Boomer King be going Cray, and I’m all here for it.
After Comrade Mike Lee slaughtered the bullshit justification the Boomer King has established to privatise the Airport…
It is my personal belief the present council finance ‘deficit’ crisis has been hyped to force the sale of airport shares. Though however one views the current crisis it is fair to say there are systemic spending problems within Auckland Council and its CCOs which have been evident for years. However you look at it the ‘deficit’ and how we got into this situation is deeply troubling. If the council’s recent civil defence/ emergency management response required an independent inquiry surely an independent inquiry into Auckland Council finances is well overdue. Relying on the same advice that got us into this situation to get us out of it, is not a sensible option.
…the Boomer King has hit back by threatening to burn the Arts with far greater cuts than he had agreed to if Councillors don’t vote to privatise the Airport…
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has lashed out at “Labour MPs in waiting” for not supporting the privatisation of the council’s shares in Auckland Airport on the eve of his final budget proposal.
In an exclusive interview with the Herald, Brown threatened left-wing councillors with reinstating deep cuts to arts and social services if they don’t get behind off-loading the shares when his first budget goes to the vote next week.
Last week the Herald revealed that Brown believes he has only nine votes to sell the shares with 12 votes against, although a handful of councillors are wavering on both sides.
…the level of Arsehole the Boomer King is now ascending to is so insane, and I’m all here for it!
Watching the Boomer King’s supporters scrambling to justify his tactics and privatisation agenda is a thing of beauty to behold.
Threatening to metaphorically burn the libraries so he can privatise the airport is old school rat fucker tactics, the likes of which we just haven’t seen for such a long time in local politics!
He is a malignant joy to watch our city crash and burn to.
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In my last few comments on other blogs I argued how NZDF is crucial to the Government’s ability to maintain its sovereignty and wage war and without an industrial base of our own the government couldn’t sustain any type of meaningful and sustainable action and expect to emerge with its reputation intake.
But in order for corporates and businesses or for any business idea to emerge in the fisical ealm you first need capital aka money. Equally important to ones accumulation of capital is ones ability to borrow even more capital. Capitalisms greatest strength is it’s ability to move capital around so to create new businesses or strengthen the ones we’ve already got.
That’s why having rich natural resources isn’t the only important thing to have. We also want to be in good standing both politically and economically with global institutions like the IMF. This way we can borrow money for certain projects or upgrade certain strategic assets and industries to greatly inhance the ability of poorer people to participate in the economy.
This comment isn’t an argument against privatisation and deregulation. I know it may seem like neoliberaliam is an evil offshoot of capitalism and that is very far from my intention. I believe that capitalism is the most efficient and natural economic system available to the human race and it pushes us to our best and to be our worst.
The story of the boomer king isn’t a condemnation of capitalism he’s really a warning when a system like capitalism has no checks and balances to protect us from malicious Actors.
Capitalism doesn’t just not protect, it encourages bad actors. It’s right in the name: capitalise on opportunities.
Yeah of course. If you challenge a bunch of poor people to a game of tag with no referee, winner gets $10,000 they’re going to cheap to win 100%. Making the stakes larger with little to no regular gaurentes cheating to a greater extent. Saying that it’s capitalism doing all the cheating and badness is cope-ium.
But why does someone have a grossly disproportionate amount of wealth to fund this tug of war blood sport in the first place?
Time to capitalise on the shares.
Once Auckland no longer owns shares in the airport they can influence the operation of the airport through untainted glasses.
Sell the shares.
And no bail outs. Just let the strategic asset explode and nationalise the fucker. Bailing out a bunch of cheats is so unimaginative.
Providing a service is a different goal altogether from the persuit of finacialization, privitization and deregulation. If someone’s hording all the wealth it’s because the education system didn’t show the masses what that one guys knows about the real world that everyone else doesn’t know.
also a big army is good for suppressing internal desent…which is the administrative classes aim…PR fails break out the bayonets
Instead of selling the airport shares, or closing down libraries, wouldn’t it be better if the Ratepayers of Auckland grew up, accepted they were adults, and willingly paid for the city they lived in and the services it provides?
