Banks out of step
Auckland City mayor and super-mayoral aspirant John Banks showed this morning at the super city select committee he was out of step with much of public opinion on key democratic aspects of the bill....
View ArticleDay of reckoning for Auckland
Local government’s worst kept secret has finally been revealed with the tabling in Parliament of the Auckland super city committee’s report. Major decisions have already been announced by Government...
View ArticleOpening up #1
Interesting piece in today’s Herald on Sunday by Anthony Doesburg about how using open source software for the Auckland Super City could save millions of dollars and allow Aucklanders access to local...
View ArticleLabour on Super City
Yesterday the Government passed the Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill on a vote of 64 to 58 after a long debate under urgency. We put up a good fight but it wasn’t enough as the Nats and ACT...
View ArticleA Wellington Super City?
This morning the Dom Post ran a couple of interesting articles on the possibility of a Wellington Super City to match the behemoth being created in Auckland. Not surprisingly most of the mayors were...
View ArticleMore on the Wgtn Super City
Chris Turver, former Wellington Regional Councillor, has a column in this morning’s Dominion Post arguing that the time is not right for a Wellington Super City. He makes some good points. Wellington...
View ArticleWhat privatisation agenda? (Ports of Auckland)
So there is no privatisation agenda? The latest piece of evidence for the “non-privatisation agenda” is the Government’s decision to repeal the law that would prevent the privatisation of the Ports of...
View ArticleGovt call-in of factory farming consents
The scale of response to proposals for factory farming in the fragile Mackenzie Basin may see decisions on resource consents go back to Environment Minister Nick Smith for a decision. I am visiting the...
View ArticleManufacturing consents
More developments on the Mackenzie Basin factory farming proposal. Environment Canterbury was today hearing whether the the three-linked companies water consents can be heard separately to the board of...
View ArticleSue Kedgley
Sue has announced that she will retire from Parliament at the 2011 election. I want to take this opportunity, and I am sure it is on behalf of the rest of the Labour caucus to congratulate and thank...
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