Posts by Joshua Arbury
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Surely if a smack was to be "legalised" then one would need to change assault laws and not s59?
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The funny thing is that if the referndum question had been "should the s59 repeal be overturned" it may have still got a majority, and would have given the government much stronger direction on the feeling of the country.
I wonder if Family First are going "bugger, we should have asked that question instead".
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I actually don't mind what the government has done here. Someone needed to step in and sort out at least a part of the waterfront, and I'm glad it's been done.
Now.... about what to put there. As you say sofie, Open the Gates ASAP, let people explore the area a bit and work out what they want there. In a way I think that the "less is more" approach would be good here. Do we just want a good space to hang out in?
There should be enough time to decide upon that.
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I think half the problem is that everyone pisses around doing nothing forever, and then by the time we go "holy crap the world cup's only two years away" things need to be rushed through without the necessary thought.
This whole Queens Wharf issue should have been sorted out about two years ago. Then we could have spent a year arguing about who should pay what for it, and then we could have spent a while arguing about what should be built on it....
There is an interesting tension between the whole "damn it takes forever to do anything in this city" feeling and the "not enough consultation, why hasn't my voice been heard" feeling. You can't easily have it both ways.
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Totally agree jarbury but I would add, A Bus Station.
There's one across the road.
Given it's in Auckland, I'd say an IMAX screen or five, a food court, branches of all leading chainstores and convenient parking for 5000 cars.
When I visit Western Springs Park, Cornwall Park or the Domain on a sunny summer's Sunday afternoon there are a LOT of people there. So we don't just flock to the malls.
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Two clear problems with the question:
1) It assumes that a smack can be part of good parental correction. Surely that's up for debate.
2) When you read the question it certainly seems as though you're being asked "should good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?"
That's like asking "should it be illegal to drink water in New Zealand?"
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I think one should interpret the question as "do you support the s59 repeal law change?" even if that's not what it actually asks.
I support it, so I would vote yes.
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I hope that the development plans for Queens Wharf start off asking the simple question of "what would get people to flock to this area on a sunny summer's Sunday afternoon?" and then go from there.
I suspect that something as simple as a large, grassy, open space would do the tricky excellently. Somewhere for people to play a bit of 'park cricket' (see if you can hit the ball into the harbour) or a bit of touch rugby, while others sit around on blankets and have picnics. Have a CRAP LOAD of seating around the edge of the wharf, so people can enjoy the view, and perhaps a world-class sculpture and/or fountain at the far end to encourage people out to the end of it.
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Would you notice the difference though Simon?
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Opening up Queens Wharf is an essential and fantastic project, but yeah I agree it's pretty strange for the government to be pushing Auckland City Council hard to spend a huge amount of money on this - while at the same time cabinet approving Rodney Hide's "slash and burn" local government ideas. Sounds rather similar to how they're such big fans of referendums - except for the Super-City.
Fiscal conservatism and consultation are clearly great - except when they get in the way of the agenda you're trying to push though. Hypocrisy much?