Isn’t is supposed to be consumer pays? Almost all Kiwi households are living week to week. Something ain’t right with your calculations my G. Someones been fucking the tax system and by extension, everyone else in the arse and not bothered to offer a reach around.
Not the cost of living in Auckland that is the problem. It is the rapacious appetite of the council that is the problem. We get fewer services (council parks only get mowed once a month now) but the overheads to provide those services increases. Somewhere we need to lean the council down and provide more with less. A headcount and management staff reduction would be a good starting place.
We have a huge increase in infill housing. Hoorah; you say to house the needy. But the council would rather increase head count then provide community services to improve living standards.
For example we have a 42 house development happening on an acre and half of land nearby. This development is down a single driveway on a particular tight bend in the road. Instead of turning this into a reserve the council is allowing development on marsh land to the detriment of people living nearby. So sure council revenue will increase by 42 houses to rate, but the community is worse off with a single access housing estate. So come rubbish day, with the council mandated 3 rubbish bins, the locals will have 126 bins on the kerbside stretching from the single right of way a hundred or so metres either side of the driveway. That is if the rubbish truck can reach over the kerbside parked cars as the estate will have very limited parking. And will the bus service improve from 2 busses per day to even 1 per hour? No. Will the council allocate space for a local shopping complex? No. Will the council build and staff a community hall/library complex nearby? No.
So we are happy to pay but in return we get poor service. That is the problem.
You live in Auckland?
I remember paying $80 stamp duties and airport taxes every time I entered Australia as a kid. Didn’t even notice when they took them away. I mean in any business you will never sell income producing assets for cash I thought Wayne Brown knew all this?
We’re talking about the same Auckland voters who basically did nothing when:
(a) both new stadium proposals are inexplicably incapable of hosting cricket (when even little old Hobart will be building a big oval stadium with a roof); (b) the original planned football stadium 15 years ago was sunk by property developers without proper explanation; (c) all the tramways were ripped out for no good reason, causing the current reconstruction fiasco; (d) the freeway system was somehow allowed to fall decades behind schedule; (e) city beautification efforts were such a failure that the town is widely loathed by tourists; (f) failed residential zoning has lead to an extreme housing crisis.
So I highly doubt such submissive voters will “grow up” and demand a fair shake regarding rates!
yep, feel sorry for you – and my city is not much better!
There’s a novel idea! Years of ignoring growth without investing in infrastructure come home to roost – failures dating back to Mayor Robbie’s day at least, remember Robbie’s ‘Rabid Rail’.
Selling the shares only adds icing over a festering sore that will need lancing at some stage. Maybe if we have to endure the finnancial pain of growth there would be some questioning of the corporate push for endless growth.
Yes, I do live in Auckland.
No ratepayers are not cash cows.
We vote for a councils to act responsibly and with financial prudence.
There are always trade offs to be made.
We can’t have everything we want. The human conditions is influenced by scarcity as well as the “deadly sins”. Eat too much of the wrong stuff and you will affect your health negatively.
In good times you save and then use your savings in bad years.
Sell the shares so that we can get a half decent airport terminal in Auckland.
Sensible comments Johan but unfortunately most on the left are bereft of financial wisdom.
Our problem here is a lack of central governing tools. When the colonisers first started “negotiations” for Maori land a lot of them had no idea who the Monarch was and each side made promise they couldn’t keep because who were representatives of the crown supposed to talk to, a bunch of tribal chiefs with no organised central government or perhaps there poorer cuisines?
Clearly the largest tribe Ngai Puhi is a very different tribe from Tuhoe and neither could speak for any other tribe. It’s this power imbalance that the treaty seeks to settle. That’s because Maori are a bunch of tribes with no central government.
