Cost-cutting Auckland Council refuses to trim a cent from Tūpuna Maunga Authority’s wasteful budget
Auckland Council is in such deep financial trouble that to stay afloat it is raising rates, selling parks and cutting services that benefit all Aucklanders. Yet the 7 June Extraordinary Governing Body meeting voted to pass Tūpuna Maunga Authority’s budget completely unchanged - a budget that is 20% ($2 million) MORE than last year’s one!
A Councillor advised us that, to their knowledge, the TMA’s budget appears to be the only one that is going UP significantly, despite there being many opportunities for cost efficiency. What’s more, even though it is responsible for the TMA’s budget, Auckland Council has no idea of what value for money is being delivered by any part of the Authority - or even if the budget action items are even being delivered upon at all.
Honour the Maunga suggested nearly $2 million of savings by way of our submission during the Council’s budget rounds, as well as emailing key councillors such as Cr Desley Simpson (head of the Finance committee). Despite claiming to support keeping the trees, Cr Simpson declined to engage with us and voted for the unchanged budget.
As you can see in this video, Mayor Goff did everything he could to stifle democratic processes when it came to the Authority’s budget vote. Not only did he talk over Cr Wayne Walker when he tried to comment, but then Goff quickly moved a vote for the budget and was about to record a yes vote without asking if there were any dissenting votes! Dissenting votes were only ascertained after Cr Sharon Stewart protested.
A big thumbs up to the following Councillors who subsequently voted against the budget: Sharon Stewart, Greg Sayers, Wayne Walker. A big thumbs down to the others - particularly Cr Desley Simpson who - as Chair of the Finance & Performance Committee - failed in her obligations to ensure ratepayers’ money is spent prudently.
What the budget vote means
Auckland Council is charging ratepayers a Climate Action Targeted Rate, while at the same time giving the Authority nearly $1.5 million to cut down perfectly healthy mature trees.
Services are being slashed across the city, yet the Council approved more than $80,000 for the Authority’s events. These events are usually poorly attended, including one a couple of years ago where the only attendees were TMA people and maunga tree protectors!
The Council approved the Authority’s $125,000 budget to progress the UNESCO World Heritage bid even though it is likely to fail, as discussed here.
But wait; there’s more!
The true situation with the Authority’s budget is far worse than a glance at its operational budgets would suggest. Here are some other examples of how Auckland Council is failing in its obligations to ratepayers.
$150,000 spent on the Authority’s website - yes you did read that correctly
Our mission is to save the maunga trees, but a while ago we happened to spot an item in a Council document that suggested the Authority’s rather basic website had cost $50,000 to develop. We were curious to know how on earth they had spent so much on such a simple ‘website that has no e-commerce function, so we put in official information requests to find out more. It transpired that the true situation was far worse with the Authority’s website actually costing ratepayers a staggering $150,000. Even being extremely generous with cost estimates, this would be at least five times what one would expect to pay for a website of this nature.
Ōwairaka tree legal fees cost ratepayers more than $1 million
Official information requests show that, as of July 2023, Tūpuna Maunga Authority and Auckland Council spent at least a total of $1,000,382 unsuccessfully defending the Ōwairaka tree judicial action, as seen in the table below.
| Entity | Judicial Review | Court of Appeal | Supreme Court | Court costs | Total cost as of 13 May 2022 + GST |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tūpuna Maunga Authority ⠀ | $455,286 | 158,781 | $22,245 | $90,000, shared with Auckland Council | $681,312 ⠀ |
| Auckland Council ⠀ | $190,556 | $83,515 | N/a | $90,000 shared with TMA | $319,071 | ⠀
| Grand totals ⠀ | $645,842 | $242,296 | $22,245 | $90,000⠀ | $1,000,382 |
And then there’s the money wasted on destroying perfectly healthy trees
The Authority had already succeeded in ridding three maunga of (most of) their exotic trees before Honour the Maunga intervened in late 2019. Here are some of the costs that we have been able to ascertain.
Felling Mangere's 153 exotic trees in 2019 (65% of the maunga's total tree cover)
$722,461 for felling contractor TreeScape alone. Other costs yet to be ascertained.
Felling Mt Wellington / Maungarei's 180 exotic trees in 2019
$917,800 in known costs. Actual costs are likely to be higher.
Felling Pigeon Mountain / Ohuiarangi's 112 exotic trees in 2019 (65% of the maunga's total tree cover)
$516,278 in known costs. Actual costs are likely to be far higher.
Budgeted costs for felling Ōwairaka Mt Albert’s 345 exotic trees (nearly half the maunga’s total tree cover)
Our investigations showed that, in 2019, the Authority had budgeted around $1.1. million to fell Ōwairaka Mt Albert’s 345 exotic trees. This budget included around $650,000 for direct costs associated with the felling, including $30,000 (!) for removing one particular tree. This number swells to at least $1.1 million when the cost of specialist reports, resource consent and administrative costs are taken into account.
In 2019, the average rates paid by a Mt Albert homeowner was around $3500 per year so it could have taken an average rate payer more than 8.5 years to cover the costs of a single large tree being removed on the maunga. All of those trees still stand, so the costs of felling would now be far higher.
Local body elections are coming up, presenting the perfect opportunity for each and every one of us to exercise our democratic rights and vote out the elected representatives who support this tree felling madness. Honour the Maunga will be providing voting guidance once the Mayoral, council and local body candidates are confirmed in mid-August. In the meantime, here are some useful voting guidelines:
1. Vote!
If you don't vote, then you can't effect change. Analysis of the last local body election results show that in many cases a candidate's success or failure was decided by under 200 votes, so every vote really does count.
2. Do NOT vote for anybody on a Labour or City Vision ticket
Like its Labour namesake, City Vision is Labour Party controlled. The City Vision and Labour councillors and local body members are subject to strict party "whipping" that means they vote as a block. It doesn't matter what the communities they "represent" want - they will slavishly follow the party line - a party line that is to support Tūpuna Maunga Authority without question.
2. Mobilise your friends and family to vote
We know that the Labour Party machine will swing into action at election time, to mobile as much support as they can for Labour-aligned candidates. C&R and the other local body party organisations don't seem to do this as much, so their people seem to vote more along "conscience" lines. So do your bit and mobilise as many people to vote in a way that will help save the trees.