local government

Categories under local government

What the recent elections tell us about British society

Written By: - Date published: 11:31 pm, May 17th, 2021 - 35 comments

Originally posted on Nick Kelly’s Blog In a nation that has suffered over 100,000 COVID-19 deaths, one may be somewhat taken aback to see the latest YouGov Poll where The Conservative Party enjoy a 15% lead over the Labour Opposition. 17 months after the Conservatives won the 2019 General Election, it would be easy to […]

Too much too far?

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, April 23rd, 2021 - 97 comments

As we lead up to Budget 2021, there’s much more shape to the whole direction of this government.

National’s housing policy

Written By: - Date published: 12:06 pm, April 16th, 2021 - 30 comments

National has released its housing policy and the proposals are predictable.  Free up more land, loosen up the RMA, and require Councils in high growth areas to urgently review their district plans.

Well done John Edgar

Written By: - Date published: 9:41 am, April 10th, 2021 - 11 comments

I’d thought I’d take a moment to celebrate the life of John Edgar, who passed away a few days ago.

Ports of Auckland – time for change

Written By: - Date published: 8:47 am, March 31st, 2021 - 5 comments

Auckland Council has released the Ports of Auckland Independent Health and Safety Report and the recommendations are damning.

Americas Cup is New Zealand’s cup?

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, March 18th, 2021 - 80 comments

It appears that the Government and Auckland Council have spent $250 million on an event the organisers of which are now making plans to go overseas in pursuit of the big corporate dollars.

You have 30 min to get your business in order!

Written By: - Date published: 12:50 pm, March 12th, 2021 - 77 comments

Government should have announced the decision for Auckland to go down to Level 1 first thing this morning.

Amandla …

Written By: - Date published: 9:07 am, February 26th, 2021 - 5 comments

David Seymour and Act have likened the institutional suppression of people based on the colour of their skin with a desire to ensure local government representation for Tangata Whenua.

Life Without Mainstreet

Written By: - Date published: 11:28 am, February 15th, 2021 - 36 comments

Are our main cities becoming too big for a single civic promenade, and is the multicellular world of mall dominance just the way things are developing?

Ending discrimination against Māori wards

Written By: - Date published: 9:22 am, February 14th, 2021 - 27 comments

The Government has introduced under urgency a bill that will change current law that allows for discriminatory attacks on the creation of Māori Wards.

No Right Turn: Climate Change: Legal actions

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, February 10th, 2021 - 7 comments

Lawyers for Climate Action is threatening to take Auckland Council to court if they reneg on their climate action promises in the upcoming consultation on the Regional Land Transport Plan.

Layers of Culpability

Written By: - Date published: 11:40 am, February 2nd, 2021 - 20 comments

The huge tyre fire near Amberley in North Canterbury last Friday is in an area with a high water table, extreme fire risk in summer, two kilometres from a town of 2000 residents, and on the edge of one of NZ’s premier wine regions.

Brash Bassett and Hide take up blogging

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, January 19th, 2021 - 100 comments

new political blog has appeared.  But rather than involving a fresh presentation of new ideas in an attempt to engender debate this blog has three tired old has beens who are well past their use by date engage in some climate change denial and race baiting.

Ihumātao deal imminent

Written By: - Date published: 7:38 am, December 14th, 2020 - 25 comments

Radio New Zealand is reporting that a deal on Ihumātao is imminent and that Cabinet is expected to sign off on the deal today.

The Mayor’s budget proposal and Auckland’s climate change response

Written By: - Date published: 11:33 am, December 11th, 2020 - 10 comments

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff’s recently released budget proposal for Auckland Council contains some welcome proposals to address climate change. But of itself this budget will not go near to achieving Auckland’s goal of halving emissions by 50% in 2030.

National leaks again

Written By: - Date published: 7:33 am, October 6th, 2020 - 62 comments

A highly critical email about Judith Collins written by National Maungakiekie MP Denise Lee has been leaked and indicates that National’s Auckland policy was made on the hoof and without reference to the person in caucus with actual responsibility for the subject.

Will our cities revive?

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, September 5th, 2020 - 43 comments

Our cities are the nation’s lungs; they recycle and accelerate external goods and transform them internally into faster circulation. Auckland and Christchurch have had tens of billions invested in them over successive local and central governments, but has this improved our strength or wealth as a country at all?

