local government

Categories under local government

Brownlee determined that Christchurch should suffer too

Written By: - Date published: 2:45 pm, April 19th, 2017 - 25 comments

Christchurch rebuilt must suffer the same central traffic madness as Auckland. Thus decrees Gerry Brownlee, as short-sighted, bullying, and ignorant as ever.

National’s flawed RMA ripoff still failing

Written By: - Date published: 7:22 am, March 15th, 2017 - 13 comments

Maori Party Co-Leader, Marama Fox, is playing hardball over Nick Smith latest attempts to weasel out of commitments on the deeply flawed RMA changes that National has spent the last few years trying to find any support for in Parliament. The bill is crap. The Maori party should just drop it regardless how many baubles they think they will get from it.

Justin Lester: Why Wellington, why Labour, and how did he make conference cry?

Written By: - Date published: 4:49 pm, March 12th, 2017 - 10 comments

Via Noted, the Mayor of Wellington talks about his city, his mayoralty, and why he’s Labour.

Weak Cities

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, December 16th, 2016 - 44 comments

Current governance structures for our cities that rely on corporate management are proving to be ineffective and are not delivering the sort of result our democracy needs.

The best you can hope for, after the Local Government elections

Written By: - Date published: 8:07 am, October 11th, 2016 - 55 comments

Now that the local government elections have been completed what is the best that local communities can expect of their elected representatives?

Utopians and pragmatists

Written By: - Date published: 11:43 am, October 10th, 2016 - 32 comments

Nick Leggett places himself in the “pragmatic” part of the Labour Party spectrum and derides others as being “utopian” and not interested in winning. But given the recent election result for the Mayoralty is he right?

Local Government results good for Labour and terrible for National

Written By: - Date published: 11:18 am, October 9th, 2016 - 80 comments

In Auckland, Christchurch and in mayoral races throughout the country Labour and Progressives had a very good day while National and its proxies must be wondering what they did wrong.

Local Government election results

Written By: - Date published: 12:01 pm, October 8th, 2016 - 119 comments

A running post for people to comment on local government election results as they come in.

Expect results to come in from 1 pm.

Campaigning South Auckland style

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, October 7th, 2016 - 8 comments

The South has responded to the Matafai West Auckland effort from yesterday. Sua William Sio says that South Auckland is the Gateway to the nation and the land of the young, beautiful and gifted.  Judging by this video he may be right.

Campaigning westie style …

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, October 6th, 2016 - 12 comments

The Matafai aiga from West Auckland show how to campaign.

Goff on foreign buyers; and Vote!

Written By: - Date published: 2:06 pm, October 3rd, 2016 - 5 comments

Ban them / tax them, but lets reduce demand. And make sure you get your vote in for local elections!

WMBAD: #PleaseNewZealand, get out and vote

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, September 30th, 2016 - 14 comments

Your voting papers may be terrifying, but you have to make them count.

Even more local body elections advice

Written By: - Date published: 6:09 pm, September 26th, 2016 - 13 comments

Since first posting Who should you vote for? a week ago I’ve been directed to even more endorsement lists and voting guides for local body candidates up and down the country. So if you still don’t know who to vote for, check them out.

Is Vic Crone racist?

Written By: - Date published: 10:51 am, September 22nd, 2016 - 198 comments

Vic Crone is trying to make a story out of the fact that Phil Goff is against foreign ownership of our housing stock, but accepted $250,000 from the NZ Chinese community at a fundraiser. Does she not see a difference between NZ Chinese and foreigners?

Who should you vote for?

Written By: - Date published: 6:39 pm, September 20th, 2016 - 39 comments

All the local body election endorsements you could possibly want.

Just vote – Auckland Council version

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, September 18th, 2016 - 31 comments

It is local government election time.  If you want to vote for progressive candidates these are some suggestions.

Translating the local government election jargon

Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, September 16th, 2016 - 13 comments

The PSA has produced a nice guide to cut through all the buzzwords in local body elections.

The other war of the polls

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, September 16th, 2016 - 28 comments

The Dominion Post has received not one, but two polls on the Wellington mayoralty. So who’s coming out on top?

