Hard News: No Surprises
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yes, he's a bafoon
no , he's a jerk off
maybe he's both.
87% of maori think so. :) -
Too good, sir. RT DavidSlack:
That compromise council in full: 22 members of the Northern Club, one woman and/or Maori, one buffoon and a jerkoff.
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the Maori Party will instead get favours for the Seabed and Foreshore in compensation
Nah. Cars. Free air travel. Being called "Minister". That's basically the deal Maori get out of giving NACT their support.
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From Carol:
He [Hide] was concerned local government was dominated by 'old white males' and it should be more representative of all groups, not just Maori.
There's a lovely Internets term for that: concern troll.
Because it's always cute when someone who isn't a member of a minority group runs around telling that group that their concerns are not worth bothering about, and are "counter-productive" one way or another. For whom, one wonders.
Obviously, to most thinking people, the fact Hide and his ilk won't take Step One to make the dominant group more diverse doesn't really give much credence to the stated desire to increase diversity. It's painfully transparent.
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There's a lovely Internets term for that: concern troll.
Because it's always cute when someone who isn't a member of a minority group runs around telling that group that their concerns are not worth bothering about, and are "counter-productive" one way or another. For whom, one wonders.
It's also cute as Hello Kitty to be told that if you don't support solution X. (like all "thinking people") you don't care care about worthy cause Y.
It's also a nice way to avoid dealing with the issue when you can dismiss your opponents as acting in bad faith/having a "secret agenda".
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Craig, if Rodney was genuinely concerned about improving representation by non-old white welathy males, then perhaps he could start with his own party.
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a Maori constituency on Environment Bay of Plenty (one of two local government bodies with specific Maori seats, the other being Gisborne).
Belatedly for the record Mikaere and all, it seems the Bay of Plenty regional council is the only territorial local authority which has chosen to have specific Maori seats as provided for in legislation - Gisborne does not.
Gisborne District has about 45 percent of the population identifying as Maori (though the proportion of the adult population would be a little lower) and 4/14 councillors. The degree to which these councillors are representative of Maori has been a subject of local media discussion recently.
Gisborne votes in local wards, one "urban" one with 8 councillors and 6 rural ones, some of which have a substantial Maori majority of the adult population. The path to good representation of Maori views is difficult enough in Gisborne, let alone such places as Auclkland.
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Belatedly for the record Mikaere and all, it seems the Bay of Plenty regional council is the only territorial local authority which has chosen to have specific Maori seats as provided for in legislation - Gisborne does not.
Ta. Teach me to repeat a Michael Laws factoid...
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Craig, if Rodney was genuinely concerned about improving representation by non-old white welathy males, then perhaps he could start with his own party.
Carol: I'd say the same thing to North Shore Mayor Andy Williams -- when it comes to cabals of middle-age, middle-class beige men (and the occasional vag), you can't do better (worse?) than the NSCC.
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the occasional vag
Are they like occasional tables? Can I rest a martini on one? :)
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The degree to which these councillors are representative of Maori has been a subject of local media discussion recently.
First: The linked story is fucking weird. God bless Gizzie. :) But it actually had fuck all to do with "the degree to which these councillors are representative of Maori" as opposed to a rather bizarre attempt by Foon and others to get everyone neatly classified like specimens in a lab.
And I really hope, Chris, that you're not buying into the crude Te Borgism of equating brown faces with "good representation of Maori views." That would be grossly simplistic, and more than a little patronising toward Maori and Pakeha alike.
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Are they like occasional tables? Can I rest a martini on one? :)
They might as well be -- given how that clown school dropout of a Mayor appears able to be an irresponsible idiot without restraint.
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Carol: I'd say the same thing to North Shore Mayor Andy Williams -- when it comes to cabals of middle-age, middle-class beige men (and the occasional vag), you can't do better (worse?) than the NSCC.
I missed a train jumping tracks somewhere. How is the North Shore Mayor responsible for the ACT party list?
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God bless Gizzie. :)
Agreed the story is weird, incomplete, and not entirely atypical of Gisborne politics. Yes I was trying to compress forty aspects into fewer.
But given Cabinet's rejection of the Commission's plan A, perhaps it would be for others such as yourself Craig to outline what good Maori representation might mean and how it might be achieved in super-Auckland. I'm just providing some data to indicate that a lot more would be necessary than a dismissive "Maori should get organised, stand for election and get elected on merit".
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I missed a train jumping tracks somewhere. How is the North Shore Mayor responsible for the ACT party list?
Williams was all over the media yesterday describing the Cabinet as a "cabal" of "middle-aged white men" that had behaved exactly like the regime in Fiji to disenfranchise Maori. He's aboslutely responsible for that.
