Wayne Brown sold his mayoralty on being ‘Mr fixit’ and it’s turning out that by ‘Mr Fixit’ he means privatising everything not nailed down.
I personally find this all very hilarious.
A corrupted and underfunded electoral system that saw only 8 booths in the last week of voting for a city of 1.3million and the Boomer candidate wins pretending to fix shit when it was always a privatisation agenda.
I told you that the Boomer King would take power, release a press release warning of terrible financial meltdown, that would be followed by a terrifying report suggesting double digit rate rises and the Boomer Kings response would be to privatise.
EVERY. SINGLE. THING. I. SAID. WOULD. HAPPEN. IN. THE. ABOVE. PARAGRAPH. HAS. HAPPENED.
The predictability of how easy it is to manipulate you fucking Morans brings joy to my cynical black heart.
So now the Boomer King has focused on selling off our Airport Shares to fill the economic hole, but why the Christ are we selling an asset as important as the Airport Shares when we have so many fucking golf courses we could sell instead?
Brown’s plan has been criticised by prominent economist and financial journalist Bernard Hickey, who said selling the city’s golf courses could make close to $3 billion, and save more than $160 million a year. Selling the airport stake would see the city lose out on dividends when travel gets back to pre-Covid levels, Hickey said.
Why is it that the fucking Golf Courses must be spared?
Why must the favourite game of the Boomers be saved by their Boomer King?
I’ve never understood how a rich elitist sport manages to take so much real estate while so many are homeless.
I’ve been banging on about intergenerational theft between Boomers and Gen X since student loans were brought in. It pleases me no end that the topic is finally getting attention.
I don’t have any beef with Boomers. They fought the SpringBok Tour, they fought Vietnam, they fought at Bastion Point, they fought Nuclear Weapons, they fought for the environment.
I salute their ability to create positive political change.
What I do demand however is that every other generation gets the cradle to grave universalism of social services that set the Boomers up so well.
Free Education, state housing, free public transport, real student allowances, free lunches at school, free health care, free child dental, free legal aid and a public broadcaster available to all that is focused on explaining rather than rating. These universal services are what are needed to help plant the seed of democracy so that all can share in the bounty of that civil society.
Yes it will cost more, but that’s the cost of democracy and it’s a price we must pay.
But that is some way off if ever thanks to the political mismanagement of Labour’s Professional Managerial Class who have done good by the rigged casino of property ownership and want to focus on cancelling people for misusing pronouns and incorrect te Reo pronunciation rather than food in bellies, roofs over heads, safe pubic health and empowering public education.
Right now, Gen Xers and Gen Y who’ve never connected to an idealogical compass are coming to terms with the reality of right wing mythology in their own lives.
This reality demands action because we have the numbers to democratically impact on the system and force concessions from those with a vested interest in the current property speculation at next years election.
Welcome to a hegemonic structure of power you can’t ever beat if you don’t fight it.
Meanwhile, public transport users are about to be fucked (while Boomers retain their precious free bus passes of course!)
Fare rise double whammy could hit Auckland public transport users
Aucklanders using the troubled public transport network could soon be hit with a fare double whammy, with the council proposing a 6.5% fare rise alongside the likely end of the Government’s half-price fare scheme.
The latest bad news is contained in the fine detail of the budget to be proposed next week by the mayor Wayne Brown. It comes on top of unprecedented cuts to bus and future rail services.
We have allowed on the Left the wank virtue signals of the middle class woke to eclipse true messages of class solidarity for whatever hobby horse 4th wave feminists, nationalist Māori and non-binary gender activists have hijacked us into and it’s alienating.
People’s real hurt is economic.
Bryce Edwards rammed home this point this week in his must read column on political polarisation and social cohesion…
It is the unequal distribution of wealth that most New Zealanders believe is at the heart of this decline. According to the Herald’s survey, 74 per cent believe that wealth inequality is pushing us apart. In addition, when asked if “Our distribution of wealth is fair and good for the country”, 46 per cent disagreed and only 24 per cent agreed.
The second most significant factor in declining social cohesion is housing inequality. According to the poll, 70 per cent believe that access to housing is a cause of the growing division. And when asked if “Our access to housing is fair and good for the country”, 60 per cent disagreed, and only 21 per cent agreed.
There is a tendency to view a lot of New Zealand’s current social cohesion challenges as being primarily due to conspiracy theories and opposition to vaccines. This is certainly the argument being put forward strongly by academics from The Disinformation Project. In responding to the Herald survey, Kate Hannah and Sanjana Hattotuwa have emphasised the problem of misinformation and disinformation as being at the heart of the problem.
However, the survey results and related evidence shows that the problem of increasing social divisions and declining social cohesion is more closely related to the very real material struggles the public are facing in their day-to-day lives. Academic focus on global conspiracies, social media, the internet, and public ignorance can distract from understanding and addressing material inequality.
…which is what TDB has been saying all year. The woke activists has spent too much energy on alienating virtue signalling and not enough about the material well being of people.
