auckland supercity

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Auckland’s new overlord

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 11:45 am, May 23rd, 2009 - 39 comments

Remember – March against National’s undemocratic supercity Monday 25th, noon, Queen St [More info] Sometimes democracy’s a pain in the arse. So Aucklanders are in luck. Local democracy’s been done away with. Now, there’s a junta in charge. The councils Aucklanders elected a year and a half ago are now subject to five people hand picked […]

Nat MPs distancing themselves from Super City

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 3:20 pm, May 22nd, 2009 - 29 comments

Remember – March against National’s undemocratic supercity Monday 25th, noon, Queen St [More info] National’s Paul Hutchison, whose Hunua electorate lies in Franklin, has written a piece with Mark Ball, the mayor of Franklin, in today’s Herald. The sum of it: Supercity yes, but leave Franklin out of it. Funny because ‘leave me out of […]

National’s “supercity” policy lies

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 9:38 am, May 22nd, 2009 - 8 comments

Remember – March against National’s undemocractic supercity Monday 25th, noon, Queen St Interesting to look back at National’s local government and Auckland policy before the election. Their 2005 policy was still up on their web site in early 2008: National will advance local government reorganisation on a case-by-case basis. We do not subscribe to the view that big […]

Last night’s Super City meeting

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 12:00 pm, May 21st, 2009 - 22 comments

I attended the Paula Bennett-John Carter Supercity meeting yesterday evening in Kelston. This was one of the hastily arranged series of meetings arranged in the Auckland area to persuade ordinary jafas and westies that this Government is really listening and living up to its election promise to consult on the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance’s […]

Join the Super City hikoi

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 12:55 pm, May 20th, 2009 - 13 comments

IHI Aotearoa has put out the call for Aucklanders to join their hikoi against the Government’s undemocratic Super City proposal on Monday, May 25th: “We want the Crown to honour its exisiting agreements with Tangata Whenua. To create better and more diverse representation in local government. To protect mana whenua rights. To protect the land, […]

Why Lee is banned from interviews

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 7:23 pm, May 19th, 2009 - 122 comments

Rumour has it Melissa has been banned from giving formal interviews by National’s leadership but what’s the harm in answering a few questions from a reporter? Let’s see: Garner tries to tempt her into repeating her motorway comments but she doesn’t need the help. She is totally self-centred. Notice how all her stories are about […]

Bye bye democracy

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 12:50 pm, May 19th, 2009 - 51 comments

So what is this Transition Board thing that National and Act created by ramming through legislation in a huge rush last week last week and only to get cold feet over appointing its members? Basically, it gives five people (rightwing businessmen) who are appointed by the government the power to veto spending decisions made by the elected […]

Government for the people?

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 10:37 am, May 19th, 2009 - 4 comments

The Herald recently ran an excellent piece by Dr Emma Davies and Elizabeth Rowe (from the Institute of Public Policy at AUT) – Super City’s social well-being in danger: We risk losing sight of the fact that the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance’s recommendation for the number of councils is not the only idea abandoned […]

The ‘Rankin Effect’

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 7:39 am, May 19th, 2009 - 11 comments

Why is the National government delaying its announcement of the Supercity transitional agency? The Rankin Effect. That’s the flinch you get when your rampant arrogance becomes a bit too obvious. But despite the Rankin Effect, it looks like most of Rodney Hide’s picks for the new board will pass Key’s test. Who wants to take […]

Transition Agency knocked back

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 2:13 pm, May 18th, 2009 - 24 comments

Stuff is reporting that cabinet has failed to approve the make up of the Auckland Supercity transition agency. In case you’re out of the loop, that’s the unlected oligarchy that will now effectively govern Auckland without any democratic accountability, running roughshod over the results of the 2007 local body elections. The prediction had been that […]

No credible argument against referendum

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:15 am, May 18th, 2009 - 32 comments

