democracy under attack

Categories under democracy under attack

No categories

DPF doesn’t care about democracy

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 12:23 pm, March 31st, 2010 - 4 comments

Norightturn writes DPF went apeshit about the then-Labour government’s Electoral Finance Act. He vented online, raised funds, even launched billboards. You’d think that with plans to sack an elected council and strip 560,000 people of their vote in regional council elections for four years, as a “defender of democracy”, he’d be similarly outraged.

The Canterbury dictatorship bill

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 7:41 am, March 31st, 2010 - 39 comments

There are significant risks associated with the Review Group’s recommendation to temporarily suspend planned triennial elections for regional councillors (scheduled for October 2010) and to transfer the functions and responsibilities of Environment Canterbury’s (ECan) elected councillors to government-appointed commissioners until elections in 2013 at the latest. Elections are a right and privilege of any citizen in New Zealand. The suspension of such a right should only be considered in exceptional circumstances.

Sex & the Supercity

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:56 am, March 21st, 2010 - 52 comments

What a cynical and politically-driven process this whole Supercity process has been. It is undemocratic to its core. It is not about ‘growth’ or creating a better city. It is about securing power (and, thereby, wealth) for the city’s right-wing elite. Now their plans are falling apart around them. A female candidate to replace Banks is their last gasp attempt to stop Len Brown winning.

Hysterical media coverage

Written By: r0b - Date published: 2:45 pm, March 17th, 2010 - 26 comments

Suddenly John Key is all over the place complaining about “hysterical” media coverage of National’s plans to turn large chunks of our National Parks into smouldering slag. John seems to have forgotten what “hysterical” politics really looks like. Let’s take a trip down memory lane…

Auckland Super City and the American Revolution

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 8:56 am, March 15th, 2010 - 6 comments

Much of the power in the new Super City will be held by council controlled organisations. These organisations will be responsible for approximately 75% of Auckland services and their unelected directors will have free rein to make important city decisions. The organisations will have no obligation to consult and no responsibility to the public if things go wrong.

Come on Granny

Written By: r0b - Date published: 3:57 pm, March 6th, 2010 - 11 comments

Come on Granny Herald. You’re almost there…

Alternate forms of protest

Written By: lprent - Date published: 5:41 pm, March 4th, 2010 - 27 comments

Now this is pretty damn funny and just adds to todays absurdities over the waste of money on rugby world cup TV in 2011. Veteran Springbok Tour protester John Minto has found himself at the centre of a new Eden Park storm, with a controversial plan to name a nearby $3 million road after him.

Will the supercity transition authority now want to stop community boards from naming streets?

Go to lunch – protest sham ‘consultation’

Written By: lprent - Date published: 12:14 pm, March 2nd, 2010 - 9 comments

The select committee considering the 3rd super-shitty bill is sitting in Parnell now. There is a protest against the sham ‘consultation’ that National and Act have used to lock Aucklanders out of having any significant say in their city before, during and after this change.

Goto Quality Hotel Barrycourt, 20 Gladstone Road Parnell Auckland. The protest finishes at 2pm

Come Aucklanders – protest tomorrow.

Written By: lprent - Date published: 12:52 pm, March 1st, 2010 - 7 comments

The select committee on Rodney Hides vision of the Auckland Super-City sits in Parnell tommorrow. The National MPs complicit in foisting this idiotic vision of Auckland on us will be there along with the architect – the head of the lunatic Act party.

Spend your lunchtime demonstrating what a crock this version of the super-city is. Do it in Rodney Hide’s Epsom electorate.

National’s jam tomorrow

Written By: r0b - Date published: 8:45 am, March 1st, 2010 - 5 comments

When it comes to listening to the public, National promise “jam tomorrow”. Wait for the select committee. Wait for the third reading. But the record shows that these are empty promises. The Human Rights Commission has criticised National over their latest mockery of a consultation process on Auckland…

Looks like Rodney Hide was lying (again)

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 3:41 pm, February 26th, 2010 - 6 comments

The Government’s Auckland Transition Agency today released a discussion paper on the powers of the boards and briefed a public hearing of the select committee considering the third super city bill.

Stifling dissent

Written By: r0b - Date published: 3:01 pm, February 19th, 2010 - 41 comments

The letter warning school boards not to speak out over national standards is an outrage, but John Key and his National Party have a long and dishonourable record of trying to shut down those who speak out to oppose them.

A sign of the times

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:35 am, February 19th, 2010 - 10 comments

The Northern Action Group has, with the support of 80% of Northern Rodney District, been petitioning the Government to leave Northern Rodney out of its Supercity experiment. The Government, as throughout the Supercity process has completely ignored the wishes of the people. Symbolically, the Northern Action Group has put a broken campaign sign on Trade […]

The pipsqueak attacks the Waitakeres

Written By: lprent - Date published: 9:30 am, February 12th, 2010 - 21 comments

This is a fast way to get my blood boiling. Rodney Hide as minister of local government has removed protection from the Waitakere ranges. It is time to make the Act party extinct rather than merely being on the endangered species list. The Waitakere ranges are the only readily accessible tramping around Auckland. Virtually every […]

Meetings: Auckland super-shitty

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 9:45 am, January 28th, 2010 - 2 comments

Phil Twyford has been organizing a series of meetings about the impending Auckland super-city 3rd bill. The date for submissions to the select committee closes on Feb 12. Write a submission and maybe go to Wellington and give Rodney hell – that is if he dares to turn up to the select committee. These meetings […]

Franklin & Papakura want out, Hide says ‘no way’

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:56 am, January 20th, 2010 - 10 comments

