You can see why Phil used blue on his posters, his immediate kneecapping of progressives Penny Hulse and Mike Lee looks like he’s settling in for 3 terms by taking out any threat from the Left now.
The decision that is most dubious however is dumping Mike Lee from oversight over bloody Auckland Transport.
The CCO (Council Controlled Organisations) are not really Council Controlled at all. These powerful interests pay lip service to democracy, snub the Council and do as they bloody well please, removing oversight from a bulldog like Mike Lee is a terribly stupid thing to do unless some private deals in the background have been made.
How corrupt is Auckland Transport…
Auckland’s public transport is underfunded and it needs more, so imagine my jaw dropping surprise when I find out that there are 133 staff at Auckland Transport who are currently paid OVER $100 000 per year and 48 staff who are paid over $150 000 per year.
WHAT???
181 staff paid OVER $100 000? I’m in the wrong game – how the living Christ can Auckland Transport with around 1000 staff have almost 20% paid over $100 000?
…oh and let’s not forget actual corruption as well…
Auckland Transport boss pleads guilty to corruption charges
The Serious Fraud Office says the guilty plea this morning by an Auckland Council manager to corruption charges shows the dangers in not questioning a culture of gratuities.
Barrie Kenneth James George, 69, this morning at the High Court at Auckland pleaded guilty to two charges of accepting bribes as a public official when he took gifts worth $103,580 between 2005 and 2012.
The gifts included cash, and lavish overseas holidays for George and his family.
…so a massive asset of Auckland is stacked with people milking it from above (while the poor bloody bus drivers battle Auckland’s gridlock) and they are actually corrupt as well and we have just lost any oversight over these buggers?
Well not all the oversight. Patrick Reynolds from blue green Millennial blog Transport Blog (the geeky sister of The Spinoff) who savaged Mike Lee and was paid over $40 000 from Auckland Transport has offered to replace Mike Lee as an observer on the Board.
How. Convenient.
The pent up economic frustrations of the blue green millennials has found new friends with the developers of Auckland and they want their Unitary Plan share of it now!
Meanwhile Kiwi’s live in cars and the property bubble expands just enough to keep pushing people out onto the streets.
The battle between the haves and want mores continues.
Yesterday, I sent an open letter (signed by 10 others), to the Mayor, asking him to come to Waiheke Is for a public meeting to explain his decision. As pointed out to Goff, his predecessor came to a public meting to discuss the contentious siting of a house (Wharetana Bay) and as this is a much more serious issue (people are far angrier), he would be failing in his duty if he is too cowardly to come and face the people he has let down. Although Cnr Lee is very popular here, it is not about him (or Cnr Fletcher), it is about the loss of democracy. Waiheakeans voted for Lee in the full expectation he would be a watchdog on the AT board and are not happy at having their votes devalued. Judging by the reaction of people here, its going to be some meeting!
I thought the explanation Goff made sounded reasonable.
By the sounds of it, it is all about Lee.
Also, I’m sure him and/or his brother John have made a tonne of money from the “Urban Design” council projects … Johns a nice guy but I’m sure they’re conveniently clipping the ticket.
One project for a cost $3m in the CBD Freyberg Square, Helen – Melville Hall … Ludo Campbell Reid is always MIA around the world looking for ideas! To turn the CBD into Europe! If you want europe, got to fuck’n europe. Europeans traveling here don’t want to see europe.
Incompetence, corruption, cronyism and trough-feeding are the new normal throughout NZ, not just in Auckland.
There’s no stopping it because the culture that has been established is self-perpetuating and all mechanisms for challenging it have been neutered or eliminated.
This sick culture will therefore continue to proliferate, and then collapse under the weight of its own inefficiency and squandering, in combination with the effects of external factors like global energy depletion, global (and local) environmental degradation and fiat monetary collapse -factors which none of the trough-feeders even acknowledge as being relevant in their so-called planning, of course.
I personally witnessed the emergence and rapid growth of this delusional, sick culture of squandering and rorting when living in Auckland, and left in disgust over a decade ago, only to find it is everywhere, courtesy of both Labour and National governments.