This morning Radio NZ ran a report on the increasing grassroots opposition to the Government’s supercity plans. In the interview that followed it Rodney Hide was asked why the Government won’t let Aucklanders have the final say on the proposal through a referendum. His answer? The tired, discredited old line that it’s “not just a […]

NACT prefer to have a filibuster

Written By: lprent - Date published: 5:11 pm, May 16th, 2009 - 39 comments

The ongoing filibuster is highlighting the intransigent nature of the NACT government. NACT ministers are getting annoyed by having to remain at the house to push through their legislation. However there is a perfectly reasonable offer on the table – but they’d prefer to have the filibuster maintained rather than get the holes fixed in […]

The Maori Party’s commitment to democracy

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:46 pm, May 16th, 2009 - 60 comments

In an epic last-ditch defence of Aucklanders’ right to be consulted on the removal of their democracy, Labour and the Greens are currently filibustering the government’s enabling legislation in Parliament by forcing a vote on thousands of new amendments. Their objective is simple, they want to get the bill off to a select committee and […]

Ratepayers to fork out lots for super-city

Written By: lprent - Date published: 5:17 pm, May 15th, 2009 - 2 comments

In the absence of any numbers about transition costs from Rodney or NACT on the super-city, Phil Twyford over at Red Alert has gotten Dr Rhema Vaithianathan to crunch the available numbers. Ratepayers are going to get whacked with a bill for up to $750 just for the transition costs, and that’s 30% higher than […]

Has anyone asked them what they think now?

Written By: lprent - Date published: 12:46 pm, May 15th, 2009 - 7 comments

Moana Mackey has been looking at old Hansards in a post on Red Alert. The topic was the Local Government Act changes in 2002. It is a revealing look at the change of attitude by National MP’s on the process of consultation for local government changes. A couple of examples: Phil Heatley: I was disturbed […]

On filibustering and public political meetings

Written By: lprent - Date published: 9:15 am, May 15th, 2009 - 52 comments

Labour is filibustering in the house on the Auckland super-city enabling legislation. The would-be dictator of Auckland’s future for the next year and a half, says Mr Hide says the amendments are a waste of time, as the Government has the numbers to defeat them. Correct for this particular battle. However it is the war […]

I can see South Auckland from my house! An interview with Melissa Lee

Written By: the sprout - Date published: 5:44 pm, May 14th, 2009 - 16 comments

Did your company use NZ On Air money to produce a National Party promotional video? Look, I didn’t keep records of who was working on what when and it doesn’t work like that the only people who have a problem are disgruntled employees but they were volunteers and we were having fun so it doesn’t […]

Why so afraid?

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 11:21 pm, May 13th, 2009 - 30 comments

Labour asked for an urgent debate in the House today on the Waterview announcement. Smith denied it because the announcement hadn’t then taken place. A minute later Joyce made the announcement. Labour then asked leave of the House for an urgent question to Joyce, Brownlee denied leave. What are they so afraid of? When did […]

Have your say, make them listen

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 5:03 am, May 12th, 2009 - 14 comments

The government has announced its legislative plan for the supercity in a press release from John Carter, rather than Rodney Hide whose arrogant mishandling of the issue is privately blamed by National for the growing unrest in Auckland. The press release says: Now that the Government has announced our position on the Royal Commission’s Report into […]

Disconnect

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:43 pm, May 10th, 2009 - 47 comments

As Labour learned to its cost last year you can’t keep on insisting that something is true if the public’s opinion has hardened against it. Once the disconnect is in place, not only do you fail to bring people to your point of view, your efforts make you look aloof or unlistening, hurting your popularity. […]

Hide on his way to Privileges Committee?

