Hard News: Auckland: where only one man votes
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plop
I feel the need to correct myself. I have it on good authorataa that horses are not used in the sport of polo. The fact is that they use ponies and these are, apparently, given away for free in any decent society. You can tell a decent society by its number of polo grounds as polo is only played by decent people like princess and kings an stuff. Water polo, on the other hand, is played by people with balls in the water and polo shirts. I have no idea about the decency of the players society but I suspect they are no better than other wearers of polo shirts. -
*chuckle* The kind of post Friday afternoons are made for. Cheers Steve.
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You saying polo shirts are absorbent, Barnes? Hence their presence in some braying bars..
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Fnahh fnahh,
Anypoo, it's Friday and I have been wanting to post this for days,
enjoy. -
Oh OK then.
Episode 2 -
Ecan governance at issue, 8 months out from elections.
A number have had warnings and dispensations for their conflicts of interests, not turning up, and casual racism.
So a new body with appointees looking after the most widely irrigated region & 70% of NZs fresh water is to be appointed.
Red Zones are the over allocation areas = market failure.
There is no recourse to impose reductions in water take (to my knowledge).
http://maps.ecan.govt.nz/WaterQuality/
It's always puzzelled me that Taylors Mistake misses the poo overflow from Christchurch.
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So we are not doing the waterfront.John Banks said so, but we are underwriting the loan to Eden Park. I did ask a friend last night what transport had been planned for getting to the stadium, and was informed that 2 trains will come from Britomart with a stop in Kingsland and Sandringham Rd will be closed off.Trains coming from West will stop at Morningside and walk through Rossmay Tce to Eden Park. There is also anticipated walking and buses.we also have Taxis.That was the view but, he did say that there is something at Eden Park coming up in September (some footy thing, cant remember now) and they will be trialling their plans then. So now no waterfront, but Ponsonby, Parnell, Kingsland.
Okaaay , wrong thread it's supposed to be over there----> -
You can tell a decent society by its number of polo grounds as polo is only played by decent people like princess and kings an stuff.
and the great wheel turns
I think I'm gonna chukka....(No Huey, not WoodChukkas...)
(No Rufus, not Chukka Khan...)
actually it takes 2 chukkas to make
a Warholian fame period....
(just in case ya needed to know...) -
Ecan governance at issue, 8 months out from elections
What elections? - Idiot/Savant reports that the govt will just cancel them. Polluting farmers for the win.
Under the guise of fixing the dysfunctional regional council, they want it simply replaced by a special commission appointed by the Minister, with elections to follow in 2013. In other words, for an entire local government term, the people of Canterbury will be denied any say in about who sits on their regional council. Worse, when democracy is restored, the council's most important responsibility - water - will be taken away from them, given instead to a special-purpose commission. Its members will be - you guessed it - appointed by the Minister, accountable to Wellington, not Canterbury. So we have Fiji on the Rakaia. Lovely.
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Where is Brendon Burns?
I don't rate him, & he often gets his facts wrong, but could we at least hear a squeak about this?
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My only hope - should Idiot Savant's dire scenario come to be reality
(and with parties of a cynical opportunist nature in power, it probably will)- is that Kai Tahu will start fighting politically. -
is that Kai Tahu will start fighting politically.
god I hope so. Some one's got to...
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You're right, Sacha; drafts are covered by the OIA/LGOIMA. You just have to ask for them. Getting drafts can be uesful sometimes, especially when you suspect a major position has suddenly changed in the middle of the policy development process.
Not quite James. When you put in a request the guidance from the ombudsmen is to say if you don't want drafts :)
From the Ombudsmen:
If you don’t want to receive certain types of information (for example, internal emails or draft versions of documents) make that clear in your request.
People also forget, that with respect to LGOIMA, any request for information from a council - whether a phone call, email or letter, is a LGOIMA request. You don't have to say "I am making a LGOIMA request", though doing so makes it clear to the receiver that the request needs to be dealt with properly.
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This is getting serious, the destruction of Local Govt, Nation wide.
Central Govt owns $120 Bill in assets.
Local Govt owns $108 Bill in assets.
(Numbers plucked, willing to be corrected.)National campaigned on no asset sales, this was explicitely National Assests. And so Rodney is targeting Local Govt Assets, Auckland City & now Ecan with a Fijian dictatorship over our water.
I think this is worth a listen to as a comparison for process - RNZ Fiji Bottled Water - same process, different location.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ideas/20100131This is anti-democratic, anti-civil society and anti-intellectual. Here in Canty we have representatives and advisory bodies of worthies and intellectuals, not perfect to my book, but the best I've seen throughout the country.
As such our decision makers are informed, as much as they close their eyes & ears to it, they are informed.
There is more to come on conflicts of interests (hell that's too long, I'll just call it corruption) of at least one sitting Councilor, who advised whom of what they could do when dismissing Ecans legal advice provided as part of their normal function (read free).
As to the City Councils knives in Sir Kerry Burkes back - it would be worthwhile to check out Sideshow Bobs track record.
This guy is worth a squizz http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaetano_Salvemini
"the State pays for the blunders of private enterprise... Profit is private and individual. Loss is public and social."Islander, are you drawing a distinction between Kai Tahu & Tront?