Woke Dogma Activism on Twitter sees everyone less mentally ill than them as privileged and everyone more mentally ill than them as toxic – not much of a Broadchurch recruitment attraction to that tiny woke kingdom.
Despite the best virtue signalling intentions of the middle class woke, poor people are not sitting around the kitchen table cancelling people for misusing pronouns, hate speech or mispronouncing te reo, they are freaking out about the economy…
Poll: Economic pessimism soars to 10-year high
Kiwis are feeling more pessimistic about the economy’s immediate future than at any other point in the last decade, today’s 1News Kantar Public Poll shows.
Respondents were asked: “Do you think during the next 12 months the economy will be in a better state than at present, or in a worse state?”
Of those polled, 18% responded ‘better’, 21% responded ‘same’ and 61% responded ‘worse’.
The $51billion Labour used to juice the economy and inoculate us from the worst of the pandemic inadvertently transferred a trillion dollars in wealth value to the richest Kiwis and according to the Reserve Bank Governor the price to pay for that inflationary pressure is the slashing of 115 000 jobs.
Why should the poorest pay most for inflationary pressures that enriched the wealthy?
Meanwhile Middle Class Left Activists waste energy frighting culture wars the Left can’t win.
This is one of the reasons the Left are losing political support, we are focusing on esoteric issues like land rights for gay whales and not the material well being of voters.
That’s why when candidates like Wayne Brown can promise to fix the problems the Left aren’t, he can manipulate that frustration and implement agendas that have no intention of doing anything other than manipulate that frustration.
Auckland City is dying and the Left are too busy cancelling each other and the Right are exploiting the anger of our Maoist sectarianism.
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.
If you can’t contribute but want to help, please always feel free to share our blogs on social media
Walking cadaver ‘Browny’ took advantage of a perfect political storm–pathetically low voter turnout, degraded mail infrastructure, transient non enrolled renters, lack of interest in Wayne’s bent past in the Far North and at Auckland DHB, and above all, strategic withdrawal of right wing candidates Molloy and Beck.
Imagine if Efeso Collins had won and refused to talk to the media for 3 weeks! Will the new Council have the balls (figuratively) and the numbers to tell the Mayor to sod off? I doubt it–his style is to pick them off one by one, Steinie in hand. His Natzo deputy, Wife Beater Wednesday Goodfellow’s current missus Desley, was a bit of a tip off eh as to where this swine is coming from–doh–he is a developer, a profiteer, a contractor out, an asset seller (he sold off Council run pensioner flats on the Mangonui waterfront on land donated by the local RSA–it really ground his gears seeing superannuitants enjoying Harbourside apartment living at cheap rents!)
You were played Auckland–enjoy!!
I just hope the firesale goes well and everything that isn’t bolted down gets sold off.
Maybe then sleepy Aucklanders will finally realise how stupid they are and learn about neoliberalism. It doesn’t make any difference what political tribe you belong to. They are both the same.
With a bit of luck, double digit rates bills won’t kick in till about 2024/2025 when NZ will hit the wall in its own Financial Crisis and Crash!
Funny, lil ole NZ could be the tipping point for the Global Financial Crash! Wouldn’t that be something?!
Those 800ish golf club members at the Remuera GC get their membership fees paid for them for the next 90 years in a 100 year contract at $12k a head. I wonder why?
The 13 GCs make an annual $160m loss too.
Maybe they should build some massive 80 story high apartment building on parts of these GCs so people can watch peeps smack the shit out of a little white ball all day.
It make you think about how redundant all this whenua really is as GCs.
Maybe they should give the land back to the iwi it was stolen from?
Golf courses could be better utilised, and more should be available to general public. I am all for making some golf courses the new Hagley Parks, or forests that become carbon sinks. As population of Auckland increases, and more and more infill housing takes over the suburbs, more and more shared green places will be required for peoples mental and physical health. This will also help and support the bird life, as well as the native flora and fauna.
Plenty of “boomers” (I’m either the last of them, or the first gen x) have had the rug pulled out from under them. Fuck, I was restructured about 6 times during the’80’s when I was in my 20’s. Financially starting again from scratch each time. And because of my age no redundancy payouts, they were the preserve of senior management.
Selling assets is not a generational thing, its an ideology belonging to a preindustrial age of the aristocracy and merchants.
Anyway you start suggesting that golf courses be sold, then you open up for all parks and sports grounds to be sold. The wealthy can always band together and have private country clubs compete with golf courses, swimming pools and play grounds.
My wealthy Asian neighbour is wondering why his rates and taxes pay for public facilities like parks, swimming pools, hospitals, schools etc…
There’s nothing Left-wing about neoliberals, Martyn. They arguably aren’t even human.
“Why won’t the Boomer King sell Golf Courses to fund Auckland Council deficit?”
The answer is in your question!
Precisely because he’s a grumpy old Boomer King, emboldened by an electorate that’s disengaged, and a bromancer called Maurice whose record stands for itself and who is partial to a bit of arse licking when it suits His agenda.
Wait till the natives really start getting restless.
I hope I’m still around to watch
Isn’t Hoots in there somewhere?
