C&R’s takeover attempt

Written By: - Date published: 1:45 pm, April 16th, 2010 - 19 comments
Categories: auckland supercity, C&R, john banks, local body elections - Tags: , ,

Voters of the North Shore, Waitakere, Manukau and Franklin will be very concerned with the announcement that Auckland City based Citizens & Ratepayers is going to run a single slate(r) of candidates across the region at this year’s supercity election.

The reason? Auckland City Council undertook some research that showed ‘There are real concerns …. that local identities and issues will be swallowed up, lost or ignored, and that the council will be overly focussed on the CBD. Rural residents in particular feel their needs and concerns will be ignored.’

The problem for C&R, along with John ‘Mayor for Remuera’ Banks, is that they are intimately associated with the CBD and all the negative politics associated with what’s wrong with Auckland.

They’re right to be concerned. It’s called the so-called ‘Otahuhu Effect’, where C&R have conspired to make sure Otahuhu hasn’t got the community pool it has been trying to secure for a decade, while Judge’s Bay in well-off Parnell has had $5 million spent on sand for its foreshore.

The fear is that the C&R CBD old boys are gonna do to communities in Waitakere, Manukau, Franklin, Rodney and the North Shore what they’ve done to Otahuhu.

Local government politics in other parts of the region is not the same as Auckland. Other parts of the region do not have strongly whipped caucuses. Locals should be worried that C&R candidates will not represent their local interests when they have to sign a pledge such as this:

If elected I agree to abide by the majority decisions of any caucus meetings of the elected members of Citizens & Ratepayers.

The partisan whipped politics of Auckland City are set to spread around the region, unless a loose coalition of community focused progressive candidates can knock C&R off. Good luck to them.

And I have to say – the inspired selection of ex 1990s National Government Minister/ex Auckland City Council Mayor Christine Fletcher show C&R to be a truly future focused organisation.

P.S On a related note – what is going on with Monte Cecilia School? Why is John Banks forcing this school to move when it doesn’t need to and the community doesn’t want it to? And why is Banks, supposedly in favour of prudently spending ratepayers’ money, pushing this through and wasting $15 million in the process?

19 comments on “C&R’s takeover attempt ”

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  1. tc 1
    16 April 2010 at 2:22 pm

    Crikey as if auckland isn’t getting screwed enough already and monte cecilia’s was flagged as an arts centre when brought a few years back and still looks like a ghost house…..banks is such a plonker.

  2. the sprout 2
    16 April 2010 at 2:32 pm

    The explicit linking of C&R with National and the Supercity can only harm them.
    Another brilliant piece of kamikazi political management 😆

  3. BLiP 3
    16 April 2010 at 2:48 pm

    They’re right to be concerned. It’s called the so-called “Otahuhu Effect’, where C&R have conspired to make sure Otahuhu hasn’t got the community pool it has been trying to secure for a decade,

    Make that two decades.

  4. Pundit X 4
    16 April 2010 at 2:55 pm

    Campaigning on a manifesto and then implementing the policies as a group may prove to be attractive to voters. Makes a positive change from the independent mavericks we’ve put up with to date. maybe we should try it…

  5. the pinkpostman 5
    16 April 2010 at 3:16 pm

    Of course the good news is that at least we know who the Tories are.
    In many towns one never knows . The Nats over the years have been very clever in concealing their political beliefs at local body elections, resulting in the majority of councils being in Tory hands.
    Perhaps the one good thing about this Super City is that it will result in the Left taking Local body elections seriously .

  6. tc 6
    16 April 2010 at 3:21 pm

    Good point PP most people are oblivious to the old 2 party system being very much alive and well at the local/regional level….ahh such political diversity.

  7. MikeG 7
    16 April 2010 at 4:15 pm

    Curia were busy polling last night in Auckland re the Supercity and CitRats. They were asking who you would vote for mayor (unprompted) and also trying to understand what the perceived benefits are of the SuperCity.

  8. Loco 8
    16 April 2010 at 4:29 pm

    Before you get to excited about the pledge – its just like the pledge from the Labour constitution really, I have been trying to get it changed, local representatives need more independence from the party itself, local government and community democracy is something Labour should be looking at more carefully in future.

    Here is the relevant passage for Labour members in local elections:

    91. Any person accepting nomination as a Party candidate shall sign a pledge, in the following form in the presence of not less than two financial members:
    i. “Having been nominated as a Candidate for selection in accordance with the provisions of the
    Constitution for the ……………………………………………… I hereby accept nomination and declare:
    ii. I am not a member of any political party or any organisation membership of which is declared by the Party Conference or the New Zealand Council to be incompatible with membership of the
    New Zealand Labour Party.
    iii. I will wholeheartedly support the duly selected candidates of the Party in the
    …………………………………………….(Local Body district).
    iv. If selected as a candidate, I will not withdraw without the consent of the Party organisation
    controlling the election.
    v. I will faithfully observe the Constitution and policy of the Party and the policy of the Party for
    the……………………………………….(Local Body district).
    vi. If elected, I will vote on all questions in accordance with the decisions of the Caucus of the
    …………………………………….. (name of ticket).”

  9. Buster 9
    16 April 2010 at 4:43 pm

    Labour only runs tickets in single seats – Tamaki in Auckland City and a couple in Manukau. Not right across the region. Those candidates won’t be caucusing with a single ticket across Auckland or beholden to Banks in Auckland City.

  10. Tom 10
    16 April 2010 at 5:37 pm

    The problem for the centre left, it seems to me, is that most of the public don’t understand that the ‘citrats’ are the local government arm of the National and ACT parties. If they knew, most of their candidates would be toast.

  11. Anne 11
    16 April 2010 at 5:48 pm

    @Tom
    Well, it’s up to Labour and the Greens to scream it from the roof-tops and make sure the public in Auckland do know. If they don’t… then it’s their own fault.

  12. Luke.xensen 12
    16 April 2010 at 9:33 pm

    I think the right will try to paint Brown as a Labour man. If this is successful he will get few votes in the Shore, Papakura, Rodney.
    The herald is already joining in with this, so I would expect a lot more of it.
    C&R need to be careful though, Quax is/was an Act man. Even the good people of East Auckland wont like that.

  13. Gooner 13
    16 April 2010 at 9:47 pm

    C&R need to be careful though, Quax is/was an Act man. Even the good people of East Auckland wont like that.

    They hate it so much they’ve voted him on to council since 2001.

  14. Patrick 14
    17 April 2010 at 1:50 pm

    One of the Cit Rats candidate for the new Te Irirangi ward, current Howick Councillor Jami Lee Ross is currently trying to whip up racist parochialism in Howick by dog whistling about ‘heritage’ to people who are angry about Howick being included in a ward with a Maori name.

  15. Patrick 15
    18 April 2010 at 5:20 pm

    Jared, I live in Howick too. I suggest you go on the Facebook group about the issue or read some of the letters to the editor of the Howick and Pakuranaga Times and Eastern Courier. Nearly every letter or comment says something like “this is a European area and we do not want a Maori name”.

    It’s really fucked up. Some of the comments are scary.