It would be good to see Kai Tahu politicised, Tront not so much. -
Just thinking - yes, I am. TRONT is the bureacratic & business arm as you know, as well being a runakanui. Over the years, a lot of us have been effectively disenfranchised: there is a growing
a)awareness of this within TRONT, and
b)resentment among a lot of people about some of the directions TRONT has led the tribe in.
The ECan debacle *may* just be enough to get us acting together
- because water is a taoka for everybody - not just a filthy few. There are Kai Tahu families who are kaitiaki of certain bodies of water (especially rivers and lakes.) My greatgrandfather used to be one (for a large area of Lake Hawea.) What with the nasty noises this current govt. is making over mining in national parks, I think I'd personally invoke him to lend a hand! Kidding, sort of- -
Disenfranchised, that's a sure cause for change.
Ecan operate well and have turned down applications and prosecuted thieving farmers for their theft of water. Dr Bryan Jenkins seems to me to be a bit right leaning and has plans for scores (no kidding) of Hydro schemes in Canty, in part to feed the industrial dairy machine. And everyone knows this is Kiwi fruit with tits on (not a sustainable industry - economically & of course environmentally).
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...and has plans for scores (no kidding) of Hydro schemes in Canty, in part to feed the industrial dairy machine. And everyone knows this is Kiwi fruit with tits on
let's have done with it and call it
Flesh Water Management! from now on... -
Colin Espiner reports on Environment Canturbury stoush. Undistinguished group of Ministers involved in deciding what to do after biased report in favour of farming interests.
However, the Government is wavering over such a drastic step as removing the council. It would require a special act of Parliament, since neither Hide nor Smith have the legal power to do so.
It has established a high-powered Cabinet committee to consider the issue, comprising Smith, Hide, and Christchurch-based ministers Gerry Brownlee (economic development), David Carter (agriculture) and Kate Wilkinson (conservation).
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But Green Party co-leader Russel Norman said ECan was paying the price for standing up to the dairy industry and refusing water consents."Everyone now has a clear message. If you stand up to protect water, you're going to be taken out."
Norman questioned Creech's suitability to chair the report into ECan. "Wyatt Creech is a director of Open Country Cheese, which has convictions for dirty dairying. So why put him in charge of a review of the regulator of the dairy industry?"
Creech's firm has been twice prosecuted for contaminating Waikato farmland and rivers.
Another of the report's authors, Morrison Low, was employed by local authorities in South Canterbury to investigate the feasibility of breaking up ECan and forming a South Canterbury regional council.
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Sacha, it's not that the Dairy/National lobby over lap are trying to gain power. They have it, they've overplayed it, they'll lose it & so they wish to stop the game before they get voted out.
Creech has conflicts of interest, Low has conflicts, they match the National aligned Ecan councillor conflicts and let's remember legal advice.
Serious Fraud Office, where are you?
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Totally agree
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Idiot/Savant has been reading the Creech report.
...the supposed "benefit" of overturning democracy - quick action - just isn't there.
So what's the real reason then? The review team gives it away when they accuse ECan of focusing too much on protecting the environment and having an "imbalance" between environmental, economic, social and cultural perspectives. But as they admit, there is no legislative requirement for such "balance" on regional councils, and ECan's environmental focus is largely driven by its voters.
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Just a curiosity - about 70 job ads have appeared on Seek overnight for Auckland Transport, the ARTA replacement agency. Might you perhaps be the new Manager of Public Transport Operations?
Keep Auckland moving forward and drive Auckland Transport’s public transport strategies to maximise the use of public transport in Auckland and nurture positive commercial relationships with public transport suppliers.
Or might you like to assist the Local Boards under the Supercity in their tok- ahem, crucial role in urban democracy?
As the senior contact point and advocate within Auckland Council for Local Boards, you and your team will assist in building the effectiveness of Local Boards within the community by providing resources to enable Local Boards to fulfil their role and access specialist support and advice.
Yes, if these sound like fun, the Supercity wants YOU! I'm not sure if you'll have much time free to do hula-hoop on the beach as per the ads though; probably not a productive use of ratepayer resources.
Now, of course, is the time to pity the hundreds of poor souls across eight councils who are shortly going to get "disestablished" and redirected to Seek.co.nz for their troubles.
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This is very rich. Sideshow Bob is clawing at the bus service.
This is the same service CCC didn't support or believe would succeed. Worse they created the central bus exchange with a KILL ZONE on Litchfield St. A level crossing of pedestrians and buses, access for pedestrians in the kill zone (unlike any parking building) & the wrong way departure on a one way street, on the wrong side of the road (this really needs to be seen to be believed).http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/3361528/Councils-eye-regions-buses
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JT: interesting...
Still, I can't get over that Auckland Local Boards role I linked above. Because hey, who wouldn't want to be the political meat in the sandwich between angry Local Boards who've just realised how powerless they are, and a monolithic Council likely to ignore any suggestion you pass on from the Boards if it conflicts with what they want to do? You'll have local ratepayers moaning at you and Supercouncillors sniggering behind your back. Good times.
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Worse they created the central bus exchange with a KILL ZONE on Lichfield St
Wait till they move it west down Lichfield St to the proposed new Kathmandu shop site and then dig it below the swampy city's water table! For whatever bizarre reason...
Also looking forward to the proposed narrowing of Hereford St, with outside eating etc in what is effectively a central city wind tunnel - with the double parking problem that already exists there - it'll be another killzone crossed with a pinball machine... step right up Sideshow Bob...
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