Announce protest actions, general chit chat or give your opinion on issues we haven’t covered for the day.
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EDITORS NOTE: – By the way, here’s a list of shit that will get your comment dumped. Sexist language, homophobic language, racist language, anti-muslim hate, transphobic language, Chemtrails, 9/11 truthers, climate deniers, anti-fluoride fanatics, anti-vaxxer lunatics and ANYONE that links to fucking infowar.
Our Ambulance Service should be 100% fully funded by the govt. Thousands have already signed a petition to this effect: Fully Fund Ambulance Service Petition
St John is staring at a post-lockdown financial hole and is restructuring to cut $30million in costs.
Totally agree Kheala. Particularly after neolib reducing sites for various services which mean that patients need to travel further, particularly those in rural areas. Thought – if Federated Farmers really cared about farmers wellbeing they wouldn’t allow rural area services to be so diminished. Can it be that they only care about profit and easy living of mega farmers?!
Q Where do people’s council rates increasingly go to, in NZ which is putting people into poverty and contributes to higher rental prices in NZ?
A. Lawyers and neoliberals in the councils, trying to stop transparency of public money for their white elephant construction projects!
Wellington mayor uses lawyers in attempt to hush councillors, then the media
https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/122182198/wellington-mayor-uses-lawyers-in-attempt-to-hush-councillors-then-the-media
Phil’s Goff’s million dollar report about the proposed white elephant stadium, redacted from their own elected councillors!
MUST READ: I’ve read the PWC Stadium report and it didn’t take me very long because so many words were redacted from the version I got!
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2018/05/22/must-read-ive-read-the-pwc-stadium-report-and-it-didnt-take-me-very-long-because-so-many-words-were-redacted-from-the-version-i-got/
Bankrupting Kaipara council ratepayers… nobody in council held to account! The ratepayers pick up the tab!
“The protected transaction laws in the Local Government Act, passed by a Labour government in 2002, make debts incurred by councils enforceable, even if councils act outside the law in borrowing, even if the lender knew, or ought to have known, the law was being broken.
Many Mangawhai residents can quote the law to you verbatim because their council improperly incurred debts of $58 million to fund a wastewater scheme. That has led to rates hikes, with some rates bills rising from $1200 to over $6000. That has led to mass civil disobedience with usually law-abiding people refusing to pay.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/9272501/Spotlight-falls-on-no-risk-loan-law
Auckland Council rates crackdown: Man faces losing Howick home over $14k debt
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12349408
How much saving are the councils making on their executive salaries and any redundancies there like everywhere else????
https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/121216639/cashstrapped-lobbyists-spend-12000-publishing-council-rich-list
Bet the lawyers have been called in to quash more public accountability from the rich list council executive teams that seem to be more fat cat than effective, judging by the poor standards and stewardship of Water care, Auckland transport, ATEED and Panuku.
When viewing Councils we need to think about them being encouraged by neolib to stop behaving like Councils and doing stuff themselves and being more like businesses, and being forced to get businesses to do things for them and make choices on the lowest tender which is supposed to be more efficient always. And also to spend a lot of money in planning and reports from professionals and support big business, so allowing overseas entities to dominate our small country and suck money out of our national economy.
Also the granting of ‘General Competence’ so that local government can take on just about anything they can convince themselves they should. Here is a bit about it. As I understand it, there was a limit on the amount spent on anything Councils may envisage, requiring a special Bill for something large, which might have been a burden but was wise to prevent local cliques with expansive ideas.
…the new Local Government Act [2002]. The Government’s discussion document “Review of the Local Government Act: Consultation Document” had this to say about the power of general competence:
“The Government considers that the present Local Government Act [1974] is too prescriptive in nature, and that local councils should have broader powers in order to work more flexibly and to be more responsive to the needs of their particular communities. It is therefore proposed that local authorities be granted a power of general competence.”As proposed, a local authority was to have full capacity to carry on or undertake any business or activity, do any act or enter into any transaction, and for those purposes to have full rights, powers and privileges, but subject to the Act itself, any other enactment and the general law. http://www.mdl.co.nz/site/mckinley/files/resources/Adapting_to_new_powers_general_competence2003.pdf
Disagreement about general competence for councils in 2001.
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0111/S00150/general-competence-has-arrived-in-auckland.htm
There is an overview and further thoughts by Christine Rose (who writes on this blog) in her document –
https://briefingpapers.co.nz/to-enshrine-and-define-local-government/
Trump plan to steal the November election: Unleash the Secret Police Across US Cities
Our foreign students who may be stuck here due to the Covid, why don’t they try and billet some of them.
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