There is nowhere to run, though some do locations provide better daily living conditions than others. In some parts of NZ it is still possible to ride a bicycle across town without severe risk of being run over or choked to death by traffic fumes -the new normal in Auckland.
The culture of squandering energy and resources, trough-feeding and sacrificing the environment for quick profits is now endemic throughout the country. However, where I now live at least the air is a lot more breathable than in Auckland, which has established itself as the toxicity capital of the South Pacific, politically, culturally and environmentally, and is clearly the epitome of unsustainability.
Given time, the ‘lunatics who are running the asylum’ would convert the entire North Island into an extension of Auckland. Fortunately, they do not have the time or resources to do so. As recently pointed out on TDB
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2016/10/26/will-black-friday-haunt-wall-st-in-2016/
a severe crisis is imminent, and every day the crisis does not emerge increases its severity.
And now allow me to whack my little tin drum.
The above should give one an indication of how deeply institutionalised corruption lies within NZ’s blood and bones. The Great New Zealand Institutionalised Lie.
Anyone expecting phil goff to be anything other than a gap toothed crook with a sickening sycophancy for his Over Lords and deep-state, dirty money fiddlers is clearly stupid enough ( Or dodgy enough ) to vote for the fucker.
Thus, here he is and so Ha ! Ha ! ( The Simpsons )
Remember The Goffinator wheedling out that he’d only slept with one woman in 45 , or so , years? I remember thinking at the time “ WTF ? Who cares? “ Only dodgy God botherers us such emotive language to convert the non believers. Clearly, it worked.
I’m absolutely sure, the real reason why the Neo Right want to control Auckland, and using on-going controversy to do so as a destabilising agent, is to try to avert attention away from why Auckland’s there in the first place. Dear old, lovely old, fabulous old Auckland is barely surviving on a false and borrowed economy. What might happen, when sooner rather than later, all that bullshit is polished away by a looming global economic collapse?
I think the answer’s simple. The architects of the chaos to come will just cash up and fuck off with your money. As they have done. Time and again.
100% CB the Government are more interested in satisfying their road transport cartel interests, than making transport decisions more environmentally friendly.
Inn HB/Gisborne same thing as rail is shut and slowed to a snail’s pace while road transport is given the nod by these CCO Government quangos that ignore simple logic and spend big public money on road and now rail so the die is set alight this is a Government/Road industry rort simple as that.
Time to alleviate this issue Martyn so good start here.
“The CCO (Council Controlled Organisations) are not really Council Controlled at all. These powerful interests pay lip service to democracy, snub the Council and do as they bloody well please, removing oversight from a bulldog like Mike Lee is a terribly stupid thing to do unless some private deals in the background have been made.”
Very interesting start for a so-called leftie. Typical.
Question – Is Phil Goff another Hillary Clinton? You know the sort – promise one thing and do the opposite when in power. Glad I don’t live in that sham of a city.
Agree one hundred percent. It is shocking how lobbyists like Patrick Reynolds are looking for crony roles and handouts. There was nothing stopping Patrick Reynolds going for Mayor or a council role if he was so keen on office. But then his rude and unpleasant approach would not really receive many votes from the public!!!
His solution, piggyback off a once popular left blog to gain power from the inside and enrich himself further. Who benefits from the unitary plan, rich people in Ponsonby. Who’s going to benefit from a congestion charge the most, rich people in Ponsonby who don’t pay them.
Lets see some people from the real world that are commuters on real wages and accountable for their decisions to the public, not just go off to their bach in the weekends and complain about the traffic, on the AT board.
Christine Rose might be a good candidate – she lives out West (I think) and actually has a brain some of the housing affordability issues. Whether she could survive the bullying culture is another thing.
Mike Lee should be back at AT. He has been in politics, knows public transport and actually does not seem as susceptible to group think as the others.
Get rid of Restock might help the incompetent crony culture at AT.
Goff should try to do the decent thing and not go back in time to the 1980’s and appoint ideology over decency.
Wow, I thought it must have been a high paying job, these are the idiots that put drivers through two sets of traffic lights to do a left hand turn. And created the jam were the south western joins the southern motorway.