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 5:32 am, May 8th, 2009 - 44 comments

Has Rodney Hide breached privilege by seriously misleading the House? This is one for you legal types out there but from a layperson’s perspective it looks like it. Here’s what happened (the full transcripts are below): On Wednesday, Phil Twyford (or Twif-ford as Hide insists on calling him) asked Hide whether “he has costed the super-city proposal outlined […]

Oh dear – Hyde the costs

Written By: lprent - Date published: 9:40 pm, May 7th, 2009 - 71 comments

How embarrassing. Rodney Hide has been forced to admit that he has no idea of the costs of his super-city proposal. Phil Twyford with the aid of the speaker cornered him into an admission that he’d been bullshitting. The Minister has been caught out trying to mislead Aucklanders about whether the Government has done those […]

How Hyde is wasting my taxes on an uncosted project

Written By: lprent - Date published: 5:09 pm, May 6th, 2009 - 20 comments

It appears that the propaganda campaign from Rodney Hide to push his proposal of the super-city has cost $533,000 in PR costs in the last 4 weeks. Phil Twyford (Labour’s Auckland issues spokesperson) comment is that:- It’s outrageous that the Government is prepared to spend an average of $133,000 a week on a publicity blitz, […]

Key decked over supercity

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 8:46 pm, May 5th, 2009 - 40 comments

A much better performance from Goff today in the House today. Finally, after weeks of fluffing, he managed to score a direct hit on Key. Goff’s questions on the Auckland supercity had Key denying the obvious, that the people of Auckland do not like his government’s supercity and do not believe they have been adequately […]

Backlash building on supercity

Written By: Tane - Date published: 11:30 am, May 5th, 2009 - 25 comments

The unseemly haste with which the National/Act Government is pursuing its undemocratic supercity is causing more and more people to wake up to the con job they are pulling. A Reid poll (ignored by the Herald but run by the community newspapers) shows where just weeks ago the public was split evenly on the proposed […]

The super-con

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:00 am, May 4th, 2009 - 15 comments

Rodney Hide would have us believe that a supercity is the way of the future. He says “Auckland cannot become a world-class city without change”. Funny, because it’s already the 4th best city in the world, along with Vancouver which is also not a supercity. Look down the list, there’s Wellington and Sydney also not […]

It’s good enough for Wanganui

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 7:21 am, April 29th, 2009 - 11 comments

Rodney Hide refuses to give Aucklanders their referendum on the supercity and one of the excuses he offers is the cost: “The difficulty with a referendum is it would cost a million dollars” So what kind of things do councils find it worthwhile holding referenda on? Here’s what the people of Wanganui got to vote […]

Focused on what matters

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 7:36 pm, April 28th, 2009 - 60 comments

So John Key has set his taxpayer paid researchers onto David Shearer. The best they can come up with is that 11 years ago Shearer advocated using regulated mercenaries on UN peacekeeping missions because nations like the US are often unwilling to commit their own troops. If Key, who is clearly obsessed with winning Mt Albert, (he made […]

The Backlash Begins

Written By: Tane - Date published: 1:00 pm, April 28th, 2009 - 43 comments

We’ve been warning that John Key faces a backlash in Auckland if he doesn’t rein in Rodney Hide and present a democratic supercity structure instead of the rort that is on the table now. We’re starting to see it. A poll out yesterday shows only 12% of people in Key’s own electorate support his government’s […]

Meeting tonight on Super City

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 12:27 pm, April 28th, 2009 - Comments Off on Meeting tonight on Super City

From Just Left: Tonight – Freemans Bay Community Centre – the Western Bays Community Board is holding a meeting from 6.30pm to discuss the Govt’s super-city proposal. Come along. It is nice to see that some parts of the Council do want to hear what residents think, rather than other parts who are buying into […]

Drinking Liberally Auckland – the future of Auckland governance

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 8:14 am, April 28th, 2009 - Comments Off on Drinking Liberally Auckland – the future of Auckland governance

Join all your favourite lefty liberal drinkers at Drinking Liberally Auckland When: 7pm, Wednesday 29 April Where: London Bar – corner Queen and Victoria Streets, Auckland CBD Who: you and like-minded left-wingers. All welcome. This month’s speaker is Mayor Len Brown talking about the opportunities and issues arising out of the Government’s proposal for restructuring […]