Right-wing mayor candidates try to kneecap themselves

Written By: - Date published: 7:07 am, September 15th, 2016 - 82 comments

Vic Crone isn’t sure humans are causing climate change, Palino doesn’t think Auckland is all that super, and Mark Thomas just wants people not to vote for Goff…  It’s hardly an enticing bunch.

Beware, creepy men of the right: Rawshark returns (briefly)

Written By: - Date published: 6:30 pm, September 14th, 2016 - 82 comments

An old handle flickered back into life briefly this afternoon: In 2014 I dumped: https://t.co/UhZSYEYyar — Whaledump2 (@whaledump2) September 14, 2016 Rawshark – presuming the account is still held and operated by the hacker who exposed the dodgy shenanigans between the WhaleOil blog, corporate lobbyists and senior National Party politicians – started with a screenshot from […]

Eileen Brown for CCDHB

Written By: - Date published: 10:01 pm, September 6th, 2016 - 2 comments

Capital Coast DHB candidate Eileen Brown chairs the Newtown Union Health Service Board, a primary care service for people on low incomes. For the last 10 years, Eileen has worked for the Council of Trade Unions as a senior policy analyst; previously she worked in nursing in many areas including mental health and neuro rehabilitation. Eileen is standing as a Labour candidate. She’d be great on the DHB.

Take the power back

Written By: - Date published: 10:26 am, September 5th, 2016 - 49 comments

The Jobs That Count campaign isn’t just about Talley’s AFFCO. It’s about getting local councils that work for all of us and make sure that the big businesses in our communities give back to us.

The Mayoral candidates and the living wage proposal

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, September 4th, 2016 - 29 comments

I attended the Living Wage People’s assembly this week in St Matthews in the City.  The idea behind the meeting was to get Mayoral and Waitemata ward candidates to express their views on the living wage proposal as well as improved public transport services and rental accommodation standards.  The organiser was Living Wage Aotearoa who have been […]

Take back our communities and create Jobs That Count

Written By: - Date published: 10:18 am, August 21st, 2016 - 22 comments

So often we lose sight of the fact that local government is about much, much more than rates. We’re launching a Jobs That Count ticket to change that.

Why do right wing politicians like stealing dead babies identities?

Written By: - Date published: 9:37 am, August 14th, 2016 - 15 comments

Savea Peseta Al Harrington Lavea, Auckland Future candidate for the Whau Local Board, shares an unfortunate similarity with David Garrett.

Auckland Future’s fuster cluck of a campaign

Written By: - Date published: 9:12 am, August 13th, 2016 - 5 comments

Auckland Future’s campaign has struck problems with candidates being nominated for the wrong positions, multiple right wing candidates running for the same positions and questions over whether the vetting of candidates has been as optimal as could be hoped for.

The Unitary Plan: Rodney’s Dream

Written By: - Date published: 1:45 pm, August 7th, 2016 - 59 comments

Rodney Hide must be sleeping well, because Auckland’s proposed Unitary Plan will deliver all he and his NACT patrons ever hoped for. The Council should reject the Plan in its current form, cherry-pick those aspects consistent with a democratic and liveable city and sheet home the responsibility to those that created the mess.

The Unitary Plan will not solve the Housing Crisis

Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, August 1st, 2016 - 9 comments

The Unitary Plan has been described as a panacea for the housing crisis by the Government.  But will it actually address this most acute of issues?

Unitary Plan – affordability requirements removed

Written By: - Date published: 10:12 am, July 28th, 2016 - 63 comments

What are the Nats doing removing a proposed requirement for affordable housing – exactly the housing that Auckland desperately needs!?

Auckland Unitary Plan

Written By: - Date published: 10:40 am, July 27th, 2016 - 19 comments

Auckland’s Unitary Plan will be available on the web at 1:30pm today, with a tool for checking the impact on any Auckland address.

How to wreck a busway

Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, July 19th, 2016 - 20 comments

The Government’s proposal to allow hybrid vehicles to use bus lanes is not only crazy but they did not talk to local authorities before doing so.

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