Darien Fenton has announced a members bill that would put public ports back on the Official Information Act. They were effectively removed in 1980’s – presumably because they were being prepared for privatisation.
It’s outrageous that billions of dollars worth of public assets can be run without any public scrutiny at all. Even more so when they’re being run against the public good by a bunch of unaccountable cowboys as is the case at PoAL.
Fenton’s called on the government to support the bill and I think they should to struggle to refuse to:
Regardless of what you think of the dispute, or where you sit on the political spectrum, it’s very hard to argue that ports’ ability to spend public money without public scrutiny is acceptable in a modern democracy.
Let’s hope the bill’s drawn soon.
As an aside, this bill had its genesis in work done by I/S over at no right turn – it’s bloody good to see Labour picking up good ideas from the wider community and running with them.
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