By Chris Trotter*
The Left have a whole lot of lessons to learn from their “shellacking” in Saturday’s local government elections. Sadly, the chances are high they’ll learn none of them.
The response of the Auckland Left has been particularly infantile – and hypocritical. It was National Party activist Hamish Price who responded most effectively to the Woke Left’s horrified reaction to Wayne Brown’s decisive victory over Efeso Collins in the Auckland Mayoralty race, with the wickedly pithy tweet:
“In 2019 Auckland elected an old white guy as Mayor of Auckland against Person Of Colour John Tamihere. But that wasn’t racist because Phil Goff was backed by Labour.”
Not that the Right’s gleeful exposure of the Left’s ethical and political shortcomings will prevent the latter from blaming everyone but themselves for the defeats they have suffered across the country. In their sights are – in no particular order – the Baby Boomer Generation, the postal voting system, the political passivity of the poor, and the dysfunctional design of our democratic political system.
Political analysts will search in vain for evidence that the Left understands that its succession of defeats (Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin) is attributable only in part to a nationwide turning away from the Labour Government and its policies – especially the deeply unpopular “Three Waters”. Evidence that Saturday’s losers are coming to grips with their critical failure to master ad-man Mike Hutcheson’s “Three Ms” – Message, Money, Machine – has yet to surface.
In time, one hopes, the Left will come to understand that, in all four of the main centres, it was the winning candidates’ mastery of the Three Ms that delivered their victories.
Wayne Brown had all the money he needed to hone his campaign’s message: hiring specialists to test a variety of pitches on potential voters. These experts were also able to identify which demographics were the most likely to vote for his ideas. Guided by political “hired guns” Matthew Hooton and Ben Thomas (formerly “Exeltium”) Brown’s campaign maintained an impressively tight operational discipline.
The key demographic for Brown turned out to be the “Country Calendar Watchers”. These were the over-55 voters who still relied on radio and television for most of their information. The folk who tuned-in to Newstalk-ZB to hear what people like themselves (and Mike Hosking) were thinking and saying. They watched One News, and snuggled-in tight on Sunday evenings for the reassuring images of the decent, hard-working (mostly Pakeha) New Zealand cockies so beloved of “Country Calendar’s” producers.
Wayne Brown’s “Fix Auckland” slogan chimed perfectly with this key demographic. They were less interested in ideological concerns than they were in sorting-out the council. They liked the fact that Brown was abrasive. They did not want a Mayor who suffered fools gladly and allowed himself to be bossed around by city bureaucrats. They were in the political market for a disruptor: someone who could, in the words of Mark Zuckerberg, “move fast and break things”. That the candidate was also a civil engineer, with a reputation for repairing broken things, certainly did him no harm.
Brown did not have a “Machine” in the classic, feet-on-the-ground, Labour/National door-knocking tradition. He didn’t need one. He could reach his key demographic through Newstalk-ZB. Brown’s advertising spend on Auckland’s most popular radio station was all the “Machine” he needed. Historically, the over-55s are the citizens most likely to participate in local elections. They do not need to be “mobilised” – merely steered in the right direction. Carefully targeted social-media messaging added a sweet layer of icing to Brown’s cake.
The same turned out to be true, mutatis mutandis, of successful campaigns across the country. The Right was well-funded, well-prepared, and presented a message which those most likely to vote were eager to hear.
Even in Wellington, where the supposedly left-wing Tory Whanau rolled over both the incumbent, Andy Foster, and Labour’s Paul Eagle, the result owed as much to the candidate’s mastery of the Three Ms as it did to her ideology. Whanau is a superb communicator, whose message that Wellington needed a Green Mayor resonated energetically in the country’s greenest city – electorally-speaking. With sufficient money to sustain her campaign, all Whanau needed was a machine. No problem. Anyone living in or visiting Wellington could hardly miss Whanau’s ground-game. There were feet-on-the-ground in large numbers and plenty of youthful enthusiasm. The newly-elected Mayor told the media that the size of her win came as a surprise. It shouldn’t have.
