to some degree of dignity and comfort.

We will, however, be needing to speak with central government to plan for housing needs for the future and increasing numbers of casualties of the restructuring of the 1980’s and 1990’s who will have housing problems as they age.

So where has all this terrible wet and caring behaviour got us as a city? Well we have one of the highest Standards and Poors ratings for a city in New Zealand. We were awarded the title of the "world's best run city" by the American based local government specialist magazine "Governing Magazine.'' The same article gave our very own David Close global recognition as the key player in achieving this stunning success. What a great achievement. David has had a more positive effect on Christchurch than many mayors ever managed.

To keep my own ears open and to keep this tradition alive, I do things like have my weekly "Mayor in Square" sessions. I just sit for an hour and listen to whoever wants to talk to me. It's an idea just about all the bureaucrats, advisers and sundry experts I know hated on first hearing. It works wonderfully. It cuts out the filters, the fawners and the faithless that rather, like barnacles, attach themselves to any ship of state, local or national. It lets me hear direct from the public.

I think that the ability to see around our official advisers is the key to a politician keeping in touch. The great skill in politics is to have people around us who challenge us and to be seen to be listening to the public.

I will conclude by returning to the new Local Government Act. The new Act requires us to plan in a way that we have never done before. Together. Central government new policies will drop out of good planning and policy developed by the cities and towns of New Zealand. We will have to develop new policy framework loops to capture this.

Much of our policy will have to be very flexible. The day of the same policy from North Cape to Bluff being developed by policy workers in Wellington is about to disappear.

I must thank Steve Maharey and Jim Anderton for supporting the Mayors’ Taskforce for Jobs.

We have set a big challenge that by the year 2007, no young person under 25 will be doing nothing. They will be either in work or in training. New policies are starting to flow from this partnership of central government, local government, employers, community groups and the union movement. It is the start of how new policy will evolve.

Enough of my philosophising. Welcome to the People’s Republic of Christchurch. We’ve always been Labour here. Have a marvellous weekend in this great Labour city.