When National were annexing Auckland into the Super City they didn’t listen to local concerns at all. They rammed through the changes under urgency despite all the howling and gnashing of teeth from locals that this unwieldily forced union eroded local democracy and oversight on the many assets Auckland has paid for.
John Key didn’t give a damn about listening o local Aucklanders when he was pushing through amalgamation.
Rodney Hide didn’t give a damn about local Aucklanders concerns as he stacked the ridiculously named ‘Council Controlled Organizations’ with private interests.
And the Government didn’t give one sweet hoots worth of concern for the views of local Aucklanders when they rammed it through under urgency.
Hasn’t the tune suddenly changed?
Now the Super City is saying things National don’t want to hear, John Key and Nick Smith are all of a sudden desperately concerned that locals have a say.
How do they get away with this?
When they thought their boy John Banks was the Mayor they couldn’t ram the Super City through fast enough regardless of what the locals wanted. Now the Super City is trying to intensify residential development, Smith & Key are transformed into grassroots democracy activists.
It’s like the wolf from Little Red Riding Hood wanting to be president of the neighborhood watch.
National seems to want Southern Hamilton to be the start of Auckland City. Their mad sprawl won’t intensify population bases to make investment in infrastructure a better decision and the daily commute to work will start doubling.
Rather than short sighted planning that is far from sustainable, how about real social and infrastructure investment?
National know they are terribly vulnerable to the affordable housing issue. Their free market dogma has created a perfect storm. With zero limits on anyone from a foreign country to purchase our residential property coupled with tax laws bent on property speculation coupled with Banks flooded with cheap money coupled with with the first and second generation of user pays being too indebted to own their own home, National need a windmill distraction to chase and greenfield sprawl is that windmill.
Watching them exacerbate the housing crisis WHILE attempting to dismantle the very Super City they built because their candidate didn’t win would be tedious if it weren’t so contemptuous.
National hate Auckland and we are paying for that hatred.
They hate it because they didn’t get their man who they could have got to do anything they wanted. The rest of the country hate it because they get tired of hearing about the cities transport woes and because so many Dorklanders have never been to the beautiful South Island.
It’s not so much that they hate Auckland so as as the fact that they hate the fact that they didn’t get to sell all those lovely assets to the rich mates.
It’s not just an Auckland problem. Sue Kedgley wrote an interesting column in the Herald yesterday regarding increased central government meddling in local government. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10873569
Under new proposals released by Environment Minister Amy Adams, ministers will be able to direct what councils can put in their district plans, and amend them if they don’t like what is in them. They will also be able to intervene directly in council consent hearing processes.
If the Government thinks the “benefits of dealing with an issue nationally outweigh the benefits of local decision-making”, it will be able to “call in” a consent, and get it heard by a board of inquiry, whose members will be hand-picked by government.
There are other proposals that will change the way councils operate. For example, the Government will be able to limit the scope of public participation in consent submissions and appeals.
[…]
It is a widely accepted constitutional convention that councils operate in a largely autonomous way, independent of central government, and can choose what activities they want to pursue, in consultation with their own communities.
But the Government’s reforms are eroding the autonomy of local government. With its new powers, the Government can override local councils and implement its own agenda, even if it is contrary to what a local community wants, and this is happening in Auckland on a regular basis.
From National’s website: http://www.national.org.nz/About/welcome.aspx
National stands for freedom, choice, independence and ambition. We believe in less government not more red tape. We stand for personal freedom and responsibility.
So much for freedom, choice, independence and ambition. Suppose National is upholding their pledge of less government; why so many local governments when one can dictate an agenda for all, make sure optimal profits can be made without some pesky democracy getting in the way.
This lot just gets more authoritarian by the day.
Since there was a water crisis of sorts many places around the country due to the drought this summer, I personally believe there’s a water privatization agenda in progress not to address the problems of many water supplies but a profit motive.
Amended it so that it would be more accurate. National don’t the, in the words of Don Brash as leader of the National Party, punters out in punterland having a say in their lives as it interferes with the rich taken as much as they can from them.
There’s a question that needs to be asked of everyone:
Should others have the right to affect you without your say so?
It’s an interesting question, every one will say no – even National supporters – and yet National are putting in place policies that allow others to affect everyone else without those peoples say so. National are, quite simply, removing everybody’s rights to self governance and that means that we have become a dictatorship.
Oh, and it also removes everybody’s right to own land, requires more regulation and more government to administer those regulations.
“Oh, and it also removes everybody’s right to own land, ”
In my lifetime there has never been genuine land ownership in NZ. If that was the case, there would be no rates. You can’t simply buy a section of land in the middle of nowhere (i.e. no road, water, sewerage, power etc), put a house on it, and live 100% off your land. Rates make that utterly impossible. You effectively are LEASING the land from the council. If you don’t pay your rates, you will be FORCIBLY removed from what you THINK is YOUR property. It isn’t. It never was.
Yep but the illusion of land ownership that is portrayed throughout our society propagates the idea that people should be allowed to do anything they want with it. You see this from National and Act and their cries about property rights. The problem with that idea though is that land cannot be removed from the commons as our farm polluted waterways prove.
The easy solution is to change the law from land ownership to outright an outright lease. You still get to do the same things with it as you do now but you no longer get to demand to be able to do whatever you want. And it’s easier for the government to put regulations in place to protect the waterways and other environmental concerns.
It goes beyond that even. If you find, say, gold or oil on your land, you are NOT allowed to reap the benefits. You effectively have a “contract” with the real owner (i.e. the Governemnt) that you will use the land you supposed “own” only for a SPECIFIC purpose. e.g. “Farm land” is not “mining land”. If you find gold or oil (or whatever) on what you THINK is YOUR property, you will soon discover that it isn’t.
Look I’m an Auckland import and I love this fair city. I get we have transport problems. I get, many outside Auckland don’t like the city at all – and don’t care if things go wrong in Auckland. But if I or anyone else for that matter did the same rubbish and spin the same lies about Nelson – Nick ideological lick-spittle Smith would be jumping up and down like a mad thing. I am sick of the ideologues breaking the country – And most of all I’m sick of these same worshippers of the idol free-market – bitching and moaning and lying just to get a few more dollars in their pockets.
Two words: sour grapes. Brown vs Smith isn’t quite Livingstone vs Thatcher, but it might just be going down that path.
And Nick Smith’s resistance to Auckland building taller also illustrates the hypocrisy of the anti-RMA brigade – they’ll invoke it when it suits them, but all other times they won’t hesitate to take a leaf out of the Vogons’ book.
It’s also worth noting that the Govt is now offside with all 3 of the biggest metro centres at once.
Why on earth do they have a problem with increased intensification? Every other country in the world would see it as a no brainer.
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