It is the common theme linking these successes that should give Labour the most concern. Across the country there is a growing sense of disconnection and disempowerment. So much needs to be done, but the democratic transmission-belts that are supposed to carry the needs and wants of the citizenry to the individuals and entities charged with delivering them, no longer seem to work.
Plans are made, and decisions are taken, but not by citizens: not even by the representatives of citizens. At both the national and the local level, unelected and increasingly unaccountable bureaucrats appear to have taken charge. Everywhere, New Zealanders see evidence of centralisation. Everywhere the checks and balances of democracy are being discarded. Elected councillors are expected to act as rubber stamps. Citizens are the stampees.
Nowhere was this situation more vividly illustrated than in the actions of the Orwellian-named “Council Controlled Organisation”, Auckland Transport (AT). Without warning, AT’s CEO informed the users of Auckland’s rail network that its tracks were about to be torn up and re-laid. This would require a cessation of services – some as long as a year. Hugely disruptive of Aucklanders’ lives though it was, AT’s decision was conveyed to Auckland’s elected councillors only after it had been announced publicly. A peculiar way to demonstrate Council Control!
That the Chair of the AT Board, Adrienne Young-Cooper, upon learning of Wayne Brown’s landslide victory, thought it best to offer him her resignation, has been taken as a good omen by all those who voted for “Mr Fix-It” in hopes of instant action being taken. It also prompted the immediate question: Will the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, draw a similar message of the need for instant action from the results of the local government elections?
Interviewed by a typically over-excited John Campbell for the Q+A programme’s Local Elections Special on Sunday morning (9/10/22) the newly-elected Mayor of Nelson, National’s Nick Smith, maintained his equanimity in the face of remarks about his political longevity that bordered on the offensive. All of a piece, it would seem, with Campbell’s earlier observation that the Baby Boom generation was refusing to “go quietly”.
Smith took the gratuitous ageism in good part, countering with an observation or two of his own. If the Labour Government was wise, he said, it would interpret the Left’s defeats as evidence of the electorate having had enough of its policies. Identifying the Three Waters project specifically, he warned that it would be permitted to proceed only by a government with a “death wish”.
Ardern’s ministry has just twelve months to prove it is not suicidal.
*Chris Trotter has been writing and commenting professionally about New Zealand politics for more than 30 years. He writes a weekly column for interest.co.nz. His work may also be found at http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com.
153 Comments
... agreed ... I want Ardern & her circus to continue as they are ... just 12 months more ... before someone , anyone , even Luxon replaces them ... Ardern's is the worst , most shambolic arrogant government ever ...
Just keep pushing 3 waters , and co-governance ... that should be the nail in Labour's coffin ... and good riddance to the lot of them ...
I might disappoint you , but this is not her personally , she is the choice of more than 50% of average Joes here in NZ , so enjoy - she is just representation of average Joe in this country and from beginning of Covid we all could contemplate it, -
starting from toilet paper rushes and absolute fascist treatment of people who did not want inject in themselves something that great majority injected just because "others" will think of them badly
start changes from yourself ,from your attitude and treatment of other people and other people's views.
And guess what - if you don't - in 2-3 years time you will think how to not send your kids to the war they don't have to fight for. as easy as that.
Your comment confirms the possibility of JA and Co continuing to think that their opponents are the problem, rather than listening to voters, assessing and changing their approach. The sheer arrogance of thinking they have a mandate for items they didn’t campaign on will be their downfall. They have had five years and have squandered it. BTW I’m far more worried about the exodus of the young right now, than some imagined possibility of conscription for WW3. How would you even do that with NZ’s diaspora?
Suggest the problem is that they themselves think they are pretty damn good and they have set themselves up with layers of advisors & consultants, courtiers if you like, to tell them so every day (can’t blame the latter for sucking out of the gravy train can you.) But in a similar vein it’s getting to be like individuals you come across , who are too thick to work out they’re thick.
Labour are far from gone.