The Herald’s idea of balance

Written By: - Date published: 6:30 am, September 2nd, 2020 - 43 comments

The Herald yesterday posted a story suggesting that Aucklanders were split over the second lockdown when the actual reality was the vast majority were supportive.  And a subsequent article pointing out how positive the result was does not clear the perception of negative bias.

Labour’s Hefty Carrot-And-Stick For Water

Written By: - Date published: 8:37 am, August 31st, 2020 - 16 comments

New Zealand’s local and regional councils have been given until August 31 2020 to sign up to a ginormous fund that would help them improve their water, wastewater, and stormwater systems.  The implications for them doing this are significant and could see the end of Council control of the supply of water.

 

What Now Phil Goff?

Written By: - Date published: 1:19 pm, August 17th, 2020 - 36 comments

The Chief Executive of Watercare Raveen Jaduram has resigned. With Auckland Council’s recent Council Controlled Organisation review having been concluded and the recommendations released is this the opportunity to require meaningful change of Watercare?

The 2008 Go Wellington Bus Lockout

Written By: - Date published: 5:44 am, July 3rd, 2020 - 6 comments

20 days after being elected President of the Wellington Tramways and Public Passenger Transport Employees Union (we just called it Tramways), drivers at Go Wellington were locked out. The City nearly ground to a halt with thousands unable to get to work and traffic congestion a nightmare. Certain journalists were quick to call this a communist conspiracy.

The light rail delay is good

Written By: - Date published: 8:09 am, June 25th, 2020 - 16 comments

There is a solid silver lining to the delay in the Auckland light rail to the airport project.

How to kill the car

Written By: - Date published: 7:17 am, April 29th, 2020 - 45 comments

What would you do so that instead of wandering endlessly through tilt-slab monstrosities soaked in 80s music and fluorescent lighting, surrounded by oppressed minimum-wage slaves who hate being there and you hating being there worried about your wheeled asset damaged in their carpark instead you get freedom?

How Covid-19 is smashing councils

Written By: - Date published: 9:23 am, April 26th, 2020 - 69 comments

Just as most industries in New Zealand are firing thousands of people to cut costs, local government is getting ready to do the same.

It’s time for Auckland to work

Written By: - Date published: 8:44 am, March 12th, 2020 - 12 comments

2020 will now be the year that New Zealand will now rely on Auckland to get its shit together.

Postal voting – essentially dead

Written By: - Date published: 7:41 am, February 25th, 2020 - 62 comments

Stuff has an article up about last years local body elections in Auckland. As usual  the interesting parts are at the end. But I have to reiterate – online voting isn’t the answer. As a programmer, I’d just call it stupid and dangerous.

Pure clear water

Written By: - Date published: 7:15 am, February 21st, 2020 - 44 comments

It’s probably time to notice why Jones’ Provincial Growth Fund had to step in and provide several million of funding to patch up the water supply emergency in Northland.

The Government’s $12 billion infrastructure package

Written By: - Date published: 11:33 am, January 29th, 2020 - 96 comments

The details of the Government’s $12 billion infrastructure announcement have been released. 

Common-wealth Government

Written By: - Date published: 8:14 am, November 18th, 2019 - 16 comments

Advantage is testing an idea out. What will a common accountability framework for the government look like?

Wellington mayor-elect flip-flops on sale of Wellington Airport

Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, October 30th, 2019 - 26 comments

One of the first acts of Wellington mayor-elect, Andy Foster has been to reverse his stance on the council’s 34% holding in Wellington International Airport Ltd (WIAL). Whether he can get his plan to sell the airport stake past a once hostile public or a leftist-dominated council also seems about as likely as his desire to bulldoze through another tunnel through Mt Vic.

Brittle cities

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, October 29th, 2019 - 10 comments

It is pretty hard to miss a variety of cities around the world going nuts for apparently minor offences.

