Metropolitan reform and decision making: Dove-Myer Robinson’s challenge to local body morphological fundamentalism

Abstract

The capacity of New Zealand local bodies to perceive their geographical identities and political autonomy as enduringly useful and to jealously protect these against proposals for structural change is studied in this thesis. This self protective guardianship is termed morphological fundamentalism. The latter word is derived from a theological description of the evangelical movement that considered the truth of the Bible to be unchanging and applicable to any age, while “morphological” pertains to the biological study of form and structure. Taken together, the words denote a dogmatic assumption of structural unalterability. The effect of this determined defence of local body geographical and political integrity has been to contain administrative change despite the emergence of urban and metropolitan communities from the country’s colonial settlement. This thesis is concerned first with a challenge to New Zealand local body morphological fundamentalism posed by Dove-Myer Robinson, Mayor of Auckland 1959-1965, 1968-1980 who campaigned for the reform of metropolitan government and the establishment of an Auckland Regional Authority. The thesis is concerned secondly with Robinson’s continued challenge to morphological fundamentalism after the Auckland Regional Authority is established and his failure to become an authoritative metropolitan decision maker. The first part of this study of Dove-Myer Robinson’s political career is intended to identify the strength of morphological fundamentalism in Greater Auckland and the urgency for reform there of the local body structure, which consisted of thirty two different municipalities of counties and twenty special purpose bodies. Robinson’s role in promoting the Auckland Regional Authority concept, his choice of overseas models for the authority, the reactions of local and central government politicians to his proposals and the vexed progress of legislation establishing the Auckland Regional Authority are assessed. Dove-Myer Robinson played a leading role in Auckland City politics, beginning with his entry into the Brown’s Island Drainage controversy in 1944. He became an Auckland City Councillor in 1952, Chairman of the Auckland and Suburban Drainage Board in 1953 and Mayor of Auckland City in 1959. Then in 1960 he began his struggle for the creation of a Greater Auckland Authority, able to coalesce metropolitan opinion and promulgate major metropolitan and regional development. This thesis outlines the reputation Robinson brought to his reform campaign. Robinson was an independent political figure who developed a personal following amongst Aucklanders as well as a strong populist appeal in the working class areas of the city. As such he was unacceptable to the Greater Auckland local body Establishment and particularly to the ruling Citizens’ and Ratepayers’ Association on the Auckland City Council. His Jewish and working class origins, his wartime activities, his personal life and his personality were also considered dubious by his opponents. This study demonstrates the effects Robinson’s personal reputation had on those involved in the metropolitan reform process. It also explains how these factors developed into a feud between Robinson and the two political associations on the Auckland City Council - the Citizens’ and Ratepayers’ Association and the Labour Party. The culmination of the feud - the mayor’s loss of office in the 1965 municipal elections - is linked to his loss of position on the fledgling Auckland Regional Authority and his three year exile from political influence on the body. The second part of this thesis assesses Robinson’s declining ability to influence the metropolitan decision making carried out by the Auckland Regional Authority. This study portrays the changing nature of Robinson’s battle against morphological fundamentalism during which the mayor became frustrated and finally thwarted by the strength of that mentality. After the establishment of the Auckland Regional Authority, it was only a matter of time before morphological fundamentalism was again taken up by the municipal local bodies to protect the political authority and pre-eminence they had enjoyed in the preceding local government structure. In deference to the attitudes associated with the preceding Auckland local government - parochial jealousies and rivalries, consultation between municipalities and inter-municipal agreement on large works, resentment of the central city and timidity in relations with central government - succeeding Auckland Regional Authority chairmen, H.D. Lambie and T.H. Pearce had developed a “benign” regionalism for the Auckland Regional Authority. Its limited objectives were designed to pre-empt any challenge to the body and let the municipal bodies see the body as an extension of their own authority, successfully implementing objectives they had wanted but had not been able to agree on funding. In effect, morphological fundamentalism was being allowed to win by default. Robinson’s rapid rail proposals however, challenged this limited conception of the Auckland Regional Authority and placed strains on the capacity of the Auckland Regional Authority to make decisions that enjoyed widespread support amongst its members and the municipal local bodies. In the face of this challenge, the municipal local bodies became openly defensive of their political authority and Robinson clashed with them, and lost. A brief study of the two overseas examples Robinson most closely modelled his authority upon is made to elucidate the problems Robinson had in challenging the residual morphological fundamentalism after the Auckland Regional Authority was established. The thesis concludes by assessing the impact Robinson had on local body morphological fundamentalism and to what extent his own political methods and reputation had facilitated his challenge.