Is Consultation the New F-Word?

These days it’s hard to do anything worthwhile without consulting, and even when you are involved in a confidential process like a closed bid, outsiders still think you should have consulted.

Does so much consulting mean that people really are sharing information by listening, or are they just consulting because it’s now mandatory?

Who are you supposed to consult with is one of the big questions. In Resource Management Act matters, many applicants are shocked by the long list they receive from the local council of people and groups with whom they are required to consult, especially for something small that only their neighbour (who doesn’t mind) can see.

Finding these groups is the next hurdle. Many Iwi groups have found the need to be on the council list, often as a way to register their existence for status elsewhere in some unrelated process. Various representatives appear on behalf of groups who subsequently deny them status. The official addresses of Iwi representatives can often be in other provinces and hearings within these groups are usually private without input from the applicant. The same goes for trade groups that may hold status within the process.

Usually consultation focuses on some detail of a proposal so that the big picture, which may affect thousands is missed. Recently in the Far North a footbridge became the cause celebre and the focus of a strong local protest, yet the footbridge seems just like a small extra in a huge development with prominent concrete buildings on the skyline above.

What were they not consulted about, all of the development or just a bridge on a highway, like so many others that we’ ve never been consulted about? How many people feel left out because nobody has ever consulted them over any bridge anywhere. I’ve never been asked but never felt left out.

Look at the need for a new Transpower electricity line into Auckland. This has been needed for decades but somehow they never got around to it while they waited for embedded generation to arrive in Auckland and save them. Sadly that technology is still coming. Meantime Waikato dairy farmers have become a wealthy bunch not scared of using expensive lawyers to keep the long needed line at bay.

So everyone is told to consult. Not surprisingly most consultation takes place in the Waikato with the same dairy farmers who will be well compensated for any land affected. How many Aucklanders who need the power have been consulted with? Try and find them. You won’t. You see they just aren’t worth consulting with. We know they need power but it’s not so personal to them and they don’t get compensated for lack of supply now, so why worry into the future.

Hence a few who will be compensated get loads of consultation, but the many who will not be compensated for missing out on power in the future get none. They probably don’t know, but later on many will care. It seems a bit lop sided to me.

Consultation is called for loudly by anyone who misses out in some form of selection process, especially those who thought they had an automatic right to win. They immediately consult their mates to get writing to the decision makers for a change of heart, as they must have it wrong. Why was there a selection? Usually because a term or contract is finished! Don’t people know what finished means? Start again, not just carry on!

Employment matters require more careful consulting when it is going wrong, than when all is OK and consultations seem just like normal chatting. Consult widely, slowly and with the benefit of legal advice here! Some consultation!

Consultation is reaching fever pitch in Kerikeri as vocal sports group loudly consult at or to the rather low profile proponents of passive recreation, (whatever that is) who want to change the status of the town’s domain. Consultation will end up in this case in an undignified race to get the most bits of paper signed.

Is there a winner in this? Not likely but someone still might get to do something, somewhere. Scary, eh!

WAYNE BROWN