Rather ironic (or highly hypocritical) when you look at the total white-out that is the NSCC. Especially as I've seen no evidence that he previously showed any enthusiasm for reserved seats on the NSCC for Maori or any other totally unrepresented
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Rather ironic (or highly hypocritical) when you look at the total white-out that is the NSCC. Especially as I've seen no evidence that he previously showed any enthusiasm for reserved seats on the NSCC for Maori or any other totally unrepresented
That's nice. I fail to see any link between him and Rodney Hide or ACT. Not applying your typical deflection are you Craig?
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Minority seeks rights by getting a majority? Doesn't usually happen.
And often that would be a case of "sorry guys, worst form of government except all others etc etc..." but in this case it's "Minority seeks to affirm (admittedly complex) rights contractually stated at birth of nation but now brushed aside by majority as not particularly helpful to themselves"...
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Sharples call for a conscience vote on the Maori seats had me smilin for a while.
Imagine the vote. :) -
That's nice. I fail to see any link between him and Rodney Hide or ACT. Not applying your typical deflection are you Craig?
Kyle: Don't "see" it -- that's nice, but not my problem. You don't have to agree with me, and you're certainly under no obligation to engage with comments you don't understand or are uninterested in.
But until you get some actual moderator privileges around here (or are running your own blog), could you give the tiresome "I pronounce you irrelevant, so shut up" routine a rest?
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Not applying your typical deflection are you Craig?
Not this time, to be fair - see his 10.44 above.
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Snap
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But given Cabinet's rejection of the Commission's plan A, perhaps it would be for others such as yourself Craig to outline what good Maori representation might mean and how it might be achieved in super-Auckland. I'm just providing some data to indicate that a lot more would be necessary than a dismissive "Maori should get organised, stand for election and get elected on merit".
Fair challenge, Chris, but one I don't really want to attack superficially. I'm just unconvinced that reserved Maori seats are more than a sledgehammer taken to an egg. But I'll give your serious question some serious consideration.
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But until you get some actual moderator privileges around here (or are running your own blog), could you give the tiresome "I pronounce you irrelevant, so shut up" routine a rest?
I didn't tell you to shut up. Just called you on something that you tend to do a lot around here. The "You've pointed to A but B is the same so don't complain about A." Which ignores the fact that B is hardly ever the same, and B also doesn't tend to make A OK, in a 'two wrongs don't make a right" kind of way.
Ironic given that you also say this:
It's also cute as Hello Kitty to be told that if you don't support solution X. (like all "thinking people") you don't care care about worthy cause Y.
But feel free to move on in whatever way you feel best about.
Not this time, to be fair - see his 10.44 above.
You mean apart from the fact that:
Mayors run as individuals, not party lists, so a mayor doesn't actually control who else ends up in council, nor do they control the structure of council. The NSCC submission stated that they wanted greater representation for Maori on the supercity council, so attacking a major for a council he can't do much about when he submits arguing for greater Maori representation doesn't make much sense.
Rodney Hide does indeed have quite a bit of control over who ends up on his party list and therefore in parliament. It's pretty white in the single digits.
Rodney Hide also has quite a bit of control over how the restructured Auckland council is put together.
Rodney Hide, according to the story Carol quoted, was the one concerned about representation for all diverse groups, yet he shows no signs of actually doing that in any meaningful way. -
Mayors run as individuals, not party lists, so a mayor doesn't actually control who else ends up in council, nor do they control the structure of council.
Fair point, though the leader of our political parties doesn't get final say on list composition either, and Councils vary about how committee chairs and suchlike are divvied up. Overall, I just think Craig's later clarification was closer than the earlier comment you were responding to.
Maybe he has cunningly recalibrated my expectations about equivalence..
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Mayors run as individuals, not party lists, so a mayor doesn't actually control who else ends up in council
Certainly not, but (on the QT and with some authority) I can tell you no leader of the National Party can assume their preferences for electorate and list candidates will be rubber stamped by the organisational wing. I'd be very surprised if any political party does.
But that's by the by. I think its entirely fair comment to point out that a man who was all over the media yesterday bitching Cabinet as a "cabal of middle-class white men" leads a Council with precisely no Maori or other non-white minority members. Folks who it would also be hard to describe as (as John Banks is wont to say) "Kiwi battlers from Struggle Street".
And as far as I'm aware, in his eight years in local government he's shown zero interest in increasing the diversity of the NSCC and Community Boards through reserved seats for Maori or any other totally unrepresented minority.
It's unfair to point out that the media's favourite mayoral rentaquote on Maori representation doesn't exactly have the best track record on this issue? That he leads the most monocultural Council in Auckland?
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