Let’s be clear, the Government’s plan to steal the Regional Councils is nothing short of the largest power grab in NZ political history since the signing of the Treaty.
It’s not just the assets they intend to take and privatise.
It’s not just the opening up of resources to their speculator mates.
It’s the actual voting structure that will forever set power in the hands of the Rural class over urban interests.
There are two voting models being explored.
The first is 5 votes for each new council based on simple majority.
That would be 1 Urban vote, 1 Town vote and 3 Rural votes. If the 3 Rural votes all vote together, they will always win all decisions.
The second voting method is proportional so Urban would have 70%, Town would have 15% and the 3 Rural appointees would have 5% each. In that system, Urban always wins and there is no way National will allow that!
Remember, regardless of which voting system they establish, the Government will still have the power to overturn those decisions anyway.
It is a naked power grab which National will do everything to ensure their rural mates get to rig.
Some will argue I am being unfair on National and that the decision on which voting system will be used hasn’t even been decided yet, but I would point to the way National have gerrymandered special voting for the next election and argue they are rigging the process because they realise they can’t stop the demographic realities of democracy to keep propping up their minority interests any longer and are just naked about their venal self interest now.
National will rig this to ensure their Rural mates always win.
The NZ Left keep underestimating how far this Right Wing Government will go to entrench their privilege.
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https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360903547/chris-bishop-behind-failed-national-leadership-coup-report
Will Luxon be around to enact it?
There is a quote of “The Devil Looks After His Own” and that would apply to National especially.
National wouldn’t be doing this unless it guarantees some financial gain for themselves.
I think your experience and judgment are right on about this Martyn. Wakeup you sleepy hobbits. You haven’t been euthanised yet. I believe in eutha but only after a full and active life; you are cheating yourselves and us and any progeny you may have of the opportunity to take back a functioning democracy for the future. You will just be characters from Brave New World, a book you probably never have read or understood, as you leave other people to do your thinking for you and they are out-thinking you right now – to your, and my, and our, cost.
They had several functions that they did well, but that interfered with the profits of the government’s supporters which is why they had to go. In Canterbury’s situation, we can look forward to polluted groundwater and a lack of decent public transport, along with congested roads as the most immediate result likely from the changealthough you can be sure that even worse things will follow.