Luxon is the party of tax cuts and property investors - which is a major misread of the wants of modern middle to upper class .. as the tories just found out in the UK.
I am a business owner in tech but will vote for a labour coalition unless national changes to support a productive economy (which won't happen this time round) over their property investment and uber elite corporate friends. They need to prioritise to invest and carefully manage spend in climate friendly infrastructure and sort out deprived kids/education/health/crime/drugs/superannuation before cutting taxes. Most people I know are the same -> who wants to leave our kids in such a messed up place - we want to pay more tax for a better place to live for us and our friends (which will actually lead to more wealth in the medium to long term and better lifestyle for all).
Jacinda is in for an easy next term if National mis-read the mood of the mid tier voters as per Liz Truss.
If you want to pay more tax, then pay more tax. But that's no reason why the average earner should be taxed more and more by stealth through bracket creep to underwrite centralising of services with no improvement of output, excluding hiring more little emperors in Wellington.
The real key to Labour getting elected for another term is conning more people into believing this is a choice they're actually able to make. But if the choice is things going down the gurgler at the same rate or faster (like more congestion, high inflation, no infrastructure development) then it's getting to the point where someone else should get a crack.
Doing literally the same thing and then being sanctimonious about it despite not achieving anything is getting pretty tiresome.
Doing literally the same thing and then being sanctimonious about it despite not achieving anything is getting pretty tiresome
But unfortunately that's precisely the National problem. Tax cuts for property speculators is just looting at this stage...young people will be out of here to where they don't have to just pay their landlords' rents and pensions while being also asked to fund the bulk of society's services.
That's like asking sheep to vote for wolves.
.....and if her lastest press conference doing the rounds internationally on the net is anything to go by, she had a good ol' snort of something strong before going in front of the camera.
Reminded me of the scenes in Scarface when Tony Montana (Al Pacino) has his nose jammed up with coke.
The lesson for the left, anywhere, has been simple for a long time - cut the shallow, woke rhetoric and false promises and deliver working people the improved conditions and tools they need to prosper.
- Tax reform (as per Top)
- Much more funding for frontline health and education, not swelling an already overweight bureaucracy
- Building much more housing
Not really that hard.
I have heard that Chardonnay has been flying off the shelves in Wellington these past 5 years!!!
I agree that the 'woke' language is unhelpful and 'triggers' many folk.But I think it is important to not just focus on this as it clouds some of the changes for good that have been happening and we should also hold the opposition to account on what exactly their policies are.In the past and probably the future,Nats will offer tax cuts paid for by austerity,are any opposition parties saying they will pay nurses or teachers more wages,have they said they are going to embark on a massive health infrastructure? There is a new hospital being built in Dunedin,fast tracked by this government.Minimum wages have been increased for those on the bottom.I walked through Owairaka in Akl in the weekend,massive rebuild of a state house area,with all the proper infrastruture being installed,not just 2 leaky dwellings in someones backyard as in the past,real change with proper infrastructure takes time.
I noticed when I voted that gone were the pages of candidates that used to be there for all the hospital boards,layers and layers of bureacracy removed.
The problem with the development in areas like Owairaka and Tamaki is that they are not adding to the state housing supply, they are just maintaining it.
And they are relying on a third of the housing being market price housing to fund the state housing build. There’s a big problem with that - hardly any buyers for 2 bedroom townhouses at circa 900k ( get a mortgage calculator out and plug in a mortgage of say 750k at 6%) So what happens next with that model???
It may not be the silver bullet,but it is adding to the housing supply overall which has to be helpful as we supply starting to match demand which was driving so much of the increase in prices.It also increases the overall quality of our housing stock,which is atrocious in many places.
Vman. The new Dunedin hospital has been in the pipeline long before a Labour Government. Fast track is a laugh. I know people employed on the project who now have nothing to do for a couple of years yet. It's 'sort of delayed'. But that's ok. Government money so they will just get paid anyway.
