Posts by Matthew Poole
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which would be a minimum bound, of course, since National keep saying they want to grow the pi.
Would that be, err, blowing up the pi? Wealthier communities together.
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Boy, you're really lucky my cranky pants are at the cleaners -- but you're being rather naive if you think the lines between local and central government have ever been that tidy.
Then pray tell, Craig, which of our local body polly tubbies is behind this nefarious scheme? Hint: Rodney's my MP, not my councillor. Select committees and submissions and legislation are all being done at a national level, by Parliament, not by the local bodies. That's why I say this is all about national politics. Whether or not some members of the local bodies think it's a good idea, and certainly some of them do, most of them seem to be far from impressed at how little say Aucklanders are getting into how it's all going to look in 12 months' time.
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Oh, and Kyle, I don't have a problem with EPTB paying for part of the upgrade too. In fact, given that they do derive a capital benefit I'd rather that they paid for as much of it as is feasible. It's the difference between their means and the total sum that I want paid by taxpayers not ratepayers.
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Ah I see. You want to pay for only a third of Auckland's stadium, while Dunedin new stadium is costing Auckland about 2% (govt contribution 15 million, divided by 3).
If that's how it works out, sure. I prefer to see it like this: Eden Park is being done up because of the RWC. This very, very expensive upgrade, much of it temporary, is occurring for the purposes of a single, once-only, never-to-be-repeated event. That makes the expense entirely the responsibility of Central Government, to my eyes, because it was Central Government that created this "opportunity". I have the same view of any other stadium upgrades happening around the country, but am also aware that few of them are temporary.
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Basically, this reads to me far more like an ideological fantasy than it does evidence-based policy development
But Russell, evidence-based policy development is dead :P
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Wait, you want us to pay for our stadia, and all of yours too? That didn't seem a bit greedy when you typed it?
Given that Auckland contributes 1/3 of the national tax take, I think we'd be doing a fair bit of funding of our own stadium, don't you? I see nothing greedy about Central Government paying for all the stadium work required to get facilities up to scratch, anywhere in the country. This is supposed to be good for the country, isn't it?
Don't pretend that all the local bodies south of the Bombays have been stumping up entirely from their own funds to improve their game facilities, either. Everyone's getting taxpayer pork for the RWC.So no, it didn't seem at all greedy when I typed it. Auckland City is paying a hell of a lot to do up the area around a private facility that's being used for some rugby games that were bid for by the nation. Why should ratepayer money go into the stadium when the council gets no capital benefit for the expense?
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Matthew: I'd disrespectfully suggest, that the kind of turn-outs we so like to sneer at in American presidential elections can't be blamed on "Rodders". If local body politicians are suffering from a credibility crisis, then it's time to get real and serious.
I'm not talking about local body, though. This shit is all about national politics, and it's Central Gummint that's riding rough-shod over the democratic process.
I'd never blame Rodney for the dire state of engagement in local body politics, because that situation pre-dates his entry into Parliament by many years, as you so rightly pointed out. But now we've got some big-time fuckery going on at the national level, all aimed at ignoring the very people affected by the changes. -
So what's this SM system all about?
From what I've heard, it's pretty much FPP under the guise of proportionality by adding in list seats.
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Was pondering it today, and I wonder if Rodders and the other members of the VRWC care, or even realise, how much harm this shit's doing to the wider population's trust in the democratic process. At this point in time, I suspect it'd be a hard sell to convince the average Aucklander that the views of the prolles matter a damn to politicians. After all, we've been denied our statutorily-granted right to vote in a binding ballot on this amalgamation (Local Government Act, but the first bill on Megatropolis revoked this for the future residents of Megatropolis, and of course it was passed under urgency), we've had pretty much all our views on things like Maori seats, local board powers and council assets ignored, and now we're being told that we aren't allowed to know until months after the fact what is being done by what will be the largest single spender of ratepayer money in the region.
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The sponsors aren't interested in those numbers so why would the NZRFU inflate their estimates.
It wasn't NZRFU that was estimating, it was UEFA. Unless you're suggesting that Reuters was toadying to NZRFU back in 2008 to inflate viewer figures from the 2007 RWC?