Auckland Mayor Len Brown is being praised for stumping up with the cash for a Council Rainbow Advisory Panel from his Mayoral Budget. The proposal was looking shaky due to concerns about cost, and its timing halfway through the term, with some key councillors who supported the panel in principle struggling with which way to vote. Len Brown stepped in to take the budgetary issue off the table, saying he’d pay for the panel for the next 18 months out of the budget used to run his office. Lexie Matheson, who earlier addressed the Council as an Auckland trans woman and representative of Agender, says she is really impressed with the Mayor. “The debate had dissolved into a discussion about the cost, the timing - it's only 18 months until the next election - and the effectiveness of the other panels, a range of deflecting and delaying actions designed, very obviously, to put a stop to the whole thing,” she tells GayNZ.com Daily News. Lexie Matheson addressing the Council today “Mayor Brown's offer to fund the next 18 months from his Mayoral budget removed the obstacles and the motion passed. It was a profound moment and tears flowed. Now we have to make this work.” One of those who drove the Rainbow Panel proposal, Council officer and Rainbow Door Advisory Group member Cissy Rock, says Brown raised the idea in a speech at the 2014 Big Gay Out. “So it’s really good that he stepped up into that leadership role and backed the community in a way that he said that he would.” Rock says the panels are largely set up as engagement mechanisms. She says it will have a work programme which will be developed in conjunction with other Council departments. “What would be really important issues for us as a community would be around the likes of high levels of drug and alcohol, and homelessness issues. Let’s hope the Panel has some great mechanisms to connect with the community and really hear how we would like them to engage with us.” Currently Auckland Council has Disability, Pacific, Youth, Rural, Ethnic and Seniors panels. There has been strong criticism of their effectiveness, and concerns they are only tokenistic, something which was raised during today’s debate. “I think the Rainbow Panel’s got caught up in the wider debate around how useful panels are,” Rock says. “I don’t think that it will be singled out from any other panels. I think that if the panels can find their place and find an effective way to be that link for Council and communities then their longevity should be assured.” The Rainbow Advisory Panel will cost $15,000 for initial recruitment, and will have an annual operating cost of $56,500. This will be made up of $32,000 in meeting fees, $4,500 in catering, mileage and parking, plus $20,000 for two summits – but the figure does not cover the costs of Council staff. Expressions of interest for the Panel are expected to open in early May. Interviews are likely to be in mid-June, with members of the lgbti community on the selection panel. The first meeting is set down for August.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 30th April 2015 - 2:58pm