Has anyone asked them what they think now?

Written By: - Date published: 12:46 pm, May 15th, 2009 - 7 comments
Categories: auckland supercity, democracy under attack, democratic participation, labour, local government, national/act government, Parliament - Tags:

democracy-under-attack1

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 to hear the Hon Chris Carter say that he was rushing this bill through Parliament and wanting a commencement date of July next year, because the councils wanted certainty. That member has forgotten that councils are there as servants of the people, and those people are the ratepayers. They are the ones who pay the bills, and the ones who will foot the bill for the consultation required because of this document. So the Hon Chris Carter might like to rush the bill through this Parliament to suit those regional and district councils and unitary authorities, but he should remember that it will be the ratepayers who pay the bill. To date, those ratepayers have not been given the chance to consider the 300 changes to the 600 clauses in this bill. That is what concerns me.

Well it obviously doesn’t concern him anymore. He won’t even tell Auckland ratepayers what it’s going to cost them and he’s certainly not going to give them the chance to consider this particular piece of legislation.

Then from Dr Mapp:

Dr Wayne Mapp: His third position is, as far as I can see it is: ‘Auckland is a mess. We’ll impose a solution, and basically it can go to hell, because the Government knows best.’

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Ouch… I wonder what they would say if asked on their attitudes to the current super-city fiasco? Something like “..the Government has the numbers to defeat..” like Rodney Hide did.

At least the Labour-led coalition put those extensive changes through the proper democratic processes like select committees. From memory they didn’t need urgency to bulldoze their solution. But as we know NACT are less concerned about the democratic process than they are about winning.

BTW: The posts on Red Alert are pretty damn good – keep up the good work.

7 comments on “Has anyone asked them what they think now? ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. burt 1
    15 May 2009 at 12:54 pm

    Excellent link lprent.

    Isn’t it funny how when there is a change of govt the supporters of each party get up and change places, change roles and everybody forgets all the things they said before.

    Blogs should change all that because partisan people can be “outed” supporting something they now fight or fighting something they now support.

    It’s great to see a more reliable means of highlighting this stuff than peoples memories of he-said she-said.

  2. jarbury 2
    15 May 2009 at 12:59 pm

    Quite hilarious actually.

    And I agree about Red Alert, it’s fantastic to be able to discuss the Super-City with Phil Twyford so easily.

  3. MikeG 3
    15 May 2009 at 1:12 pm

    Remember when Rodney was appointed Minister of Local Government he said that he was the “minister for ratepayers”? He certainly isn’t acting like that now.

  4. dave 4
    15 May 2009 at 4:57 pm

    Sounds like democracy has been under attack since 27 November 1999.

    • lprent 4.1
      15 May 2009 at 5:00 pm

      So you’d agree that it is continuing – what would you suggest is a good way to stop this problem in the short-term? Filibuster?

  5. Swampy 5
    16 May 2009 at 6:03 pm

    They’ll get asked when the main part of the legislation goes out to Select Committee. You know that and I know that and Labour knows that and everyone knows that that is the case and all of this bollocks “democracy under attack” and all is bollocks.

    • lprent 5.1
      16 May 2009 at 6:35 pm

      So the transition authority becomes a mirage if the select committee chooses not to do a super city council? This bill is the one that sets the local governance. Not the next one. You really are a useless troll.

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