'Super city' tabloid referred to Auditor General

Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Phil Twyford has referred the Auckland Transition Agency tabloid newspaper ‘Auckland: Your Council. Your Vote.’ to the Auditor General.

“The public needs to be reassured that the 16 page tabloid newspaper they paid for is an appropriate use of public money in an election period,” Phil Twyford said.

“Headlines such as ‘putting local into local government’, ‘good news for libraries’, ‘improving services and lowering costs’ and ‘easy to do business’ are straight from the Rodney Hide play list.

“These issues are being hotly, and quite properly, debated by candidates right across the region, yet we have a bunch of neutral public servants using public money to take highly political positions on these issues,” Phil Twyford said. “If this is not interference with the democratic process, then what is?

“The publication is riddled with government propaganda and dripping with Rodney Hide style spin. The ATA argues outrageously in favour of the benefits of the new council-controlled organisations when the truth is these corporate monopolies are undemocratic, lack genuine transparency and direct public accountability, and are almost guaranteed to lead to increased costs to citizens.

“The new Watercare company is an obvious example, with candidate John Banks letting the cat out of the bag, following a secret briefing, that the rationalisation of water charges across the region will lead to higher water costs on families,” Phil Twyford said.

“The tabloid conveniently doesn’t mention water charges under the new structure, the issue the public is most interested in knowing about, yet it goes out of its way to loudly and prominently boast that they will deliver lower costs and better service to customers for building permits and resource consents.

“I have asked the Auditor General to investigate the publication against guidelines for central and local government communications during an election period, after receiving a number of calls from voters angry that their money is being spent on blatant government propaganda in the middle of an election,” Phil Twyford said.

“I understand the tabloid was discussed in detail with Rodney Hide before going to print, and I will be asking him parliamentary questions to get to the truth.”