And thanks to the cyclist Pete Hodgson, new hospital, no carparks. !!!!!!! Again !!!!! When realistically they need about 3000 parks. So nurses walking back to their car 2-3km at midnight. On Wednesday I was dropped outside the fracture clinic. (biking there was not going to happen) My lovely wife then took 25 minutes to find a carpark. 25 minutes going around the blocks.
Whether it was in the 'pipeline' or not,this cabinet approved it in April 2021...there are lots of things in the 'pipeline',but someone has to get it across the line.
Just like Labour approved the Waterview Tunnel and National got to cut the ribbon.
Remember,it's only a rort if you are not involved,,.plenty of private enterprise as well as public service where there are inefficiencies that get passed on as costs to the the public.If Mayor Brown went through half the folk in heres businesses,he would point out lazy clowns who aren't working hard enough.
I thought Labour approved only a 2x2 tunnel. It was National that made it a 2x3 tunnel, changed the alignment and fast tracked the approval process. When Labour approved their tunnel, they did not set aside money for its construction
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/96543448/factchecking-watervi…
From the same article:
Amusing to see that Bills brother thought f*ck Auckland,let's spend the money on some water for a few farmers...
After the Key government came to power in November 2008, then-Transport Minister Steven Joyce announced his preferred option was to ditch bored tunnels in favour of a cheaper route combining a surface route with cut and cover tunnels that could be expanded to a three-lane route further down the track.
The government also came under pressure to fund infrastructure projects outside of Auckland.
Bill English's own brother, Conor English, Federated Farmers chief executive at the time, said the tunnel project was unwarranted and the money saved could be used for irrigation projects instead.
But Joyce's plan would be revised later in 2009, after massive opposition from Waterview residents.
LOL,I'll give you that on a technicality,but it looks like both sides can't agree.I'd call it a draw from a government perspective,but a big win for those of us who live in the suburb...cos Joyces original suface plan + cut and cover...and worst of all,"the kick the can down the road plan" for widening later was stymied by local pressure.
Shame this wonder of engineering is undone a few km's done the road southbound by the motoway going from 3 lanes down to 2 for approx 100 metres before going back to 3 around the Hillsborough bridge....every morning,carnage.
Labour can build as many hospitals as they like. If you attend an A+E or are on a waiting list, there is a massive doctor shortage in the public health system. Labour hasn't computed that putting a pay freeze on those who earn more than a 100K, and putting a 39% tax rate on earnings over 180K. Means that virtually all specialists working in the public health system have had a cut in their tax home pay compared to 2019.
Seems it is a global problem;
Britain;
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11044417/After-SIX-hours-stuck…
Australia;
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11285099/NSW-ambulances-hospit…
Well,I look forward to hearing how National & ACT are going to increase local doctors salaries to match Australia...should be a simple yes or no answer..."If you become the next government,will you increase doctors salaries to match...yes or no?.."
Going to be some magic trick considering they are giving tax cuts as well.
I note National have outlined cutting 14000 public servants, apparently saving $3 billion per annum. The plan is no cuts to frontline staff, including police, health and education. They believe there is a lot of fat to cut.
From my experience there is. This is how the system works, for example mental health, it is now incredibly hard to get a patient seen acutely. Mental health is not hitting their KPIs (key performance indicators), there is a shortage of frontline workers eg psychiatrists and psychologists. So you employ managers, to try to make things more efficient. The managers write reports, and convene meetings with managers and frontline workers and have a talkfest. This means the frontline workers are taken off the frontline to attend meetings, where people with no common sense or no real world experience, tell frontline workers how they should be doing there jobs.
More often than not local elections are a harbinger of swings to come in the next general election. That may well be true this time too and while I would suggest this government has outstayed its welcome, at the same time neither does National impress me that much as a replacement. I would hope that in the coming months National introduces to the electorate a good number of candidates of recognised calibre and dispenses with some that have overstayed their welcome too.
Jacinda has already distanced herself from the local body elections ... claiming that 37 mayors support 3 waters ... that the outcome was no reflection upon her & her government ... yadda dadda dooo .... ( on this rare occasion the previous National government was not blamed ) ...
