Hats off to Wayne Brown
There are many reasons to dislike Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown’s policies which generally put corporate welfare and private sector greed well ahead of the common good.
But he deserves praise for action to target and tackle “stupid” council spending such as the eye-watering sums spent on lawyers and accountants contracted from the private sector. Brown points out most of these services would be much cheaper if they were provided “in house” by lawyers, planners and accountants employed directly by the council. The excuse that councils need to employ specialists because “it’s all so complicated” are for the most part weasel-word justifications by bureaucrats largely unaccountable for spending public money.
The problems go much wider than lawyers and accountants however. They are hard-wired into the provision of all council services by local government regulations which require councils to put their work up for private tenders. This “market model” is supposed to be cheaper but any savings have been long lost after 35 years of neo-liberalism. Contracting companies of all sizes are acting like cartels with nods and winks to each other as they screw local and national government as well as the workers who actually do the jobs.
Take parks and reserves for example. Contractors will typically pay employees around $24 per hour but will charge councils $60 an hour per worker to get the job done. Yes there are other costs associated with employing staff but it has always been a crock. We are being shafted. And its impossible to prise the accounts open because the details are always withheld by bureaucrats citing “commercial sensitivity”.
The Labour government hasn’t raised even an eyebrow to suggest this problem needs fixing and yet it’s been an issue forever. The late Penny Bright referred to the “contractocracy” in local and national government which was screwing us. She was right.
The interesting thing is that this issue is being raised by a right-wing mayor. It seems Labour is determined to stay so close to the middle of the road that it is increasingly outflanked on the left by National or business interests.
Another example of this happened this week when the New Zealand Initiative – the organisation which replaced the notorious Business Roundtable – released a report saying “Universities have more managers and admin staff than academics: report”.
For 30 years tertiary educators have complained about “managerialism” – the massive increases in managers at universities based on a “low-trust” model for academics. Neo-liberalism says academics are naturally slack and unprofessional so need large numbers of managers. Labour used to complain about this once.
The right wing is now calling this out. It’s another failure of neo-liberalism which should be highlighted and hammered by Labour but the party is trapped by political paralysis. Even the small flickers of progressive policy from David Parker on taxation have been snuffed out by the leadership.
Labour leaders are terrified to move off the white line in the middle of the road…
And as if to prove the point, Brown spent 91k on lawyers in a month.
And now we have this…
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/broken-water-main-floods-queen-street-in-downtown-auckland/R26IUS5TKFH3TGRN67PX2MXWTI/
He best not go asking for the governments help given his distaste of 3 waters.
Increase Auckland’s rates is the correct way to proceed, user pays and all.
How long until New Labour decide the “solution” is to sell off the universities, technical colleges, the hospitals, the schools, the water system…? Slowly contract it all out, sell little pieces of it at a time, like the N.H.S. Then make sure the press barons don’t report on it, and collect huge contributions from the corporate donors.
And is there any organised faction inside Labour that would actually oppose such a thing?
Have been studying the discord between Stalin and Trotsky. Trotsky absolutely blames the failure of the 1917 revolution on the “sectarian”. What we today call the state employed PMC or privately employed consultants.
From “Sectarianism, Centrism and the Fourth International” by Trotsky.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1935/10/sect.htm
“The sectarian looks upon the life of society as a great school, with himself as a teacher there. In his opinion the working class should put aside its less important matters, and assemble in solid rank around his rostrum: then the task would be solved.”
They become the emperor class and display all the arrogance of a Simon Wilson.
“The sectarian lives in a sphere of ready made formulas. As a rule life passes him by without noticing him; but now and then he receives in passing such a fillip as makes him turn 180 degrees around his axis, and often makes him continue on his straight path, only … in the opposite direction. Discord with reality engenders in the sectarian the need to constantly render his formulas more precise. This goes under the name of discussion. To a Marxist discussion is an important but a functional instrument of the class struggle. To the sectarian discussion is a goal in itself. However, the more that he discusses all the more do the actual tasks escape him. The sectarian sees an enemy in everyone who attempts to explain to him that an active participation in the workers’ movement demands a constant study of objective conditions, and not haughty bulldozing from the sectarian rostrum. ”
and most importantly
“For analysis of reality the sectarian substitutes intrigue, gossip, and hysteria.”
Well said John.
There’s the reek of corruption leaking out of 135 Albert Street. My peripheral involvement with the council often brings up curious instances of what appear to be very dodgy tendering processes, and building consents issued where they shouldn’t. In some cases, these are brought to the attention of management but never seem to result in an inquiry. From my previous corporate experience this tells me the rot goes near to the top.
At the other end of the spectrum there is just a lot of silly, poor value spending. How much would you expect to pay for road speed bumps? How does 300K a pop sound?
The council is also badly overstaffed, having more than doubled its headcount since the amalgamation. My interactions indicate that it operates as a series of silos who are in competition with each other, and internal processes that are so byzantine that they can’t get out of their own way, although some of this may be driven by our absurd RMA law. (You know it’s fucked up when Panuku sues its own council and costs the ratepayers a million dollars in legal fees!)
Fiefdoms it sounds like Andrew. I remember hearing that word when I had some cancer treatment about the working of the hospital – how each department was trying to get more funds competing against each other. It seems that this has been a long time practice but has become excessive and fractionating.
Yes, Penny Bright – her name should be shining, glowing in our memories. Glad you mentioned her. The little person trying to bring the machine to account. This was in NZ. And it is a machine even if it isn’t made of steel.
There are heroes that stick to mind FTTT. Trying to stop the unacceptable. Young Rachel somebody run down deliberately by a bulldozer no doubt under contract, to the Israeli gummint. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Corrie
I think only a deep financial depression that knocks the blocks off the financial ice mountain will suffice to stop the business and finance bulldozer. But then the cure may be worse than the disease for us all. But it may save some other species innocent of our overweening ambitions to HAVE MORE or IT ALL no matter who suffers; the externalities.