auckland supercity
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Bhatnagar to knock out Hide?
Written By: - Date published: 12:46 pm, January 16th, 2010 - 22 comments
There is a story in today’s Herald noting that current C&R Hobson councillor Aaron Bhatnagar is not going to stand for the new super-council. He is taking on the running of Banks’ faltering mayoral campaign and has been offered a job in the new mayoral office should they turn around Len Brown’s momentum. But the […]
Even Banks against Key’s ‘Party Central’ fiasco
Written By: - Date published: 6:57 am, January 13th, 2010 - 6 comments
At first, I thought I must have been dreaming yesterday morning. There was John Banks loudly attacking central government politicians from Wellington. How dare they impose expensive and unjustified costs on Aucklanders? Why were they so insistent on rushing through their own ideas rather than taking the time to come to an enduring solution that Aucklanders […]
Granny is surprised, no-one else is.
Written By: - Date published: 5:29 pm, January 3rd, 2010 - 12 comments
John Banks is steadily dropping away from a possibility of gaining the Auckland super-city mayoralty. A Herald online poll has John Banks falling to third in preference behind Steven Tindall – who has not even declared that he is interested or would run. Len Brown is far higher in preference. Self-selecting online polls are about […]
Good Xmas news for Auckland
Written By: - Date published: 10:55 am, December 21st, 2009 - 11 comments
The UMR poll for the Auckland super-city mayoral race is interesting reading. The headline difference (PDF) of 11% towards Len Brown over John Banks has been extensively reported. The poll of 482 people, while small, is even more interesting when you see the breakdown of figures – and a lot worse for John Banks. The […]
Not welcome
Written By: - Date published: 2:50 pm, December 20th, 2009 - 6 comments
A Papakura local has sent us this story of the would-be Emperor of Auckland’s foray into Papakura. Wannabe Super City Mayor Goofs up in Papakura, and is told to hoof it. John Banks visited Papakura last week, to meet with Callum Penrose Mayor of Papakura. Penrose has been heading an effective rearguard campaign against the […]
Brown picks up momentum
Written By: - Date published: 4:20 pm, December 15th, 2009 - 29 comments
It’s interesting to look at the trend behind the headline 11 point poll lead Len Brown has opened up over John Banks as reported in today’s Herald. In April Brown was only rated as preferred mayor by 6% of Aucklanders verse 17% for Banks. A head-to-head poll in late July put him one point ahead […]
Capitalism in its wonderful natural form.
Written By: - Date published: 7:55 pm, December 7th, 2009 - 29 comments
Following on from our report earlier this year about ideal places for libertarians to go, it appears that we are now seeing capitalism in its wonderful Ayn Rand style libertarian idealized form. Somali ‘maritime companies” have setup a stock exchange to help incubate free enterprise in its natural form. From Reuters we have this report. […]
Shipley to knife Banks?
Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, November 30th, 2009 - 32 comments
There is a very revealing article in this month’s Metro magazine (not online) that takes a look at the strengths of the campaigns of the two declared candidates for the Auckland mayoralty. Interestingly the piece states that National and ACT are ready to dump John Banks if he doesn’t start to gain traction. It seems […]
With friends like these…
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, November 25th, 2009 - 2 comments
John ‘Mayor for Remuera’ Banks would’ve been gagging on his morning gruel after reading this headline on page two of Monday’s Herald: Jeers and boos greet Banks’ stand-in at debate. Ouch. Citrats councillor, and Don Brash/John Banks hagiographer, Paul Goldsmith turned up to a super-city conference to outline his party’s bleak view for services in […]
Gerrymandering Auckland city
Written By: - 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 […]
Privatising water
Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, November 11th, 2009 - 21 comments
Although the topic has had a turbulent and confused couple of weeks, it seems that National want to privatise Auckland’s water supply. Govt contradicts itself on water privatisation Press Release: Green Party 29 October 2009 Statements from the Government on the issue of water privatisation are confusing and contradictory and give no assurance to the […]
Remuera mayor discovers there are other parts of Auckland
Written By: - Date published: 9:36 am, November 10th, 2009 - 4 comments
Lord Mayor of Remuera John ‘barking mad’ Banks has (mis)fired the first shots of his campaign by producing some strip advertisements outlining the planned expansion of his duchy he claims he’s Mayor of Takanini! – and taking out a full page ad promising he will build the Sydney Opera House on Auckland’s waterfront. Welcome to […]
Banks’ leadership takes battering
Written By: - Date published: 2:40 pm, November 6th, 2009 - 6 comments
Fresh from pulling the pin (then blaming others) on a Queen’s Wharf redesign competition he himself conceived, led and championed, Remuera mayor John ‘in your guts you know he’s nuts’ Banks has again flip-flopped on a policy proposal from his council. Yesterday the Banks’ and C&R led proposal for after-hours car parking charges for Auckland’s […]
Destroying Auckland city
Written By: - Date published: 4:49 pm, November 3rd, 2009 - 3 comments
Yesterday the Auckland Transition Agency (ATA) released its draft structure for the new Auckland council. Fortunately for the staff, and service levels in the new Auckland council, the ATA has a ‘commitment to maintaining or enhancing council service delivery.’ This means: ‘A prudent approach will be taken to staff reduction where services are reorganised to […]
Banks threatens your council services
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, October 28th, 2009 - 2 comments
