Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau admits government ‘right to be concerned’ about City Council
Wellington’s mayor says ministers are “right to be concerned from what they’ve seen” after threats of possible government intervention, but denies it is a shambles.
This week, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown told media he was seeking advice from officials on the options available to him, and thresholds to intervene, in the city council.
It came after the council voted on Thursday to stop the sale of its 34 percent stake in Wellington Airport.
Threatening to bash Wellington Council for having the temerity to not privatise the airport has little to do with accountability and everything to do with politics.
The Wellington Council is mocked as a dysfunctional joke and Tory Whanau is a lightening rod because people don’t like Māori women in leadership and because she’s fucking hopeless in interviews, strategy and basic left wing philosophy.
Bashing Wellington Council’s dysfunction is a political gold mine that will never stop paying out, actually running it however would require central Government to properly fund the Council, so that sure ain’t going to happen.
The Government don’t want a solution, they want a convenient target to gloss over their own Omnishambles.
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The Wellington situation, suggests the intriguing possibility that these are not serious people.
Unless the Wellington council ask for help then the government needs to stay out of it. To not do so is undemocratic. If they intervene without being asked then the government needs to go… they simply do not get it.
The government of the day could follow the example set by Labour in putting in commissioners to control Tauranga
dick head the mayor asked them to do that .Before you lie at least try to hide the fact your doing so
Possibly, depending on whether Wellington asks for intervention as Tauranga did. Do keep up Trevor, please for the sake of peoples sanity.
Yes…
People often describe others of what they are themselves ..
Isn’t it extraordinary that Luxon, Willis , Bishop and Brown….the most hopeless of the hapless Coalition of Chaos, are using words to describe Wellingting City Council that actually describes them to a ‘t’.
‘A shambles’, ‘dysfunctional,’ ‘incompetent’, a shambles’, ‘ a mess’….
Errr…hello…is there anybody there with even an once of self reflection?
Pot…kettle…black!!
Wellington Local Govt. has long had its share of screwballs on Council–anyone remember shoe salesman Mark Blumsky? would be toff Kerry Prendergrass, Celia Wade Brown and current Councillor Chen.
The guts as Martyn points out, is central government not funding local government properly. Sinking 3 Waters did not help either as Wellington streets regularly turn into showers of shit and water fountains.
If the Govt. puts a Commissioner in, and the grounds do not appear to be there to do so they will regret it. Wellington has been hammered in a revenge attack of sackings by CoC, and multiple business closures, so there will surely be push back.
That’s not true – WCC has spent daft money on vanity projects like the town hall and their offices rather than do the boring stuff like fix the pipes.
Yeti. Once upon a time in Wellington there was an independent local newspaper edited by a journalist called Simon Collins, who reported assiduously on local issues, and particularly on the doings of the Wellington City Council. He must have walked to more meetings all over Wellington than anyone else ever has, or will ever do again. Now there is nothing even vaguely comparable, and many citizens do not know what’s happening. That’s the New Zealand media today.
I say unto thee: Probably the most “democratic” thing to do would be to organise an early election. Problem is, they’d probably fuck that up as well. Seriously, it’s become that bad.
an early election would change nothing as most would be reelected .
What a spoilsport you are. Ada fancies herself singing a duet with Elvis in that stadium, a cruel and unusual punishment worse than any hanging, but cheap cheap cheap as cheap does.
The council created a plan to get out of the mess of its own creation which included selling its airport shares. But then it voted against sell its airport shares. So now it has no financial plan.
Unlike John Key who undemocratically sold off SOAs, the Wellington council democratically voted down the sale of its airport.
Yes, it must now look to another strategic plan but trying to portray the council in a bad light by them following a democratic process says a lot about you Andrew.
The government wants to overthrow the WCC so they can close down the libraries, parks and pools to save rates money. That all it is about really
Good Spin can turn straw into gold or bad spin can turn gold into straw.
A half decent spin Doctor a la John Key’s minder/spin Doctor Steven Joyce would have convinced everyone that Wellington council has a visionary new multidimensional inter communications hub which will make Wellington the centre of the known universe including solving all the ferry problems Of course You don’t actually need any proof of any such undertakings because the public buy anything promising quick and easy. Politics is essential about spin spin spin.
