National’s jam tomorrow

Written By: - Date published: 8:45 am, March 1st, 2010 - 5 comments
Categories: auckland supercity, democracy under attack, national - Tags: , ,

When it comes to listening to the public, National promise “jam tomorrow”. Don’t believe them. When tomorrow comes we’ll get squat instead. Two examples from the Auckland Supercity process. First, remember how Key responded to the Hikoi for Maori seats on the new Council:

The right forum to raise concerns was through the parliamentary process, he said. The select committee soon to start looking at legislation setting up the council would consider the issues raised by the protest, Mr Key said. It would look at the governance structure, how councillors were elected and issues around Maori representation. “I don’t think the hikoi of itself will make any difference really…we are going to go through the select committee process, that’s not a white wash we are actually going to listen to what happens there. We are trying to work on getting an outcome that works for everyone.”

Wait for jam tomorrow! And – what complete and utter bullshit that turned out to be. Before the select committee had even finished it was announced that there would be no Maori seats:

Ngati Whatua spokesman Ngarimu Blair has criticised the Government for not allowing democracy to run its course. He said Maori had followed the democratic process – going through a Royal Commission which recommended Maori seats, then going through the select committee where Mr Blair claimed 90 per cent of submitters had supported Maori seats. Yet the Government had made a decision on Maori seats before the select committee process was finished. … he said Ngati Whatua were glad they at least knew the Government’s views now rather than continue a “masquerade” of consultation.

Second example – the Human Rights Commission has just called National on the Auckland consultation process:

Aucklanders were told throughout the first and second bills that specific details that concerned them would be addressed in the third bill.

Wait for jam tomorrow! But, same story, when tomorrow came the process was a sham:

Super city consultation a mockery

The short timeframe of nine weeks (including the Christmas-New Year holiday break) for submissions to the third Auckland governance bill makes a mockery of democracy, according to the Human Rights Commission.

It’s not just a matter of broken promises (tax cuts North of $50!). It’s a deliberate strategy for suppressing dissenting opinions. Tell the grumpy public “wait wait, we’ll fix it later”, then when the heat has died down there’s a sham process and a fait accompli. Like the constant abuse of urgency, this is a way of shutting us out of decision making. Don’t get fooled again…

5 comments on “National’s jam tomorrow ”

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  1. mickysavage 1
    1 March 2010 at 10:41 am

    I think the classic is Key’s promise that we will all get a tax cut and no one will be worse off after the proposed increase in GST.

    The man is a genius able to manufacture money out of thin air.

    Or is he?

  2. Draco T Bastard 2
    1 March 2010 at 12:37 pm

    It’s the type of promise you expect from a bunch of petty dictators that are trying to keep the public from rising in rebellion. Unfortunately, the Attack on Democracy from the NZHerald and other right-wing supportive articles that supported National and ACT helped confuse people into thinking that they were actually democratic when they aren’t and never have been.

  3. tc 3
    1 March 2010 at 3:37 pm

    As someone who works in lots of large org’s on many unrealistic resourced and time framed projects simply because the exec’s said ‘ do whatever it is you folk do….but by this date..’ what you get is whatever your timeframe and resource allows.

    You will not get what users expect so where the trick is to have alot a fixup resource ready on go-live because that’s what you have to do…..fixup/patch/rework or else it all falls down until you manage to get the workable solution in place.

    Wodney’s supershity is a classic case of just that and with the reason being they want it done before next election (no asset sales so let’s just sellout akl instead )so it bypasses consultation because they neither have the time nor inclination to find out what you folk want.

    Let the shitshovelling commence and it’ll all be the new superentities problem….without alot of it’s most knowledgable resources going, or gone already……Sound familiar…..like a certain phone network beginning with an X.

  4. coolas 4
    1 March 2010 at 11:01 pm

    ‘Consultation’ is the ‘c’ word for Nact. Too offensive to use liberally.
    I’ve just been to a meeting with Anne Tolley on National Standards.
    She said they consulted widely. “11,000 submissions” she said.
    A Principal replied he’d been invited to one meeting in which they were told what the standards were and when they would start. Teachers were ‘consulted’ by being invited to make submissions in writing or on the web. No feedback, no discussion. She again said they had no intention of publishing ‘league tables’ but to a question replied, “no we can’t stop others, like the media, producing the tables”. Up to now I thought the ‘Democracy under Threat’ was just a slogan. No more.