Come on Granny

Written By: - Date published: 3:57 pm, March 6th, 2010 - 11 comments
Categories: auckland supercity, democracy under attack, humour - Tags: , ,

Come on Granny Herald. You’re almost there…

Editorial: Deny power to Super City’s faceless panels

From right to left, from John Banks and Michael Barnett to Len Brown and Mike Lee, Auckland’s local politicians have begun protesting at a distinctly undemocratic element in the constitution being written for the Super City.

Legislation setting up the new Auckland Council threatens to delegate most decisions to a number of “council-controlled organisations” (CCOs), a piece of Orwellian newspeak if ever there was one. They will not be directly controlled by the council. They will be run by boards appointed by the council but short of dismissing them there will be little public representatives can do to have a say in decisions about Auckland’s roads and public transport, waterfront development and much else. …

The way it is shaping up, the single mayor and council will be a puppet show, purely for democratic appearances, while the real decisions are made by people the public has not elected and will never see. It cannot stand.

You know you want to Granny. You know you want to dust it off and take it out for a spin again. Just like old times eh? If you’ve lost yours we’ve kept you a copy. Here it is…

11 comments on “Come on Granny ”

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  1. mickysavage 1
    6 March 2010 at 4:10 pm

    Good one r0b.

    I feel somewhat confused. I am agreeing with the Herald and John Banks at the same time.

    Of course this could be a cunning plan by the Government who will then tone down the corporate takeover of our democracy and present this as a evidence of them listening and wanting to do the best for Auckland. Our democracy will still be corporatised but not as bad and some people may not notice.

    But I could be accused of being a cynic.

    • Janice 1.1
      6 March 2010 at 5:12 pm

      Whatever they “tone’ it down to, I bet it will still include a majority of nat stooges to still be able to sell of the water and Ports of Auckland.

    • Rex Widerstrom 1.2
      6 March 2010 at 6:12 pm

      I’m a cycnic too micky but I don’t think this is a conspiracy because “Council Controlled Organisations” under whatever name have worked too well as vehicles for this sort of malarky before.

      One day I’ll write the complete story of the publicly owned asset on whose board sat a certain Mayor (now no longer in office, thankfully) who’d vote in favour of flogging off this particular asset to a foreign multinational, then dash up the road, throw on the Mayoral chain, and vote to accept the recommendation they’d just made.

      And of the developer who picked up a large plot of Council owned land at far less than market value from another Council controlled “business unit”, and then became a donor to a certain Mayoral re-election campaign as well as funding other Mayoral playthings, including a media outlet.

      And how I was told that to continue to keep highlighting such hijinks would result in my having my legs broken…

      But this particular grandee has proven to be somewhat litigious, so that one might have to wait for posthumous publication (theirs or mine, whichever comes first).

      • RedLogix 1.2.1
        6 March 2010 at 6:31 pm

        The sad part is that from an operational perspective there is every good reason to integrate Auckland’s water supply/distribution/drainage/treatment system. It is physically one large engineering entity and should be designed and operated by people working under a single umbrella.

        That said, the problem is that once packaged up into one such succulent morsel, history proves we cannot prevent the hungry stalkers from circling about their prize, nibbling and devouring. Nothing sates them.

        • Armchair Critic 1.2.1.1
          6 March 2010 at 7:31 pm

          You could make a similar argument for electricity and telecom.

        • mickysavage 1.2.1.2
          6 March 2010 at 8:16 pm

          Agreed RL.

          The good thing about the current/previous situation is that you had to get a majority of Territorial Local Authorities to agree on privatisation and this should most of the time be impossible. The TLAs left it alone because they realised it was the third rail of local politics and anyone who touched it would die.

          With the new Auckland Council such concerns disappear. Once they get through the legal restrictions privatisation is one council meeting away. This is really scary.

    • Salsy 1.3
      7 March 2010 at 10:41 am

      @Micky – You are worried about agreeing with John Banks? Im concerned to find myself in agreement with parts of Winston Peters latest speech… Its truly terrifying.

      http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/6896198/peters-speaks-in-greymouth/

  2. the sprout 2
    7 March 2010 at 10:13 am

    nice one r0b

  4. Jum 4
    8 March 2010 at 7:35 pm

    Did anyone check if this was in Lord Ashcroft’s book of ‘take over a country’s democracy’ rulebook?