... she's deeper in denial than the Egyptian swimming team ...
Well the country certainly has a good opportunity to watch and observe how it is 'supposed to be done"
Between Truss and her party in Britain,Wayne Brown in Akl,we will get an idea how straight forward it is to change things,get things done,transform the economy with tax cuts or "fix Akl"
I am looking forward to catching the CRL into town next year to socialise in a crime free zone,to drive my car on congestion free roads to park outside where I want to shop,dip my toes in the foreshore where the port used to be,tossing coins into the hats of all the unemployed ex council workers who have been replaced by a "couple of mates" from Northland.
But seriously,this is a good chance for the nation to take a breath,leave the covid rhetoric & all other mis- information behind,see how we perform compared to the rest of the world when we have had 12 months or more without restrictions.Then we can hopefully calmly analyse and cast a vote accordingly rather than just "right is might" or "left is best" ,hopefully with out too many extreme fringe parties muddying the waters.
Two most likely outcomes for Brown is he gets bogged down in quagmires and gets nothing done or is so confrontational he ends up isolated and the power of CCO silos just finds a different way to work past his edicts, like all bodies of water eventually do.
The unfortunate reality is he has to turn pap about 'fixing Auckland', ranting about roadcones and quips about pissing on journalists into actual, tangible outcomes and then convince the people who voted for him (ironically the people most responsible for our current malaise) that things are somehow better, and we aren't just stagnating or going backwards even faster than we were before.
On the subject of intensification,people need to remember it was the National Party with Nicola Willis who initiated the 'cross party' accord to increase density in our cities...Willis has gone amazingly quiet on this one;
https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/19-10-2021/rare-show-of-cross-party-a…
Excerpt;
"..National’s housing and urban development spokesperson Nicola Willis said the Housing Supply Bill is a “win-win” for home buyers and renters alike.
“New Zealand has some of the most unaffordable housing in the world. The impact of our housing shortage reaches right across our communities, robbing too many of the aspiration of home-ownership, leaving thousands homeless and fuelling inequality,” she said.
“Today National and Labour are coming together to say an emphatic ‘yes’ to housing in our backyards.”
Collins said the new legislation will remove the ”time, cost and complexity that too often greets those who want to build new dwellings”.
Well,given the depth of feeling around intensification in many electorates,Willis could come out and say why she and the Nats supported intensification instead of stepping back quietly and watching the government and council take the flack...perhaps there are too many votes to be lost in the leafy suburbs?
The thing is no matter how strongly some people feel about intensificaton, they don't have an inherent right to turn their suburbs into gated communities. They want the benefit of a desirable suburb or amenities but don't want anyone else to be able to live there.
Meanwhile the development gets pushed out to the fringe and we all get poorer. It's good that we're acknowledging that's a crappy outcome, even if some old fogies want to get their panties in a bunch over it. The world doesn't revolve around them and it's time they accepted it. Just because people get angry about something doesn't make them right about it.
Yea,it makes me laugh,I listen to colleagues who whinge about red tape to do something to their house,"how dare the council tell me what I can do with my property"...then when the neighbour wants to develop,it's " why aren't the council stopping this,I want this notified so I can have a say what the neighbour does on HIS property..apparently you can have it both ways lol.
Maybe some of that, but as someone who is all for more supply, both up and out, with true market reform, I can tell you that the dictate by the council is not via the market. It's just pure socialism - communism even.
If you think that is hypocritical self-interest, then it would also be so if you had a spare room in your house that wasn't being used and the Govt. called you out on that as it could provide shelter for the homeless.
When you buy a property, it is sold to you with certain promises, which are meant to be protected by law. Some of it is statute law and some of it is local body laws that the council is meant to admin. on your behalf as the individual of that property.
It's a breaking of the social contract by the council or State Govt, to change the use of your property and surrounding properties without your or your neighbour's consent. If you and your neighbors agree, fine, if they don't then they could get together and put their own covenants (maybe with a time limit) on the property to protect its present amenity value.