Recent Comments

Recent Posts

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    2 weeks ago
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    2 weeks ago
  • Brooke is on the TV, being a Minister!
    Brooke is on the TV, being a Minister! She is going to talk to Jack on the TV!It's hard to watch Jack on the TV without thinking to yourself:How can anyone be that good-looking,and also be even brainier than they are good-looking?Talk about lucky!But also, Jack works for the TV news. So ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 weeks ago
  • There’s gold – or rather, energy without carbon – in that rock, but Jones reminds us of the Tr...
    Buzz from the Beehive Oh, dear.  One News tells us an ownership spat is brewing between Māori and the Crown as New Zealand uses more renewable energy sources. No, not water or the shoreline.  Ownership of another resource has come into the reckoning. The One News report explained that 99% of ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    2 weeks ago
  • Climate Change: Bad faith from National
    One of the weird features of the Zero Carbon Act was its split-gas targets, which separated methane, produced overwhelmingly by farmers, from carbon dioxide produced by the rest of us. This lower target for methane was another effective subsidy to the dairy industry, and was the result of a compromise ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    2 weeks ago
  • Gordon Campbell on Israel’s murderous use of AI in Gaza
    This may seem like a dumb question– but how come Israel has managed to kill at least 33,000 Palestinian civilians in Gaza, including over 13,000 children? Of course, saturation aerial bombing and artillery shelling of densely populated civilian neighbourhoods will do that. So will the targeting of children by IDF ...
    Gordon CampbellBy ScoopEditor
    2 weeks ago
  • Total Eclipse of the Mind.
    All that you touch And all that you seeAll that you taste All you feelAnd all that you love And all that you hateAll you distrust All you saveEarly tomorrow morning as the sun is rising in Aotearoa many people across North America, from Mexico to Canada, will be losing ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    2 weeks ago
  • So why do that degree… here?
    A report – and discussion – from the university front line… Mike Grimshaw writes – I have been involved in numerous curriculum and degree reviews over the decades and in all of them the question always skirted around is: “If you had to leave now with ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    2 weeks ago
  • The hunt is on for an asterix for farm emissions
    The Government is setting up its own experts group to review the goalposts for farmers to reduce methane emissions. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The six news items of note for me in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy as of 9:06 am on Monday, April 8 are:The Government is setting up ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 weeks ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: Aukus or not, New Zealand’s foreign policy is being remade
    This could be a watershed week for New Zealand’s international relations. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, is heading to Washington DC for a full week of meetings. The surprisingly lengthy trip just happens to coincide with a major trilateral summit of leaders from the United States, Japan and the Philippines. ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    2 weeks ago
  • The Kaka’s diary for the week to April 15 and beyond
    TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 15 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. The Climate Commission will publish advice to the Government this evening.Parliament is sitting from Question Time at 2pm ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 weeks ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #14
    A listing of 34 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 31, 2024 thru Sat, April 6, 2024. Story of the week Proxy measurement via Facebook "engagement" suggests a widely welcoming audience for Prof. Andrew Dessler's The Climate ...
    2 weeks ago
  • Their Money or Your Life.
    Brooke van Velden appeared this morning on Q&A, presumably paying homage to Margaret Thatcher. The robotic one had come in an 80s pink, shoulder-padded jacket, much favoured by the likes of Thatcher or Hosking. She also brought the spirit of Margaret, seemingly occupying her previously vacant soul compartment.Jack asked for ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    2 weeks ago
  • Truth pulls its boots on
    It's a lot easier to pull off a lie if people don't know much about what you're lying about.Sometimes, watching Christopher Luxon, you get the impression he doesn't know all that much about it, either.​​ That's the charitable interpretation. The other is that he knows full well.He was on the ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 weeks ago
  • Those of a certain vintage in this country will recognise that as a paraphrasing of the much celebrated Paul Holmes sign-off from his nightly current affairs show, yes, he of the “cheekie darkie” comment infamy (that one aimed at then-UN Chief Kofi Annan, and if unfamiliar with what followed in ...
    exhALANtBy exhalantblog
    2 weeks ago
  • Are You Missing Kindness Yet?
    In my last newsletter I asked how is Luxon this out of touch? Many of you, quite wisely, don’t do the Twitter thing so I thought I’d share a few of the comments from the cross section of humanity that you encounter there.The comment from Clandesdiner@boglyboohoo, not sure if that’s ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    2 weeks ago
  • How NZ and Taiwan differ in disaster preparedness
    Peter Dunne writes –  Taiwan and New Zealand are two small island states with much in common. Both are vibrant, independent democracies, living in the shadow of an overbearing neighbour. (Admittedly, Taiwan’s overbearing neighbour has far more aggressive tendencies than our at-times overbearing neighbour!) There is a strong ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    2 weeks ago
  • Why Shane Jones sunk the Kermadecs Marine Sanctuary
    Bryce Edwards writes – Did vested interests prevent New Zealand from establishing a world-leading environmental marine reserve? There are strong signs that in killing off the proposal for a Kermadec Islands Marine Sanctuary, Shane Jones has been doing the bidding of several industries and groups that he’s closely ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 weeks ago
  • Nearly a month of it
    Hello! There has not been an omnibus for about three weeks because covid and bereavement got in the way.Here’s what you may have missed if you’re not a daily reader.Life’s Little Victories - I think I’ve dodged COVIDTwo Bar Blues - I haven’t Relentlessly Negative - Things seem to be ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 weeks ago

