Where do you stand

Written By: - Date published: 8:10 pm, September 13th, 2010 - 8 comments
Categories: local body elections, Politics - Tags:

Obviously  tired of politicians saying one thing on the campaign trail and then doing the exact opposite when they’re in office (which reminds me of a a great George Bush joke ) the PSA have just launched a nice and simple website  Where do you stand designed to hold local government candidates to account over community ownership and privatisation.

8 comments on “Where do you stand ”

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  1. comedy 1
    13 September 2010 at 6:17 pm

    It’d be nice if all candidates came out and declared their political affiliations and where they stand on a number of issues………. of course there’s always the likelihood they’ll just feckin lie so it may be a wasted effort

  2. freedom 2
    13 September 2010 at 7:34 pm

    We are the employer, they are interviewing for a job!

    There should be the same consequences as for any employee in New Zealand.
    Hell, they may even realise that being honest and working hard for the People who voted for you eventually works out best for everybody. They might.

    They might also reflect on the control being franchised by the ever deepening authoritarian prejudices of the industrial-miltary-corpocracy and the needs of a few million civilians suddenly don’t mean jack!

  3. nzfp 3
    13 September 2010 at 8:39 pm

    Tena ra koe Tammy,

    You may be interested to know that on Friday 18th July 2010 the “New Zealand Democrats for Social Credit (NZDSC)” made a submission to the Local Government and Environment Committee on the “Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill”.

    Among many things covered in the submission, the NZDSC noted – of local government body borrowing from private overseas sources – that:

    […] In no way can present funding practices be deemed sustainable with principle/interest ratios generally making loan cancellations impossible as per these typical examples:

    1) In its 10-year plan (2009/19) the Kapiti Coast District Council allocates $20.4 million for interest repayments but only $13.2 million as principal

    2) The South Taranaki District Council’s 10-year plan proposes spending $99.1 million on interest over this period but only $43.8 million in actual loan repayments

    3) $66 million is allocated for interest in the Malborough District Council’s 10-year plan with $40 million going to principal repayments. Meanwhile further borrowing is planned amounting to $929.2 million at an estimated interest rate of 7%.

    The DSC is concerned that the Bill makes no mention of the financial institutions which own council debt. Wanganui District Council, for instance, borrows largely from the Westpac, BNZ and ANZ banks at interest rates varying between 6% and 9%. This means the council infrastructures are already partially privatised. Hence the WDC allocating $4.2 million as debt-servicing for water services alone for the next financial year. […]

    The NZDSC go on to stress that local government bodies could borrow from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) at zero or low interest rates as stated in the Public Finance Act (1989) – reprinted with ammendments in 2005 instead of borrowing from private Australian banks such as ANZ at 6% – 9% interest.

    The Public Finance Act (1989) clearly states that all government borrowing (on it’s own or others’ behalf) can be negotiated with any source – such as the RBNZ – within or outside New Zealand by ministerial direction and on any terms thought fit if in the national interest.

    Borrowing from the RBNZ would allow local government bodies to completely repay their debts to private foreign banks thus negating the requirement to redirect local body government funds away from important and necessary infrastructure – such as water or rubbish – to servicing the interest on debts – such as Taranaki District Council’s redirection of $99.1 million dollars. The money borrowed from the RBNZ to pay off local body government debts would still need to be paid back to the RBNZ. However, borrowing from the RBNZ allows local body governments to service the principal only – without needing to raise capital to service the interest on the debt (as the RBNZ would provide zero interest loans) and without the fear that the interest rates could be raised at the discretion of the foreign private bank – interest rates of 7% today could just as easily be 25% next year (c.f. 1970’s oil and interest rate shocks).

    The NZDSC recognise that local government body borrowing from private foreign banks represents a significant impediment to the development of local infrastructure and local communities. Consequently it is in the interest of all New Zealanders to ensure that their local body government candidates and representatives are aware of the capacity of borrowing at zero interest from the RBNZ. It doesn’t matter if your candidate is Independent, Labour, National, Act etc… as long as they are made aware of and acknowledge the importance of this topic.

    He mihi nui tenei ki a koutou.
    nzfp

    • Lanthanide 3.1
      14 September 2010 at 1:11 pm

      How anyone can see this situation as anything other than a ponzi scheme is totally beyond me. The future of the economy is looking worse, with peak oil and climate change on the horizon, let alone any other financial issues that crop up (Europe/US sovereign debt). The bizarre idea that we will somehow be able to pay these loans off in the future, when we can’t pay for them now, really makes me wonder what the financial markets are smoking.

      • nzfp 3.1.1
        14 September 2010 at 4:28 pm

        I’m glad you see the obvious L. Remember that if the councils take out a loan from the RBNZ, they do not have to pay interest and the term of the loan could be anything 2000 years if we choose – afterall it is our bank 😉

        Now just tell the council member in your area about this and get them to do something about it!

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