But this in its present form is taking away previously agreed property rights and is just another form of three waters reform.
Especially given that both increasing density and fixing up our aging infrastructure can be achieved by better free-market reforms, that coincidently would restore people's trust in local and Central Govt.
Forcing huge house prices and mega-commutes onto young people while still expecting them to fund your retirement in central suburbs doesn't seem like a stellar example of a functional social contract either.
We tried it the old fashioned way. It doesn't work. You don't have an inherent right to dictate how others can or can't use their land. That's never been part of 'agreed property rights'.
What we do have is an entitlement issue where older New Zealanders think they have a right to limit access to housing in a bid to line their own pockets.
A churlish attitude. We don't need to degrade every suburb with cheap and lazy infill. We need to start building proper density - apartments - in the and around our centres. This was already underway via the NPS-UD. The infill in your back yard rubbish agreed by Labour and the Nats was completely unnecessary and we will see in time how bad the architecture on some of this infill really will be.
The 'infill in your back yard' rubbish was already happening across Auckland, the Council were dragging their feet on the NPS-UD and this took it out of their hands. Even now they've used the Light Rail Corridor as an excuse to not give details about how that would work in Central Auckland. If Council had played ball, then this wouldn't have been needed.
On the subject of selective memory,I noticed this article from Oz today:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11295239/Mickleham-Covid-quara…
Imagine if we followed Chris Bishops idea,ours would be finished in 2025 and cost 3 billion...lucky we didn't have the Judith & the Nats in charge during covid.
https://www.national.org.nz/miq-should-be-moved-outside-of-downtown-auc…
That's the great thing about being in opposition,you can just say sh*t and there is no consequences...
vman -- if we had built similar facilities that were multi purpose -- in areas like Bay of Plenty, Hawks Bay - Nelson and Queenstown -- we could have ended up with some excellent temporary accommodation for seasonal workers -or transient Kiwis - in the right parts of the country thats desperately need cheap budget accommodation -- In addition we would have had these facilities in place for the next pandemic -- and there will be one -- in rural areas that are easy to keep isolated -- and not in hotels in our major population centers
Some countries built them in weeks and months not years where most of the delay is backward council processes -- and as for cost even if your figure of $3 billion was accurate -- its not -- thats like 25% of Grant Roberstson's current loss on LSAP - a fraction of the 62 Billion borrowing for Covid, and only 9 months of our current emergency housing spend ! It just needed a bit of vision and lateral thinking --
no but it is the governments job to provide safe quarantine facilities --- which it should be doing and could have then generated an income in the process to provide a return on the investment and maintain the facility - it would also have ensured that the seasonal workers - a scheme which all governments have supported - have safe warm dry affordable accommodation ( Employers are not responsible for that just pay and working conditions) and of course it would have meant work in those areas building the facilities and then all year round opportunities to manage them -
Its not just governments that are lacking in vision -- the Number 8 wire mentality - of innovation and creativity is being stifiled and driven out of New Zealand by Governments and council beauraucrats - who refuse to even entertain this type of thinking
interestingly enough --- there are a few newcomers to the council -- and many of them are disrupters - and will be most likely to support Brown to actually get things done -- There were a few signficant changes at council and local level - and a number of Goff and Brown supporters who said goodbye - people like Linda Cooper - paying the price for years of poor performance -- if you hear a good word about AT -- you are listening to someone with a 150K a year cushy job at AT -- hated by all aucklanders - if he simply reverses have the moronic decisions -- the city may get moving again !
My understanding is that Brown leaves a trail of destruction behind him ... was elected in a landslide in the Far North and then booted out after being reprimanded by the Auditor General for dubious handling of his business conflicts of interests.
Trotter's comments about ZB listeners is spot on, I heard from several how great Brown was going to be.