I’m not sure that political division and lack of social cohesion are anything new but modern forms of social interaction – social media – have made these divisions more visible and the same time extremely trivial.
You mention the 81 tour protests – that divided the country more than anything I’ve experienced since. It was real and physical – it included smashed skulls and broken bones and unprecedent use of police violence.
When I look at the polling and the discontent with the current government today I struggle to understand where it’s come from because it’s not the poor and disenfranchised that are expressing discontent. It is the property owning, working and middle classes whining like spoilt brats who don’t really have anything to complain about but feel compelled to do it anyway. Low unemployment, rising wages, 30% property value increase nation wide, robust handling of COVID, low levels of government debt, low inflation (relative to others) etc.
And yet you would think the country is on it’s knee’s and undergoing catastrophic economic collapse – it doesn’t add up and it doesn’t match the real world.
Well put Peter.
very well put
I’m comes from a corrupt agenda by our right wing media. Continual negative stories which are nothing stories occasionally break through the simple minded.
Well written blog which made me think of a second about why this Labour government has to go..You make some good points in their favour but then you did not mention the growing debate over 3 Waters the broadcasting reform the removal of the child commissioner the immegration mess the poly tech amalgamation the out of control crime problem the drive for co government in an under handed way the handling of pay and conditions for teachers medical staff prisons etc a refusal to move on tax indexation lack of state house building. just to name a few.
I am sure National will not fix many of these issues but they deserve a chance as this current government sure as hell have not done much for me to vote them back into office
Not to mention the poor spelling and punctuation.
Yes Rodel, I’d give Trevor a C- for punctuation. I’d also add that Trevor is factually incorrect. Lots of innuendo like, “out of control crime”, the evidence does not support this right-wing media driven thinking. Teachers have settled, medical staff have settled (nurses still negotiating) firefighters have just received a record 24 % increase. There has been the biggest pay and conditions increases in our political history.
Yes, 3 waters has been a dog in its infancy, however, is being worked back on.
Co government is language used by the right wing to drive fear, yet people forget National took the Maori Party in as a Coalition partner so nothing new there.
Tax indexation is driven by right wing parties to drop the top tax rate for business, yet they can’t tell us how they will recoup the lost revenue (although most know it will come from middle- and low-income workers and a freeze on wage increases.
Lastly state housing IS being built, it’s only lacking if you believe the rhetoric from the National propaganda machine.
Good comments Peter. Aotearoa has the lowest inflation in world, record low unemployment, record export receipts, Tourism and Hospitality experience record activity, successful businesses profitable – and the looney Natz dirty politics followers say our economy has tanked.
You vote for a wanker you get a wanker with wanky policies
Yes the Labour Government.
In depth analysis.
Out of depth I’d say Bert.
Tes Rodel, I stand corrected.
Why is he choosing to sell Airport shares instead of Golf courses? That will have to do with who’s buying because that would have been decided long before Browns election to the Mayoralty by those backing his campaign. Brown is not selling Airport shares to help out Auckland council – he’s selling shares, as agreed, to overseas and local investment entities that resent missing out on dividend streams that go to public institutions like Auckland council.
My prediction is that most of the valuable assets with high growth expectations and good returns will be put up for sale under Brown – as much as he is able to get away with. What’s more it is the perfect time – with a predicted recession and the stated noble intention of “keeping rates low” – these assets will need to be sold fast and below value – surprise, surprise! To understand why, again, look at who’s buying.
If you were able to uncover the opaque relationships between Brown, Hooton and the wider business sector, local and international, you would be able to predict those entities likely to scoop up Auckland council assets fairly easily. This is a simple example of what is known as ‘asset stripping’ in the corporate world.
It is also an example of what NZ has coming if it elects NActional at the next election.
Did I hear that right? You’re in favour of selling council assets when it comes to golf courses?
I’m told the council spends 120million per year maintaining them. If it was up to me, I’d revert them all back to parks, plant them with native bush and save a 100million in the maintenance bill. But then I don’t play golf.
I would have agreed with you before my friend who is in the travel industry told me how much golf tourism bring in over the year .I do not live in Auckland so cannot comment if there are too many but as with most thinks there is often unintended concequences . I live in Chch and I know the council here is starting to see what can be sold
Golf tourism goes to private clubs like Millbrook, planeloads of golfers aren’t flying to NZ to play eighteen holes at Mt Albert.
Again factual statements dispel nonsense over golf bringing in millions to Auckland.
Trevor’s travel agent friend made a general statement.
74 % believe wealth inequality is dividing the country ? Well I’ll be darned. How many of that 74 % will vote for National -Act to worsen that inequality. Neo liberal policies and the parties that adhere to them and help enforce those policies are the real reason the country is divided.
How long until the Government remove the Council and install a Commissioner?
That will happen after Brown has stripped AK bare of any assets, and the new Mayor has gone hand in cap to the government for a loan.
Surprise surprise https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/local-government/130706330/new-zealands-richest-man-graeme-hart-big-backer-of-wayne-browns-election