Posts by Sacha
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I agree with Craig. The election is being turned into a beauty contest when - despite the corporatisation - there is still a lot at stake and the party bloc level is most relevant regardless of whoever the Mayor happens to be.
The level of media analysis has been woeful - and especially in the Herald's case, conveniently too late to make any difference. Rod Oram's stories like this one about CCOs stand out in their understanding of the politics and the implications and will make interesting re-reading in a couple of years.
Imagine, for example, the chaos on a particular stretch of waterfront: The waterfront CCO might want more green housing; the economic development CCO more boat-building; the major facilities CCO a sports stadium; the property CCO quick profits from council land sales; the transport CCO more land for the next harbour crossing; Watercare more networked stormwater and sewage treatment for new developments rather than local processing wanted by the waterfront agency to tout its sustainability credentials; and the investment CCO refusing to give up more port land to make this happen.
Meanwhile, the council is trying to devise a spatial plan to lift Auckland's growth and sustainability to a whole new level. But it lacks the resources, powers or skills to do that because they largely reside in the CCOs. And it lacks power to pull the CCOs together in the common cause of Auckland's progress.
The government could stop this disaster happening by drastically amending its third Auckland governance bill to give the council: much stronger powers and resources to set strategy; real control over the CCOs; and flexibility to change CCOs by making them publicly owned companies rather than locking in their functions by making some of them statutory entities (such as Auckland Transport) or trusts.
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You might also want to extend that to elements in Labour -- some of which are disturbingly close to Phil Goff, and ghost Chris Trotter's glue-huffing exercises in negrophobic fantasy fiction.
Craig, I agreed with you yesterday in no uncertain terms that Trotter's foaming rant is deplorable.
Difference is, he is (thankfully) not a party leader let alone the prime minister. And unless you can name some names and show some evidence I doubt his words would have had the involvement of any state-funded Labour PR lackeys either.
Fran O'Sullivan attempts today to portray it as a "clumsy" off-the-cuff throwaway. Nice try. Key must be good at some things but extemporaneous speaking is not one of them, and you only have to hear or see him deliver those words to know they were written down beforehand.
It takes little further thinking to connect their casual racism with the speaker, government and party that is behind them. Show some equivalent connections around Trotter's garbage and you can keep your protestations of equivalence - though I don't deny for a second that racism is spread around more broadly.
O'Sullivan mentions aspects in the draft settlement agreement which could have so spooked both Trotter and our currency trader in chief.
The proposed Tuhoe settlement is arguably the first steps towards self-governance by a tribe which insists it never gave up its sovereignty in the first place.
A one-page summary of the deal to Maori TV a fortnight ago indicated the settlement would also ensure particular Government services would be devolved over time. It wanted other tribes to apologise for assisting Government troops to drive them off their lands.
Negotiator Tamati Kruger indicated the tribe would be able to "tax" its people and other sources suggest it wants to represent itself separately on the international stage.
In substance this is probably not too far a stretch from the Scottish home rule movement.
In reality it may not turn out to be such a frightening prospect for New Zealand to accommodate. But the hurdle that must first be passed is the necessity to build trust among other New Zealanders that Tuhoe will honour a settlement and not freeze others from access to the park or force them to pay a small fortune to enjoy its treasures.
I'm curious what Tuhoe's motivation would have been to leak the proposed settlement as O'Sullivan claims (while she chides them that they should be grateful for such benign and enlightened colonists).
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Trotter's been at the paint thinner again
Indeed. What a tired, racist fuckwit - and that's my carefully considered opinion. Male menopause has a lot to answer for.
If you, the members of the National Party, do not rouse yourselves, then your own, once- proud, political brand will suffer the same fate as Corso's.
Already, ideological extremism has driven thousands of your members out of the party.
And now those same extremists, working hand-in-glove with radical Maori nationalists, are getting ready to tip both your government and your dramatically restructured party organisation into the same death spiral that destroyed Corso.
Them Maaris will destroy us all. How does excrement like this even get published in a daily newspaper?
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Does that mean The Aucklander also has some people in common or other links with The Standard?
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"I'm sorry if you were offended" is not an apology - as most children learn eventually
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Oh, and of course the fearful ninnies who canned the inclusion of Te Urewera in the settlement with Tuhoe.
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We're lucky in the sense that our racist fringe only extends as far as New Zealand First and, some might say, the Maori Party (or elements therein).
Given recent events, you might have to extend that to elements in National - sentiment reflected by whatever internal spin-doctor approved that deliberately-crafted utterance, to say nothing of the cheeky whitey who delivered it.
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Ah, literature. Somewhere in a leafy suburb a posh kitty is probly crapping on shredded copies of Trowenna Sea
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I can only think of two who are still revered in some way: Sir Edmund Hillary and Sir Peter Blake.
He's right - the others are just old guys who used to play sport, and few under 30 will ever have heard of them
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I'm gonna look for extra signs of sweat and wrinkles tonight.
Scratches, more like