local government

Categories under local government

How much is that doggie in the window?

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 3:04 pm, May 26th, 2009 - 22 comments

It’s a disgrace that the supercity agenda is being foisted on Auckland undemocratically, and it is an additional disgrace that it is being bulldozed through uncosted. The government cannot tell Aucklanders what this reorganisation is going to cost them on their rates bills – though some estimates put it at over $550 each. Whatever happened to […]

Resistance Photography

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 6:00 am, May 26th, 2009 - 18 comments

Some great photos from yesterday’s hikoi from Squirrel. Click the thumbnails below to view photos, or see the whole set at the Resistance Photography channel on flickr.

Reader photos

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 4:30 pm, May 25th, 2009 - 30 comments

Thanks to a reader for sending in these photos from today’s hikoi: If anyone else has photos or youtube send them in and we’ll put them up.

Hikoi video

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 3:05 pm, May 25th, 2009 - 1 comment

The Herald Online has some great video from today’s hikoi here and here, and some photos here. The videos really are worth a look. They manage to give a sense of the atmosphere on the ground while at the same time giving voice to the people taking part in the march. If anyone has any […]

Can’t you play off to one side?

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:57 pm, May 25th, 2009 - 93 comments

Last year a small number of truck companies held the ‘truck strike’, they got 4000 trucks to jam the CBDs of every major city in New Zealand because they were unhappy about a 1% increase in their costs from higher Road User Charges. The Right applauded. Lefties, including some on The Standard, criticised the protests’ […]

Let them eat oysters

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 11:37 am, May 25th, 2009 - 36 comments

Remember – March against National’s undemocratic supercity today 25th, noon, Queen St [More info] Thousands of protesters take to the streets of Auckland today to save local democracy. Key’s response: ‘let them eat oysters’ Nah, what he said was the hikoi is “unlikely to make a difference, is premature and the wrong forum to raise […]

Talking tough

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:30 am, May 25th, 2009 - 34 comments

Remember – March against National’s undemocratic supercity today 25th, noon, Queen St [More info] Today in the Herald John Key is talking tough, dismissing the Super City hikoi before it’s even begun: Today’s hikoi against the proposed Auckland Super City is unlikely to make a difference, is premature and the wrong forum to raise concerns, […]

What’s the point again?

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 9:12 am, May 25th, 2009 - 20 comments

Remember – March against National’s undemocratic supercity today 25th, noon, Queen St [More info] Accepted truths are funny things. For example, everyone has just accepted that the local government mergers in 1989 saved money and that costs are out of control now. From these premises, it flows that the further merger of Auckland’s councils into […]

On Auckland and Leningrad

Written By: the sprout - Date published: 3:36 pm, May 24th, 2009 - 17 comments

The modern blitzkrieg [lightning war] was first tested in the Spanish civil war, refined in the invasions of European states that marked the beginning of WWII, and applied successfully in more recent invasions in the Middle East. A blitzkrieg’s success comes from the speed of its prosecution, from which it gets it name. The speed of a blitzkrieg gives attackers […]

Select committee charade

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 1:39 pm, May 24th, 2009 - 1 comment

John Armstrong seems to be shaking off his Key honeymoon, and has written a detailed and interesting piece on Carter’s role chairing the select committee on Auckland: The Labour Party is absolutely correct. With the connivance of Act, the National minority Government is riding roughshod over parliamentary convention by dictating that a junior minister with […]

Hikoi route

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 9:30 am, May 24th, 2009 - 14 comments

Tumeke has put together this handy map of tomorrow’s hikoi with the meeting places across Auckland. You can view the full size version by clicking on the image below and there are more details at the hikoi organisers’ site here. Get on down if you can.

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. […]