So time to listen to an old favourite of mine.
The Kiwi version of this song is by the group Simple image. 1967 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwsheFnMbto
This is only happening because the WCC is more left than the government – can you imagine the rukus if they tried this in Auckland or Christchurch?
Dunedin are already paying for their political leanings in terms of the hospital debacle there.
This is nothing more than MO for this government – deflect and distract while destroying the country!
so the new hospital has been caned because they vote labour down there .That would be the reality of it .
Clearly they want to install English or some other has been that cant find a job .They will then demand that that person focuses on the wet dream tunnel and forget about the water .If a leak appears just turn off the tap will be the solution
Gordon walker. Not Bill English, the dreadful wee fellow who said he knows what it’s like to be different because he had teenage acne and that young kiwi males are all crap. The Wellington issue seems to be a Mayor installed through the marshalling of Green students, probably not ratepayers themselves, and a clear example of why the voting age shouldn’t be lowered if this is the beast that they can come up with.
Bicycle lanes and bilingual signs all over the place do nothing to address infrastructure issues which impact almost daily on the adults who don’t have the luxury of being as self-indulgent as they are, and who put in the hard yards and keep the town ticking over. Whanau needs to bow out gracefully, if she knows how, and there is at least one decent Mayoral candidate in the offing who doesn’t appear to be an ideologue, and who has real world experience.
If the few councilors that oppose the mayor cannot be loyal to their democratically elected mayor they should resign now. At the next election they can put their names forward to run for mayor and if they are competing against the incumbent and win then good luck to them.
Tory just isn’t up to the job and to suggest that she’s taking hits in the media because she’s Māori is disrespectful to those incredible and talented Māori women out there making a difference.
Compare and contrast the mayor of Rotorua for example. She’s getting that town back on track.
Is she really she was moaning the other day that the government was fucking them over .
The difference there is she’s a Tory
National is currently claiming credit for low inflation. It doesn’t need to deflect attention from itself. The Council’s woes stem from low rates and too much expenditure. It isn’t all Whanau’s fault but every time she opens her mouth, she makes sure her foot is in it. The low rates go back 40 years.
“………..because people don’t like Māori women in leadership…………..”
What I would say unto thee @ Martyn is that it isn’t always necessarily about her being a Maori woman in a leadership role. For some yes.
I voted for her and have lived to regret it ever since. (More fool me)
Throughout her tenure, she’s proven herself to be just a little bit dumb, quite arrogant and narcististic.
Like many, she’s equipped with the platitudes and sales-speak that has served many a bullshit artist well.
The POLS and MARKETING or MEDIA tertiary qualification that has come to be a necessity for politicians, senior public servants and corporates alike. I.E. the ability to bullshit/lie/”mis-speak” while keeping a straight face, give a thousand words of meaningless drivel, and think (or not) they’re considerably, considerably, considerably more cleverer than thee.
She hasn’t done herself any favours and obviously isn’t as in touch with her electorate as she thinks she is.
The last thing wot did it for me was her wanting to be an “ambassador” for those on the spectrum after learning the (possible) reasons for her alcohol/party girl problem. Suddenly the expert.
Close Welly down and move Parliament to Palmy. Wellington should be a fishing village and arts and sports hub.
Marco+Battler. Not such a bad idea. Civil Defence planning for a major earthquake event used to include relocating the seat of government to Palmerston North. The airport will be munted, Miramar Peninsula cut off, the exit motorway runs along a fault line, the harbour may need redredging, and relief services will have difficulty getting into the city, let alone politicians.
A fishing village and arts hub could be idyllic. If Victoria University had to locate to Palmy, where Massey is surrealistically PC and seemingly historically regressive, the vice chancellors could fight it out among themselves. Tough on seekers of higher learning, but sadly, the universities have been prostituting themselves to the golden calf for a while now, like just about everything else.
This government has decimated Wellington with its supposed money saving and public service redundancies They have surrendered Wellington to the dogs because they have an infidel in their midst telling tales to her goddaughter Nicola Willis. Nicola Willis wants a safe Wellington seat and wants to appeal to the racist blue brigade from the burbs.
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