With the settlements process we tried to create a friendly western corporate governance structures that aligned with western standards of law and order but the largest tribe they are completely incompatible with each tribe remaining seperate, and seperate again to western democracy. And so negotiations really yield uncertain results.
The same problems exist in the Palestinian territories. Israel has a functioning central government that has authority to speak on behalf of all its people but the Palestinian government is far weaker with Fata in the west bank and Hamas in Gazza along with the tribal leaders that are actually in control of the local tribal areas. There have been major peace talks where Israel was willing to seed governance of Jerusalem to Palestine and reduce settlements but not even the famed Yasser Arafat could control the tribal leaders.
A lack of a strong central government means you have a lack of a strong partner to negotiate with and it’s for this reason why the settlements process tried to build democratic structures. Government negotiators realised that with out building governance structures adding in billions of dollars would turn Maori into a hot bed of rebellious activity. But also jeopardise asset stripping activities colonisers planned on building.
But nation building is hard especially if you’re not even from Aotearoa New Zealand. The Crown found that out the hard way everywhere the empire stood. It becomes increasingly difficult to build up a nation when you have a free press exposing all the greedy tricks that stronger negotiation tactics are undoubtedly going to commit, and these small moments become rallying cries against any nation building process.
Managing a military force is like running an organisation we have to elect the leader of the military who creates shared values and goals that are handed down to the entire organisation. Now no proffesional military organisation in history has persecuting and murdering civilian organisations in its founding documents. But incompotent management of military organisations can lead to extremely severe consequences.
Militaries not equipped to deal with the job at hand are more likely to commit war crimes and other atrocities. The Maori battalion was commonly used as shock troops against the Germans. They were also famous for taking no prisoners now one could attribute that to the Maori warrior gene, they where famouse for there knife skills and hellish bayonet charges. The Maori battalion also likes to disregarded famous truices like Christmas or collecting the dead which is commonly held as evidence of a warrior gene. There’s many wonderful and delightful theories for the warrior gene but the main reason is because there was no heavily enforced policy for prison taking. Remember WW2 is pre Geneva Convention. New Zealand was also smaller than its colonial cousins and more importantly that creates a logestical nightmare to guard and feed prisoners, especially when the Maori battalion was also starved of resources and supplies diverted. Don’t do the white thing. Do the right thing. The warrior gene is more likely a logestical. And. Leadership. Problem.
Although New Zealand history is not taught in schools the Maori were extremely cutthroat. Especially when it came to the treatment of prisoners. Tribal leaders also had huge issues with logestics and support. So we just ate out enemy. Each individual Maori was more or less on there own and had to source all there material by and travel bythemsleves. Warcrimes happened all over the musket and landwars only both sides showed extreme discipline when supplies started to wein. The warcrimes commited is directly linked to refusals to acknowledge the legal status of combatants.
Even the U.S. having one of the most powerful and well funded militaries commit it’s fine share of war crimes. But that says more about the nature of the nation building projects that they’ve been persuing in the last few decades. Ultimately soilders are good at one thing when they are trying to take land that isn’t there’s and that is killing the enemy and not just the enemy it has to be a traditional military organisation not just expand the scope of combatants to “include” (there’s that wonderful diversity and inclusion theoey again) farmers, guerrillas and terrorists or civilian uprising.
Soilders dring there uniform and weapons everywhere they go and the message they send is clear. They’re selected for there physical appearance skills with weapons and not for there nation building talents or ability to understand complicated culture. But during any war NZDF personal get shifted from one front to another. They hardly get enough time to rest let alone get any serious cultural training in, beyond your usual mission briefing. And a bunch of soldiers masking corporate asset stripping activity definitely don’t care about cultures are lesser races.
The point is soilders are not ideal for nation building projects they can be deployed on short term peacekeeping missions but building a nation is a longer process that can take multiple generations. We need instead specialised security forces that can do community outreach and handle day to day problems aka a police force that can protect a nation building project while at the same time doesn’t look like a foreign occupying force.