John ‘in your guts you know he’s nuts’ Banks has isolated himself out to the right of Rodney Hide when it comes to the activities of local government. Yesterday Rodney Hide started to backtrack on his promise to restrict local government to providing ‘core services’ (although I’ll reserve judgement until I see his final policy), which […]
National/Citrats abandon Tamaki-Maungakiekie
Written By: - Date published: 1:21 pm, October 23rd, 2009 - 9 comments
Last night C&R councillor and National Party MP Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga ended his double-dipping charade and quit the Auckland City Council. By way of background, Sam was elected as a councillor for Tamaki-Maungakiekie in the 2007 local body election. He used this position to leverage his way into parliament as a National MP at the […]
Recalling John Banks
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, October 23rd, 2009 - 8 comments
John ‘barking mad’ Banks’ cheerleader WhaleOil has called for Rodney Hide to introduce the power of recall into the legislation for the new Auckland super-city. I wonder if that is such a wise call. Remember Cameron Slater is the son of Citrat president John Slater, so he should be well aware of Banks’ infamous track […]
Banks panic
Written By: - Date published: 1:02 pm, October 18th, 2009 - 9 comments
Len Brown seems to have the Right in a bit of panic. Remuera Mayor John ‘in your guts you know he’s nuts’ Banks is speculating that Brown’s already toted up $150-$200k of campaign spending. Banks has always been screwy but he seems to have just made this up. That hasn’t stopped acolytes like Farrer from […]
John Banks lets his city slide
Written By: - Date published: 8:19 pm, October 15th, 2009 - 4 comments
Far from being a careful steward of ratepayers’ money and someone who takes pride in his city, Auckland mayor John Banks is allowing parts of the CBD to slide. Less than two years ago Banks’ council spent $1.5 million upgrading the central Auckland lane Swanson Street. Yet far from being some kind of urban oasis, […]
Super-city debate friday
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 pm, October 15th, 2009 - 5 comments
The debate will feature an outstanding lineup of: Darren Hughes MP, Cr Cathy Casey, Bevan Woodward, Jonathan Hunt, Jacinda Ardern MP and Cr Grant Gillon. It’s being held at the Northcote Birkenhead Rugby Club on friday night. Doors open at 7pm, debate starts at 7.30pm. There will be cheap drinks and snacks provided. This is […]
Infratil / NZ Bus striking for more profits
Written By: - Date published: 9:28 am, October 8th, 2009 - 7 comments
Well the intransigent owners and managers of Infratil / NZ Bus finally went on strike this morning in their quest for higher profits. They locked out the bus drivers for threatening to abide by their contract. This is causing widespread chaos amongst other businesses as their employees are unable to get to work. We just dispatched […]
A leopard doesn’t change his spots
Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, October 6th, 2009 - 23 comments
There is a very revealing quote from John Banks in the weekend’s Dominion Post where he talks about his campaign strategy: Uptown, Auckland Mayor John Banks, a former police minister and radio talkback host, is doing his best to soften his public image. “If I wear my policy on my sleeve, I won’t get elected. […]
Closing time for Banks
Written By: - Date published: 1:29 pm, October 2nd, 2009 - 28 comments
There is an astounding editorial in today’s business newspaper The Independent (not online) titled Foolish idea spirited away. Commenting on the recent 11pm closing time fiasco for Auckland restaurants and bars, the paper slams Banks’ leadership saying, ‘the embarrassing back down by Auckland City Mayor John Banks on proposed liquor-law changes doesn’t bode well for […]
Banks bullshits on North Shore – shows up Bhatnager as a hypocrite
Written By: - Date published: 1:08 pm, September 27th, 2009 - 18 comments
This week John Banks took his faltering super mayoralty campaign to the Takapuna Rotary Club on Auckland’s North Shore. Banks tried to butter up the locals by talking about the time he was elected to the Birkenhead Borough Council waaaaaaaaaay back in 1977 (hint: you’re almost at retirement age Mr Banks time to step down). […]
Nats attack democracy on two fronts
Written By: - 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 […]
Those pesky boundaries for Auckland
Written By: - Date published: 3:23 pm, September 12th, 2009 - 31 comments
There are a couple of things that I hadn’t realised about the rather strange changes to the Auckland super-city boundaries. They are just weird and show a strange idea of what Auckland. About 50% of Auckland’s water comes from the Hunua’s. Surely the provision of fresh water is a “core service” of local bodies. Sure […]
Brash and Banks try to profit off vulnerable
Written By: - Date published: 2:13 pm, September 10th, 2009 - 31 comments
Former National Party leader Dr Don Brash and Auckland Mayor John Banks love making the big bucks. And what better way to do it than hitting the most vulnerable in society. Today the National Party stalwarts are after mental patients. The Herald notes: KiwiSaver targets mental patient An Auckland woman is dismayed her 25-year-old son […]
How big is an uprising?
Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, September 10th, 2009 - 12 comments
There was an odd little piece in The Herald on Tuesday: Uprising would force Super City changes: PM Prime Minister John Key says the Government will back down on the new Super City boundaries for Rodney and Franklin if there is enough of a community uprising. Mr Key said he would be happy to overrule […]
Owning Auckland
Written By: - Date published: 2:52 pm, September 8th, 2009 - 17 comments
Last Friday the report of the Select Committee on Auckland was tabled in Parliament. The lack of media attention is a measure of how almost irrelevant this committee was. It has been clear for a long time that the decisions are being made by a small group around Key and Hide. The indefatigable Phil Twyford […]
Why no referendum for Auckland
Written By: - 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: - 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 […]
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