Auckland Council blows almost $100K on survey to show their incompetency

Auckland Council wasted $90,000 on the Citizens Insights Monitor which, ironically, revealed what everyone already knew: that almost half of Aucklanders do not trust the Council to make the right decisions and only a tiny minority (15 per cent) of Aucklanders are satisfied with the Council’s performance.

If the Council wanted to know how unpopular they are, they could have picked up a newspaper, not paid tens of thousands for another report. Instead of wasting money on canvassing whether Aucklanders mistrust them, the Council should be focused on providing good services to their local community.

It is no coincidence that the demographic who rated Council’s reputation poorly were those who voted in elections and who paid rates. Amongst the majority of the 15 percent who rated the Council highly were those who did not pay rates.

This Council has failed ratepayers. That is why the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance is calling on candidates to sign our Ratepayer Protection Pledge, and ensure sensible spending that provides good services.

The figures were obtained by the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance and reveal that the $90,000 was mainly spent on project design, marketing and analytics, with the purpose of ensuring the Council can meet the needs of all Auckland residents.

The key findings of the survey were:

• 15 per cent of respondents were satisfied with the council’s performance, while 36 percent were dissatisfied

• 17 percent of respondents say they trust the council to make the right decision, while 47 percent do not

• Residents who live closer to the city centre and those in South Auckland tend to rate the council more highly than those who live further out

• The council’s baseline reputational score sits at 45 out of a total of 100 points

• In the Rodney ward, the reputational score was only 36 out of 100

The Council's full response can be downloaded here.