local government

Categories under local government

NRT: Extended

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 9:14 am, September 8th, 2012 - 25 comments

No Right Turn on the Nats’ continuing contempt for democracy in Canterbury.

The bill arrives for the “supercity”

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 1:52 pm, August 1st, 2012 - 37 comments

The bill for the Nats’ Auckland “supercity” is arriving in ratepayers’ letterboxes. Some are in for a nasty shock…

Stop the power grab

Written By: Ben Clark - Date published: 10:51 am, July 23rd, 2012 - 4 comments

I did posts on submitting against National’s Local Government Bill a while ago, but the end date for submissions is on the 26th, so here’s a reminder: this Bill will reduce your local say and give more power to central government. Wellbeing is removed from the remit, and low rates over better services is added.

Bye bye Local Government 2

Written By: Ben Clark - Date published: 10:32 am, June 26th, 2012 - 12 comments

National’s Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill will do significant damage to local democracy as they seek to restrict councils to “core” services, put in fiscal constraints, put power into fewer hands and override local concerns with amalgamations. Overall the legislation is shoddy. The Regulatory Impact Statement on the Government’s proposals from the Department of […]

Bye bye Local Government

Written By: Ben Clark - Date published: 7:02 am, June 25th, 2012 - 42 comments

National’s record on local government is horrific: the lack of consultation as they rammed through the Supercity, the canning of ECAN, and continued suspension of democracy in Canterbury, the pushing of asset sales on an unwilling Christchurch.

And their latest attack – the Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill – will do significant damage to local democracy.

Nats ramp up attacks on local government

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 12:19 pm, June 8th, 2012 - 21 comments

The neoliberals hate democracy. It tends to get in the way. Especially local government. It’s easier to control a single unicameral Parliament than it is to control 70-odd territorial authorities. National has attacked local government, particularly in Auckland and Canterbury but now they’re going all out with more dictatorships and forced mergers.

Resignationwatch: too many questions

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 6:38 am, May 4th, 2012 - 156 comments

Why did Banks lie about a discount hotel room where Dotcom was staying, then say he bargained it himself? Who made $15K of radio ad donations to his campaign? What did Nats on Banks’ ‘mentor group’ and ACT leaders know about the anonymised donations? How much info did Banks get from Williamson on Dotcom’s OIO application? Why has Key still not spoken to Banks to ask any of these question?

Slippery does a flip-flop

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:19 am, May 3rd, 2012 - 28 comments

Slippery old Key said on Monday and Tuesday that he had to apply a legal test to whether John Banks should stay on as a minister. The Cabinet manual demands the highest ethical standards. Now, Key’s flip-flopped: ethics are required – but only after one becomes a minister. Which would be worrying if true. Pansy Wong won’t be the only one to note Key’s standards a slipping.

Frack Free NZ

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 4:30 pm, April 13th, 2012 - 33 comments

Christchurch has declared itself a fracking free zone. Symbolic gesture? Perhaps – but this was how Nuclear Free New Zealand got started…

Woka Woka Wharfie Fundraiser – Akl tonight

Written By: Julie Fairey - Date published: 12:15 pm, April 3rd, 2012 - 10 comments

Something to do in Auckland tonight: What: Special screening of The Muppets Where: Hoyts Sylvia Park, Mt Wellington When: Tonight, April 3rd, 6.10pm to 8.30pm Don’t let those muppets at the Ports of Auckland get you down, come laugh at the real Muppets instead! Some door sales will be available, or you can email julie.fairey@gmail.com […]

POAL falling apart

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 2:29 pm, March 30th, 2012 - 47 comments

Things are not going so well for Ports of Auckland. “Ports of Auckland lifts lock-out amid board rift” sums it up…

Cost of the Ports of Auckland fiasco

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 11:03 am, March 29th, 2012 - 9 comments

Apparently the Auckland Council doesn’t know how much the POAL fiasco is costing. Rough estimates suggest that the cost is at least $400,000 a day, probably significantly more. No wonder the Council doesn’t want to know.

Local Board members call for council action on PoAL

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 8:40 am, March 24th, 2012 - 38 comments

We’ve received the following press release from Auckland Council Local Board members calling on Len Brown and the councilors to stand up to PoAL’s out of control management. The workers want to work and be more productive. The bosses want to screw them out of their pay to increase profits and are acting irrationally in pursuit of that goal.

I resign

Written By: Jimmy Reid - Date published: 7:01 pm, March 22nd, 2012 - 13 comments

I wish to tender my resignation as Chair of the Ports of Auckland Board. I took a profitable and efficient Port and lost it millions of dollars in contracts. I spent, inappropriately, substantial amounts of money on a public relations campaign against our staff that could have been spent reinvesting in the port or returning to Auckland Council. The financial position of the Port is in a dire decline. We wish

The real Nick Smith scandal

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 3:00 pm, March 21st, 2012 - 15 comments

It’s a shame Nick Smith is all over the political news at the moment for his ACC botch up because he should really be all over the news for his Better Local Government proposals. Saying “Rates are too high. They keep rising. It’s outrageous” isn’t enough. Kneecapping local governments’ autonomy, and slowly bleeding them of the ability to invest money in anything cannot be unchallenged.