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  • Government to rephase NCEA Change Programme
      The coalition Government is making significant changes to the NCEA Change Programme, delaying the implementation by two years, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “Ensuring New Zealand’s curriculum is world leading is a vital part of the Government’s plan to deliver better public services and ensure all students ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 weeks ago
  • New Ngāpuhi investment fund Chair appointed
    Ben Dalton has been appointed the new board Chair of Tupu Tonu, the Ngāpuhi Investment Fund, says Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith and Associate Finance Minister Shane Jones. “Ben brings a wealth of experience in governance and economic development to the position. He will have a strong focus on ensuring ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 weeks ago
  • Education should be prioritised ahead of protesting
    Students should be in school and learning instead of protesting during school hours, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. “If students feel strongly about sending a message, they could have marched on Tuesday when there was a nationwide teacher only day, or during the upcoming school holidays. It has become ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 weeks ago
  • Delivering on Local Water Done Well
    Cabinet has agreed on key steps to implement Local Water Done Well, the Coalition Government’s plan for financially sustainable locally delivered water infrastructure and services, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown says.  "Councils and voters resoundingly rejected Labour’s expensive and bureaucratic Three Waters regime, and earlier this year the Coalition Government ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 weeks ago
  • Peters to visit New York, Washington D.C.
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters will engage with high-level United States Government and United Nations officials in the United States next week (6-12 April).    The visit, with programmes in New York and Washington D.C., will focus on major global and regional security challenges and includes meetings with US Secretary of ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 weeks ago
  • Security cooperation in challenging world
    New Zealand is committed to working more closely with NATO partners to support collective security in a worsening strategic environment, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says.    “The Coalition Government has made clear the strong emphasis it places on cooperation with New Zealand’s traditional partners, and NATO is a big part ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 weeks ago
  • Construction starts on Queenstown roading upgrades
    Transport Minister Simeon Brown has kicked off construction on $250 million upgrades to State Highway 6/6A (SH6/6A) in Queenstown that will boost economic growth, reduce congestion, and create a safer and more reliable transport network. “With more than 40,000 vehicles passing through each day at peak times, the current SH6/6A Frankton ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 weeks ago
  • New Zealand “open for business” for Build To Rent
    Associate Finance Ministers David Seymour and Chris Bishop say overseas investment in Build To Rent housing will be welcomed in New Zealand under a new directive letter they have issued to Land Information New Zealand (LINZ), the regulator for the Overseas Investment Act. Build To Rent (BTR) is a type ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 weeks ago
  • Coalition Government to require referendums on Māori wards
    The Coalition Government will restore the rights of communities to determine whether to introduce Māori wards, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown says.  “The Government will introduce a Bill in the coming months that will restore the ability for communities to petition their councils to hold binding polls on Māori ward ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 weeks ago
  • ERO report confirms need for clearer curriculum
    A report by the Education Review Office (ERO) on Aotearoa New Zealand Histories confirms that teachers need better clarity on curriculum and how to deliver it, Minister of Education Erica Stanford says. “Despite the hard work of teachers, education achievement and attendance have declined significantly in the last few years. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 weeks ago
  • Building products shakeup to lower prices
    The coalition Government is eliminating barriers to the use of overseas building products to make it easier and more affordable to build in New Zealand, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government has a plan to rebuild the economy to help Kiwis get ahead, and part of that plan ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 weeks ago

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