The people of Franklin and Papakura, who overwhelming oppose becoming part of the National/ACT government’s Supercity experiment, have been denied their request to keep their own councils. Instead, Papakura will be forced into the Supercity while Franklin will be carved up between the Supercity, Waikato Council, and Hauraki Council. The people of Franklin and the rest […]

Lockwood threatens the press

Written By: r0b - Date published: 10:03 am, November 28th, 2009 - 19 comments

Lockwood Smith seems to be losing the plot. He’s now issuing open threats to the Press Gallery of all things: Parliament’s Speaker, Lockwood Smith, has warned the media that the coverage of MPs’ expenses borders on lobbying, and if it continues he will treat journalists as lobbyists. … If the newspapers do want to have […]

Gerrymandering Auckland city

Written By: lprent - Date published: 1:00 pm, November 24th, 2009 - 11 comments

Due to recovering from a cold over the weekend, I haven’t had time to blog about the super-shitty electoral boundaries released on friday in traditional style. However jarbury has done a great analysis over at the Auckland Transport blog. If you look at the all-important councillors, the striking thing is the inequities of the voting […]

National’s repeated abuse of democratic process

Written By: r0b - Date published: 6:53 am, October 19th, 2009 - 15 comments

The current National led government clearly regards the processes of democracy is an inconvenience to which it must pay lip service, but nothing more. The first signs appeared very early, with repeated abuse of the mechanism of urgency. This got to the point that even their fans at The Herald were moved to rebuke them: […]

Nats attack democracy on two fronts

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:30 am, September 16th, 2009 - 9 comments

Again, National has put the House into urgency to slam through unpopular legislation. This time, it’s the Supercity legislation. National whinges that it has to use urgency to pass legislation that could be passed anytime in the next months because they only get 17 hours a week to pass laws otherwise and that’s not enough […]

Abuse of process

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 10:00 am, September 9th, 2009 - 7 comments

National put Parliament back into urgency yesterday. It is ramming through the extension to the retail deposit guarantee, the RMA amendments, changes to the Biosecurity Act (and something else that escapes my memory). The RMA changes are particularly contentious but we won’t get to know what the Government is planning until hours before it passes […]

A return to elected dictatorship?

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 1:17 pm, September 5th, 2009 - 53 comments

Back in the days of First Past the Post elections, we had what Geoffery Palmer termed ‘the fastest law in the West’ and the Prime Minister was effectively an elected dictator. The PM controlled Cabinet, the Cabinet controlled caucus of the majority party in what was by design a two-party system (in Parliament, there were […]

Politically illiterate authoritarian git

Written By: lprent - Date published: 11:00 am, September 3rd, 2009 - 71 comments

There are an interesting couple of posts over at Red Alert about an editorial in the Dominion Post yesterday. Grant Robertson describes it as a bitter diatribe. Trevor Mallard thinks it is a bit over the top. I think that the editor who wrote it is an authoritarian git who really needs to consider why […]

Why no referendum for Auckland

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:30 am, August 31st, 2009 - 15 comments

How come the Government says that the people of Auckland should decide whether they want Maori seats in a referendum after the supercity is formed, but they don’t get to have a referendum on whether they want a supercity at all? It’s clear there is widespread opposition to the plan to merge the existing councils […]

Rodney and John roger Rodney

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 8:54 am, August 26th, 2009 - 18 comments

Maori seats? Who cares eh? If democratic process is ignored to override the Maori, who cares? But what if it’s some nice Pakeha? The Government is going to slice Rodney council in two. The North half goes to Kaipara. The other half goes into the Supercity. The people of Rodney overwhelmingly don’t want […]

Snake oil

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 1:16 pm, August 25th, 2009 - 18 comments

I’m surprised that the Maori Party have rolled over so easily on the issue of Maori seats on the Auckland council. I will be even more surprised if the Maori people follow suit. Because they have every right to be angry. Remember what Key said of the Hikoi? The hikoi was sparked over the dumping […]

Want local democracy? Too bad

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 8:55 pm, August 24th, 2009 - 45 comments

Remember when John Key and Rodney Hide were saying that nothing was decided on the super-city, that the select committee would listen to the people and report back the changes they wanted? Well, not only did the people let the Government know time and again that they didn’t want any supercity, a majority of […]

Not yours to sell

Written By: lprent - Date published: 6:46 pm, August 16th, 2009 - 28 comments

This video from Phil Twyford, Labour’s spokesperson on the campaign to make sure that Rodney Hide is prevented from buggering Auckland by selling critical assets to his mates in the business community so they can raise prices, diminish maintenance, stop capacity building, and make more profits for themselves. Given the history of natural monopoly privatizations […]

Stand up for free speech, stand against Bully State

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:32 am, August 7th, 2009 - 21 comments

As you know, when Natasha Fuller and Jennifer Johnston spoke up against the Key government’s cancelling of the Training Incentive Allowance, Paula Bennett tried to silence them by releasing their private information to the media. That was a flagrant breach of her fiduciary duties as minister and the Privacy Act, and a threat to free […]

Uncowed

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 12:57 pm, August 6th, 2009 - 9 comments

Shh. Hear that sound? It’s National’s mud throwing machine gearing up again. Inevitably, they’ve released Labour’s ministers’ spending. No evidence of any rort but the big numbers work into the media narrative. It’s all about taking the focus off ministers ripping us off by taking allowances they shouldn’t and making it ‘gosh, everyone spends lots huh?’. […]

The lies keep coming

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 10:15 am, August 5th, 2009 - 15 comments

Read this: Hon Phil Goff: What analysis did Treasury do on the cost-effectiveness of the national cycleway scheme in producing jobs, and is he prepared to provide the Treasury analysis, oral and written, to members of this Parliament; if not, why not? Hon JOHN KEY: Rigorous analysis was done. Having read that, do you believe […]