The New Zealand police should also look very different from NZDF. The police should carry far more non-leathal options than NZDF and should be trained to de-escalate while leathal options are not as visible and also not as powerful. The amount of ammunition a police officer carries is limited. Even the amount of ammunition an Armed Offenders squad member carried is nowhere close to a soilders combat load.
While the central governments job is to build roads and key strategic assets like schools and airports. It’s when you bring soilders in to protect those nation building efforts from the people those assets are supposed to build up well you get a very confused and dangerous set of policies that puts internal party squabbles and whinging before the national interest.
When you say “save for a rainy day” what do you mean because I don’t think governments or councils are warehouses for cash. I think they can zone land for certain types of activities but as far as making money I think that should be upto capitalists and entrepreneurs.
He should carve out the Arts as they’re a loss-making venture. Leave that up to the wealthy philanthropists.
He’s doing a great job with his Fire Sales! He’s highlighting to us all the massive amount of shitty decisions that have been made over the past 10 years or so of the losses and wasted expenditure that needs to be exposed and dealt too.
Getting this all out into the open is good. How it’s dealt with is up to the councilors.
‘Transparency’ it what its called. Not to be confused with the other t word.
true that.
So if they don’t vote his way he’ll make another budget.. that presumably they can also vote against? I don’t see the logic of the threat.
It’s a good strategy. Probably not for his longevity but for dragging into the light all of the shit decisions and costs of those out into the open.
If not dealt with in this term, it’ll be up to the next one because all of the shit will definitely be hitting the wall by then. Unless WWIII kicks of soon.
I found some money! Saving millions of dollars! Just cancel this contract!!
What about the 800 members of the Remuera Golf Club getting their $11,700 annual membership fees paid for by Auckland ratepayers for a 100-year contract!! Has anybody mentioned that to Brownie and put it through the Audit??
As Margaret said “The problem with socialism is that in the end you run out of other people’s money”
So here we are! Ten years of socialist mayors and the city is in a debt crisis.
You can identify Margarete a member of parliament. Can you also identify another MP who was also mayor of London ? I’ll give you a hint. He stuck his wee wee in a pigs mouth
I think Mayor Brown must be on the right track he’s got the leftists upset.
The left who don’t think you have to pay your debts,someone else should.
But as Andrew says other peoples money is running out.
How do you know it’s only leftists that Brown has upset? I am sure the loaded folks of Remuera didn’t appreciate “you should not have built there in the first place” as their backyard, or part of their dwelling fell down a bank.
Martyn – No more trans story telling in library….and, what is the problem?
Um…how about story telling in certain churches. You know the ones where the actual groomers hang out.
Wheel – The Auckland Council does not fund those churches.
No one uses library anymore.
I’ve heard two sides. Those for selling the shares, presumably the right, as it allows the council to pay down debt. The argument is the interest on current debt is greater than the dividend from the shares. An analogy is made with household management. If your debt is a rock around your neck sell assests if you have them to reduce the burden.
On the other side, the Ak Airport shares should be retained because they are a ‘strategic’ investment and after years of privatization the appetite for selling off the family silver has gone. In this thinking its the start of a slippery slope we’ve seen with other sell-offs. Who knows what lies ahead. Except, the pro-sellers would counter that the current level of investment doesn’t allow a board representative and thus very little input into strategic direction.
Which is it? Sell or retain?
And how does the Council address debt? Just live with it. Probably not s realistic option. Sell off Council controlled golf courses to developers? Good luck with that (not the least because many were gifted to the Council). Ravage the arts, burn the libraries, barracde the regional parks? Nah, just media rhetoric. But no doubt, an effort to reduce spending across all areas. Sell off other ‘big’ assests. Well, that’s been tried before without success. Cap salaries? In the bigger picture, probably a drop in the ocean. User charges?Another drop in the ocean Push up rates? Now that’s a novel idea!
Dammed if you do, dammed if you don’t.
“On the other side, the Ak Airport shares should be retained because they are a ‘strategic’ investment and after years of privatization the appetite for selling off the family silver has gone.”
