Wellington: Is It Time For A Consultation Boycott?

Is It Time For A Consultation Boycott?

The process of gathering public input into proposed policy changes has long been entrenched as an essential part of local body governance, but the system has become so dysfunctional that perhaps it’s time for a re-think.

There’s a rising tide of cynicism in blog posts and website comments and letters to the editor, reflecting a growing sentiment that Wellingtonians think they’re being had. On issues as diverse as the Basin Reserve flyover and heritage controls and Manners Mall and the Long Term Council Community Plan, residents are crying foul – that the responsible agencies are going through the motions of consultation, but failing to change anything in response to public input.

The Federation of Wellington Progressive and Residents Associations was so concerned that hundreds of hours worth of community submissions on the Wellington City Council’s LTCCP had simply been ignored that they wrote to the Council – and after receiving a reply, concluded that “It is clear that while the Councillors may have taken the information supplied to them into account, we are unable to identify whether those suggestions have been taken on-board or not.”

In other words, they may have listened, but it’s almost impossible to tell if there has been any tangible result.

Public consultation should result in some modification of the original proposal. In some cases, it clearly does – the significant changes to the original Manners Mall design is a recent example. But in other cases, consultation appears to simply provide a fig-leaf of respectability over the naked desire of officials to push through a pre-agreed agenda.

The consultation over the Basin Reserve flyover offers a perfect example. In the Ngauranga to Airport Corridor Plan, 79% of submitters that commented on the flyover were opposed; by the time the Regional Land Transport Programme consultation had closed, opposition had reputedly risen to nearly 90% - yet the plan was unchanged. In this case, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that 100% opposition would not have made a blind bit of difference to the officials who seem determined to advance their own designs.

Perhaps the most stellar example of consultation irrelevance would be the upcoming Wellington Public Transport Review, being conducted by the Greater Wellington Regional Council. The intent is good; Wellingtonians are being asked about their use of and requirements for public transport services, and a brochure is being sent to households in the region soliciting feedback.

As part of the process, Councillors were asked by the responsible officials to comment on the brochure and the consultation process, and proceeded to make some concrete suggestions for improvements to the material being sent to households – only to be told that it was too late to make any changes, as 50,000 copies of the brochure had already been printed.

It’s a sad day when even the feedback from our elected Councillors is irrelevant.

So what are we to do? If the public consultation process is merely window-dressing, perhaps we should vote No Confidence – by refusing to participate in these immensely expensive, time-consuming but largely irrelevant exercises. There are those who will note, of course, that if we don’t make our voices heard we won’t be listened to. To which I can only respond – on the evidence to date, what makes you think we are being heard at the moment?

Kent Duston is the convener of the Save The Basin Reserve Campaign, a member of the Mt Victoria Residents Association, and has spent far too many hours writing submissions.

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