Smith makes a mess of local government reforms

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:07 pm, March 21st, 2012 - 18 comments

Part of Nick Smith’s problem is that he doesn’t understand how to build public support for change before trying to implement it. Instead, he pulls out some dodgy numbers and tries to trick the public. This backfired in the debacle over ACC levy changes when he provoked one of the first big protests against the National government. Now, it’s happening with local government.

More from the Port…

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 7:25 am, March 14th, 2012 - 6 comments

Emergency Council Meetings, mediation, court action – the fight continues on a number of fronts. But at the core of the dispute is the SuperCity structure National set up – to give Council company boards free-rein, and democratically elected members no say.

Why I think that Auckland is getting scammed

Written By: lprent - Date published: 12:42 pm, March 12th, 2012 - 69 comments

It turns out that the report that provided the basis for a 12% return on equity at the Ports of Auckland is based not on something commissioned by them. Instead it comes from the previous employers of the current chairman at PoA, who have previously been interested in buying ports in NZ. And the comparisons used for the ROE are spurious.

Incompetent management forces Shearer & Brown off fence

Written By: James Henderson - Date published: 10:41 am, March 12th, 2012 - 47 comments

After months on the side-line, David Shearer and Len Brown have been forced to choose a side in the Ports of Auckland dispute by the irrational and unreasonable behaviour of the Ports management. Shearer has come out against casualisation and marched with the workers in Saturday. Brown has offered mediation between the parties.

The press release Len Brown should be issuing

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 12:25 pm, March 9th, 2012 - 35 comments

A contrite Mayor Len Brown today offered his apology to Port workers for causing their redundancies by demanding higher port profits then giving them the cold shoulder. “I turned my back on the working class. That ‘we’re on a journey’ BS on RNZ was the final straw. I am donating to the workers the $2,000 they gave my election campaign, and the $270,000 3-year payrise they helped me get when I became Auckland mayor.”

The circling vultures

Written By: James Henderson - Date published: 10:59 am, February 11th, 2012 - 105 comments

People are waking up to National’s plan to remove the democratically-elected Christchurch City Council and replace it with its own hand-picked commissioners, who will then give a green light to Brownlee’s developer mates and the sale of council assets. You can already see the vultures circling – waiting for the chance to seize more public wealth for themselves.

Dictatorshipwatch: Christchurch City Council

Written By: James Henderson - Date published: 10:15 am, February 10th, 2012 - 23 comments

When National decided to seize control of Canterbury Regional Council to remove roadblocks for unsustainable irrigation by their mates in the dairy industry, they didn’t do it overnight. They spent months creating a crisis. The same thing’s happening in Christchurch. Brownlee’s building a ‘crisis in the council’ to justify replacing the councilors with commissioners. The only question is when.

Marryatt would do job for $300K less

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 9:57 am, February 1st, 2012 - 6 comments

Embattled Christchurch City Council CEO Tony Marryatt was asked on Campbell Live last night if he is worth his $500K salary. He said it is the market rate (in fact, its 100K over the median) and he would do the job whether the pay “was 200K or a million”. Now, doesn’t that mean the market clearing price for his labour is $200K? The Council could do a lot with an extra $300K. When’s the pay cut coming?

Marryatt must go

Written By: James Henderson - Date published: 6:41 am, January 31st, 2012 - 84 comments

Most Kiwis have had no payrise, if they’re lucky enough to have kept their jobs, in the past few years. Yet Christchurch City Council CEO Tony Marryatt has kept on getting pay rises on his obscene salary, even as his job performance has declined. Now the arrogant bastard is saying he’ll keep $34,000 he doesn’t deserve unless the elected council ‘behaves’. There is no justification for this madness. Sack him.

Nats preparing to impose Chch dictatorship

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:43 am, January 26th, 2012 - 15 comments

David Farrar is calling for the Christchurch City Council to be sacked on the bizarre pretext that some of them have objected to the council CEO’s obscene pay rise. Apparently it’s a crime not to express confidence in your CEO if you’re an elected representative (Farrar seems to have missed the Collins-Matthews affair). But this is all a softening up exercise.

Local board members support wharfies

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 7:24 am, January 18th, 2012 - 6 comments

The travesty of the Port of Auckland dispute is that we have a publicly-owned company trying to slash its workers’ pay so that it can try to undercut another majority publicly owned company that has already slashed wages, the only winners being the foreign shipping lines. Well, here’s some of our representatives standing up for Auckland workers.

Joyce knows best

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 7:09 am, December 6th, 2011 - 35 comments

Steven Joyce isn’t a big believer in democracy. He has overruled Treasury, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry for the Environment to make sure that the government keeps control of Auckland’s transport funds, and Auckland Transport is unaccountable to Aucklanders.

Government to overrule Auckland?

Written By: Ben Clark - Date published: 2:04 pm, September 27th, 2011 - 24 comments

Nick Smith is looking at issuing a “Government policy statement” to ensure that the Auckland Plan complies with their agenda. They may ban the urban limits that are proposed to keep green, productive land around Auckland and help ensure rates stay low and public transport works in a more liveable city.