And I bet those earning over a hundred thousand a year, at AT, they will NOT be catching the buses or trains, well, perhaps a few, but not in their majority, I think.
Mike Lee appears to be paying the price for supporting a rail future for Auckland.
On Reynolds. He doesn’t look developer friendly or the type which Farrar would throw his support behind, but then looks can be deceiving.
What a bunch of mutterers. It’s not good Mike Lee has been removed from AT Board but the please read the multi contributor Transport Blog – evidence based commentary on how to improve our PT and transport network for many years, before making vacuous comments – you too MB. I expect better from this blog than mimicking the soft right media.
I’m just a punter. Born at Waitakere Hospital on Lincoln Road in 1969. I’m an Aucklander.
The future I see includes a robust and permanent rail link to the airport which is the only link to the country from the outside world.
The Transport blog people are into buses. Buses, FFS!
Ain’t that the truth. Well said Muttonbird.
I cannot believe that Goff would have listened to the ravers on Transport blog. I used to read it a lot but found increasing influence and “I know it all, you know nothing” attitude of Patrick Reynolds quite a put off.
Then you have that stuttering fool Matt Lowrie who was ripped a part on radio NZ by Kathryn Ryan a few months ago for supporting Akl Transport and their decision for light rail trams to the airport instead of faster trains. Now we know why Lowrie supports light rail… he’s on the AT money train with his mate Patrick.
Where’s that nasty blue-Green Julie Ann Genter in all this? She’s been working with Reynolds, Lowrie and Goff over the past year. I bet she’s stepped away from them as their ship of credibility sinks.
I notice Goff has remained silent while the media (main stream and non MSM) have been serving transportblog and Reynolds justice for thinking they could get away with their secret agenda. Egg all over Goffs face. Oh god, I voted for him too : (
About time consumers and passengers got AT board representation and Mr Reynolds is one of the best qualified. The blog post forgot to mention it is an unpaid seat – unlike the nice sinecure Lee and Fletcher enjoyed during their 6 year stint.
Don’t worry about renumeration there Hans, because you don’t need an income just influence the unitary plan and make other’s pay congestion charges while you watch your inner city plot escalate in value with walk ways and cycle lanes and increased density which means the land is worth more.
Lobby to charge those further out in Auckland a congestion charge like the Ponsonby types want, then they put the cost on lower waged earners in places like Warkworth that have little public transport. The Ponsonby types can the watch inner city property escalate even further!!
I noticed the council had plenty of money to dig up all the kerbs in the wealthy areas and then replace them with nicer paving. Nice to see the priorities are in order, when shortly after they are talking about laying off library staff and we all have to mow our own berms to save money.
Nice One for the rich in the central suburbs! And do you really think developers will develop in the outer parts of Auckland under the unitary plan, when whoever lives there might have to pay up to or even over $100 in commuter charges to AT? That’s like 100% increase and more in their rates.
Also notice that one of the most popular places for migrants to settle is in places like North Shore and CBD and Eastern Suburbs… all places that are getting more transport and amenity while those forced further out by the escalating property prices are forced to commute. Nothing ever said about that in the media or these small but extremely rabid lobbyists. The main factor of introduced congestion i.e. more people driving up those inner city areas plus the North Shore, is not even mentioned as a factor! Nothing about reducing demand but a lot about increasing the supply.
So Phil Goff is the neo-liberal wanker anarchist all warned you about. Who would have guessed…
And now this.
Silly question?
Why do people who supposedly support the left, keep falling for these wolf in sheep clothing?
I mean Goff has a track record of supporting neo-liberalism.
This is the problem with being forced to support the lesser evil – It’s still evil!
phil goff indeed. why do you think he won? vic crone? really.
phil has always been blue.
even when he was scraping oil off the beach in his shiny shoes…
CCO are a device to remove democracy and accountability from local rate payer funded service management.
A device to bring in quasi privatisation with an independence that allows running down of infrastructure as well as management of debt so eventually Councils have little option but to allow private or partly private ownership.
The Govt has legislated to prevent turning the system around and councils taking infrastructure back to in house management and control.
Neo liberal moles tunnel into our democracy to suck out accumulated public assets and income stream.
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