Light rail and busway — how the Westies were won
Who will fill retiring veteran West councillor Penny Hulse’s shoes?
Who will fill the shoes of Penny Hulse, the proud Westie saying goodbye after 27 years in politics? After a lengthy stint on the old Waita¯ kere City Council and nine years on the Super City, including two terms as deputy mayor and the last term leading the environment and community committee, a new councillor is required in Waita¯ kere.
Hulse, who marched against the Super City model and became a key player to make it work, says it’s time for the West to re-energise some of its energy it had under the old Waita¯ kere City Council.
“The West has been a little bit taken for granted over the last nine years and, when amalgamation first happened Waita¯ kere was marginalised, and we need to rebuild from that,” Hulse said.
West Auckland has not fared too badly under the Super City. Many Westies, who paid the highest rates of the big cities prior to amalgamation, got a rates cut under the move to a single rating system; new libraries have opened at Te Atatu and Westgate, where $200 million of ratepayers’ money is being spent on the new town centre.
The environmental targeted rate has boosted spending on kauri dieback in the Waita¯ kere Ranges and Lincoln Rd is set to get a $85m makeover that includes a cycleway with money from the regional petrol tax. Henderson is being turned into a new urban eco-centre.
As a much loved Westie with nearly 20,000 votes at the 2016 elections to show for it, Hulse has chosen to endorse sitting councillor Linda Cooper and HendersonMassey Local Board chairman Shane Henderson for the two ward seats.
Hulse and Cooper go a long way back and are good friends, despite having different political outlooks — Cooper is a member of the National Party, while Hulse leans towards the Green-Labour spectrum.
Hulse said Cooper was a fantastic councillor, someone who is blunt and speaks her mind with a huge capacity for work. Henderson, she said, was young, bright and doing a really good job chairing the Henderson-Massey Local Board.
Cooper, standing as an independent, and Labour’s Henderson appreciate the value of Hulse’s endorsement at the ballot box, calling it “invaluable” and a “bonus”.
Greg Presland, the other Labour candidate who missed out on a council seat to Cooper by 700 votes in 2016, is philosophical about the situation, saying he suspects he and Hulse are closer politically, but “Penny and Linda have been friends for a long time”.
On the other hand, Mayor Phil Goff, former Labour MP and party leader, is putting aside strong support from Cooper this term to throw his political support behind Henderson and Presland. Last evening, he was set to tour West Auckland with the two Labour candidates in search of votes.
Cooper is not worried Goff is helping her opponents: “How can he not if they are members of the Labour Party?”
Presland and Henderson are both community lawyers but represent different faces of Labour. Presland is the more experienced with close ties to former Labour leader David Cunliffe, he chairs the Waita¯ kere Ranges Board and has strong environmental credentials.
Henderson is the new kid on the block with an infectious laugh. The 32-year-old overcame a tough childhood that included living in a car, was taken in by his grandmother aged 10 and became a lawyer. Politics beckoned after seeing young people queuing at a shop selling synthetic cannabis in Henderson.
Six years ago Henderson was elected to the Henderson-Massey Local Board and became chairman after the 2016 elections.
The three frontrunners — and Hulse — agree the main issue at the election is rapid transit to West Auckland. They favour a busway before light rail, which Te Atatu MP and Transport Minister Phil Twyford has put on the backburner after promising to make an immediate start in 2017.
Henderson, who has worked closely with Twyford, said everyone agrees there should be a busway first that could later be converted to light rail. Cooper goes further and accuses Labour of ripping up plans for a busway for the “ideological fantasy” of light rail.
The result, Cooper said, is a rail line that veers to the west, most people living miles from a railway station and condemned to their cars.
The main contenders also support extending commuter rail from Swanson to Kumeu and Huapai, which has strong support in the northwest but no support from Goff and Twyford.
Henderson and Cooper are also pushing for a second swimming pool for a population of about 250,000 people who have to do with the West Wave Pool at Henderson.
Presland, whose Waita¯ kere Ranges Local Board has a strong environmental focus, is worried the west is losing its “Eco City” spirit embodied in things like the Waita¯ kere Ranges Heritage Area Act and rail electrification. As well as rapid transport, he wants to address climate change, a low carbon future and does not agree with Watercare’s plans to clear native trees for a new water treatment plant at Titirangi.
Presland said when he goes to public meetings the biggest cheer comes when he suggests bringing back the Waita¯ kere City Council where there was more democratic control over activities. It is time to review the Super City, he said.
Henderson, who recently became a dad for the first time, is also on board the climate change bandwagon, saying he would like to see council develop a climate change fund to help people and businesses adapt.
Not wanting to criticise Cooper, he describes the two Labour candidates as having more progressive politics.
Peter Chan, deputy chairman of the Henderson-Massey Local Board, is having a fourth crack at a seat on council on a platform of holding down rates and greater transparency. In 2016 he got almost 7500 votes, 4000 votes behind Presland, who finished third.
The other ward candidates are Tricia Cheel, standing on an anti-1080 platform, and independents Michael Coote, Paul Talyancich and Dillon Tooth.