Government can buy these shares and keep this airport a strategic investment. And they should. But then Marsden Point……..that too was a strategic asset that was closed for some reason or another.
Not My King
C’mon Supercity Councillors–tell Boomer King to sod off! Find your spines and guts and stick it to him–on behalf of the Ratepayers.
A failed Far North Mayor elected on a tiny minority vote in a gerrymandered election along with crumbling postal infrastructure and alienated voters, is all the info required for Browny to be shafted all day every day until he is finally finished for good.
Not in favour of the airport share sale.
Reducing library services not the only assault in NZ on libraries, but from a surprising source in the past.
No book burning, but some may face shredder – Auckland uni
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/354932/no-book-burning-but-some-may-face-shredder-auckland-uni
Shows how low NZ education has gone and the lack of political support for past knowledge in favour of the new woke grifter knowledge that seems to require massive funding and headcount while not much support.
Borrow money to keep 18% of the shares in the airport in the hope that the airport will return a bigger dividend.
Saving a $100million a year in interest cost and forfeiting $30mil dividend income is a good deal when users get a better terminal to boot.
And what about the 800 Remuera Golf Course members getting their $11,700 annual membership fees paid for by the Auckland ratepayers for a 100-year contract!
Love how the Blue Rinse Boomers at Granny Herald hide stories about Angry Grandpa behind their paywall these days….as if the senile rantings of a delusional octogenarian are going to raise their subscription base.
This morning he’s talking to Nationals other Boomer baiter little Lord Hoskings…..because we all know the head cheer leader of the John Key Appreciation Society is the only “journalist” in Nu Zelund that will stick to the Party line and ensure the befuddled old fool does not humiliate himself in public again.
It seems what Boomer Brown doesn’t understand is that annoying little irritant called democracy.
Lifting a withered fist from the Zimmer frame to shake in the air whilst shouting nonsense and irrelevant threats at the young whipper snappers for not doing what he demands is not how it works Grandpa.
Grow up, start engaging with your fellow Councillors constructively, rather than spewing idle threats and baseless accusations.
Just another example of how incompetent this buffoon actually is.
Shares are bullshit! The nz people shld own the airport outright! Just the usual traitors scum BS.
Good on him. He’s thinking of the rate payers. Where I live the Council are about to increase rates by 12.5%.
They are signing up to an extra fifty millon dollars of funding to Lets get Wellington Moving without knowing what it is to be spent on. LGWM to date have been around about 5 years and their only completed project is a crossing on Cobburn Drive (on way to airport) and no one uses it.
They have failed to do anything about our failing pipes. The stuffed the bus system about five years ago with their swanky new routes (it wasn’t broken, they should never have tried to fix it)
It is clear the Mayor, Tory Whanau is out of her depth, which isn’t surprizing. She was a woke virtue signalling candidate who failed to turn up to a meeting with other Mayors to talk about water services. There had been an unexplained death in a Council property. She wasn’t needed there and she could have been easily reached for comment should the media have sought her out. She blamed her advisors for this mistake.
At least Brown took responsibility and apolgized re the Auckland floods an commited to do better
Yes Mayor Brown is a good person not a political animal.
LoL
Oh Bob he is definitely not a good person, he is definitely not a political animal what he is supposed to be is a democratically elected member of council ., Elected by constituents of Auckland. Instead he is a despot who doesn’t know his arse from his elbow just saying . What will he sell next year ??
Be kind on Bob, the lift doesn’t go to the top floor.
The choice is simple, the Boomer King is a career politician who’s never had a real job and has failed in every political post he has held, including N0rthland mayor.
How much are the golf courses making in profit why doesn’t he sell them instead.
Not the fees. It’s the value of the land. A developers dream! But here’s the rub. Evidently, much of the land was gifted to the Council way back and with that comes some kind of legality. Fill us in if you are able. And then there’s the privately owned golf courses which Council would need to confiscate. No, I’m not a golfer!