Posts by Craig Ranapia
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On the plus side Banks is all for amalgamating the inefficiently biodiverse local government system in Auckland.
Well, I'm still trying to make sense of the reasoning behind this more than usually fatuous Herald editorial.
Mr Banks is an enthusiast for unifying Auckland's local government, as was Mr Hubbard, and hopes he will be the last Mayor of Auckland City as now constituted. The low turnouts for these elections are another argument for a single city. People are less likely to vote when they are presented with a plethora of councils and boards and hardly know what some of them do.
People like myself are also less likely to vote if they can't find a candidate they can at least live with.
And TomS wrote:
Anyone know anything about the new guy on the shore? As far as I can tell he's been elected on a traditional do nothing and keep the rates down platform, but I don't really know.
Which would be a fair summary of Mayor-elect Williams' platform (as well as opposition to Whenuapai becoming a commercial airport) - but, once again, the sentiment warms the cockles of my evil, selfish Tory heart but how exactly are you going to do it? To use an awful cliche, everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die first. And it sure seems to me that everyone wants their rates reduced, but start bitching and whinging when anyone has the gall to say 'well, where do we start cutting spending'?
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C'mon Craig, you were so underwhelmed you didn't even vote on the Shore this time, and there's something deeply underwhelming about all this.
Sorry for getting all CSI about this, but you're right - the numbers don't lie. And local body politicians should use the words 'overwhelming mandate' the way I talk about my tight, firm arse. I don't, because it doesn't exist.
But I'm going to put my head through the nearest brick wall if I hear bloody Tim Shadbolt say again the problem is that the voting period is too long, the papers are "too complex" and perhaps we need to be handing out inducements to vote. Am I the only person who thinks that's not so much missing the point, as not even being on the same planet as people like me who didn't vote because not even a voucher for a free blow job from the AB of my choice could induce me to go for the lesser of two (or the least of twenty) evils?
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But by my very rough guess, he's won it with a bit over a third of the votes cast, which is about 12% of Auckland's registered voters.
Quite true, and if Mark Burton wants to promote the necessary legislative changes so Mayors have to secure an absolute majority of registered voters the electorate (which would require compulsory voting, I guess, and perhaps even run-offs)... then the best of British to him.
But I do think that's really missing the point.
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Well, Russell, there's one small ray of sunshine on the other side of the brdge - Ann Hartley came in fourth place in the Harbour Ward (which returns five councillors) so she's out of Parliament - not a great loss.
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Which makes me suspect the motives.
You don't even need my hyperactive cynicism gland to not merely "suspect the motives" - but that this kind of rort has become so blatant that's it's just greeted with a shurg? why are media outlets going to kick up a stink editorially, when their advertising departments are quite happy to run the things and cash the cheques? And the Opposition aren't going to make too big a fuss either - after all, all the state governments may currently be Labour ones, but you can't say the Coalition (state or federal) occupy the moral high ground, or have much interest in claiming it.
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the bean:
With all due respect, I was in Sudney as (entirely coincidentally I'm sure) millions of dollars worth of 'public information' campaigns started around the same time the state election campaign kicked into high gear.
I certainly agree that hitting old people is bad, droughts suck and you really should slow down when driving past schools. But let's get real for a moment - the informational quality of the adverts I saw was minimal to 'who the fuck are you fooling?'
As for the Kiwisaver TV ads - they're frightfully clever, but exactly what information is in them that you couldn't get from your employer, your bank or a basic Google search?
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i hope the contributors to the daily msm have to declare their political interessts too - that would only be fair, right?
Well, not a very apt analogy. I'd note the political coverage in the Herald in front of me is all by-lined, and it's a matter of public record who own the paper. I'd also suggest that if Audrey Young was 'moonlighting' as a lobbyist or consultant to a political party, she'd be doing so without the knowledge or consent of her employer - and unless I'm very much mistaken such activities would be grounds for instant dismissal.
I wonder if those who openly identify as non-heterosexual may face similar barriers to using their real names.
Well, perhaps. But I'd also note that when I blogging at NZPundit, the really virulent, homophobic stuff didn't come over a real name and return address either.
In the end, my attitude is that I'm not shy about strong, and strongly expressed opinions about folks who don't have the luxury of operating in the shadows. Just seems plain good manners - and a basic, if crude, mechanism of accountability - that I do so under my real name.
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Idiot Savant:
I know we're perpetually going to have to agree to disagree on this, but if electoral outcomes were that easily 'brought' then I'd suggest our electoral system would be rather different today. Now, I didn't support MMP - and am still rather ambivalent about it today - but I don't think I was on the losing side of that argument because advocates had any kind of financial advantage.
And just as a small courtesy, could you occasionally acknowledge that those of us who don't think the EFB can be "fixed up" in committee or via SOP aren't all whores of corporate special interests and weird scare-wearing cults? :)
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(and since then went after roles Billy Piper kept getting)
Which isn't necessarily a bad thing - Richard Gere started his film career with a string of roles John Travolta passed on: Days of Heaven, American Gigolo and An Officer and a Gentleman.
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Fiona will know the name, but it's the guy from Battlestar Galactica, and it shows. I quite liked it, but definitely not one for the kiddies.
David Eick - and for future reference, he's the BSG producer who didn't kill Kirk. :)
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