Category: Local Government
I have just resigned from the Northland Regional Council on a matter of principle, over how ONE vote can change a century old system of electing our local decision makers. To alter the electoral system to introduce separate seats based on race without a poll being taken of the community is abhorrent.
Consenting processes are already slow enough and councils are hardly well positioned to assess the carbon effects of anything. Consultants providing climate impact assessments may do well, but it won’t help New Zealand’s net emissions where those emissions are already covered under the ETS.
Progressing the Treaty ‘partnership’ agenda has been a key priority of Labour. As a result, the rights of those who identify as Maori are being elevated above those of all other New Zealanders, undermining the concept of equal rights upon which our democracy is based.
Instead of questioning the accuracy of the computer models, the Prime Minister appears to have been spooked into making another of her disastrous 'Captain’s Calls' - to lock down the country and ‘eliminate’ the virus.
If the government wants to get New Zealand working it should get rid of the Resource Management Act. Even one of its architects, Geoffrey Palmer, has said the RMA is broken.
The cause of rising house prices is basic economics – demand exceeds supply. In the short run, excess demand bids up prices. In the longer run, high prices lead to an increase in supply, particularly in new construction. But we are not yet in a balanced demand-supply situation.
The Race Relations Commissioner demanded Andrew Hollis’s immediate resignation after posting on social media the Treaty is “a joke”. Point of Order sought clarification about the implications for the freedom of speech which should be cherished in a healthy democracy.
Local democracy may look like its working, but council rules of engagement virtually prohibit any public conflict of opinion between councillors. Codes of Conduct and the demand for “group speak” preclude vigorous debate. It is wrongly viewed that dissent around a council table is seen as dysfunctional. Nothing could be further from the truth. The ability to speak against and vote 'no' in the face of majority support is an all too rare attribute in politics.
Speculative technology is no substitute for an established and lucrative industry that is being destroyed by government policy. Like the oil industry, the justification for their attack on farmers is the Prime Minister's fixation with being seen as a global leader in climate change.
There can be no doubt that British Royal Navy captain William Hobson is the founding father both of New Zealand as an independent sovereign nation and of Auckland as its greatest city. No other person has so singularly influenced the course of modern New Zealand history.
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