Therein lies the rub. I'm not saying Collins was a great choice (both candidates were very uninspiring, and the city deserves better) but it feels like the whole voting process is outdated and lends itself to support from traditional media consumers - particularly post and radio (in this case ZB) - is it any wonder that voters were largely over 50?
Time the system has a shake-up. I guess by next time Simon Bridges will be ready for his run. Who will stand against him?
Nanaia Mahuta is the minister of local body affairs ... if we have issues with the election process , take it up with her ... she's had 5 years to reform the voting process ...
Wayne Brown was not a great choice for Orc Land mayor ... Efeso Collins was several degrees worser than him ...
GBH,maybe if you vote them in for another term they could reform local body politics after water & waste infrastructure ( I didn't use the other term for fear of 'triggering' you)
They have 'transformed' the health boards,just working through the list.
...one thing that is amusing is that people say they aren't transformational as promised...sh*te,it is the 'transforming' that most have issues with.
Transformational is fine & dandy , just so long as it's something the nation actually needs .... Wellington needs the rest of us to subsidise their 3 waters , because unlike us , they havnt put the money in over the years ... so , we're to lose our assets , as punishment for being good custodians of our 3 waters ... fix Wellington's 3W up ... and gift half of the nations 3W voting rights to iwi ...
... you'd be forgiven for thinking this nonsense was fiction ... but no ... its really happening ... the government is actively promoting racism ... entrenching it ...
Into 2023 , as the polls continue to show Labour losing the election , Jacinda will bail ... and leave Robbo to steer the sinking ship into the election ..
I seriously don't get this "we're losing our assets" about 3 waters. It's moving from local government to central government, both of them are our government. If there was a strong case that local government was doing an excellent job of running them for us I'd understand but there isn't?
I get the impression it's just a hate on Lavour position. Personally I couldn't give a f*** whether local or central government sorts the water and before 3 waters I never hear anyone ever express an opinion on 3 waters other than to complain about it. Crazy what people get worked up about
Agree whole heartedly,this is mainly hate on Labour...
Act & others see it as an opportunity to garner votes,whether there is merit or not.Laughable given ACT's mantra would probably see those assets partially privatised in some PPP deal with someone.
Remember it was JK who partially privatised our Hydro (water) assets.
To give an idea what we are dealing with,this article on the Ground swell crowd is amusing,don't worry about the facts just start protesting lol;
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/06/groundswell-co-founders…
Or the fact that National pioneered co-governance with the Waikato River.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2022/04/waikato-river-author…
Brown has the most effective tool available with proven results - FEAR - Covid 19 - he should explain to council staff primarily General manager that the councilors will issue instructions on what/when they require fixing problems and allow six months for the staff to demonstrate that they have the ability to get results as desired and failing good demonstrable progress a review of their jobs will commence and those who have failed to be asked to re apply for their jobs following the re structuring. This is a win win - GMs suceed we are happy - they fail and discover if their "Talent & Abilities " are in demand in the marketplace.
I think you'll find that Brown will not like the solutions to the problems that need fixing. Will he back the bureaucrats when they present evidence based solutions to the problems, I doubt it. He got voted in on mandate to fix stuff people didn't like when often the fix is what they actually didn't like. Once he hears the evidence you can watch him squirm. People want better infrastructure but want lower rates and also don't want to borrow, let's see how he squares that circle.
What i don't get,is if he is 'Mr Fixit'...why after his time as Northland Mayor do we not have 4 lane separated highways to Cape Reinga,is Whangarei a crime free thriving metropolis after his input?
Northlanders probably smirk when they hear his rhetoric and they also must smile when the Nats talk about being the party for roads...they are still waiting for the promised bridges that Simon 'build no' Bridges promised...
Three Waters is now an idealogical hobble-horse for benchmarking what the Government is actually prepared to expend political capital on:
Kiwis stuck in motels and emergency accomodation? No.
Tax reform? No.
Asset-stripping from local councils in yet another centralisation exercise after being 0/2 on health and polytechs?
Oh yea, that's the one, let's sink the ship over that.
It’s hilarious the amount of councils / mayors elected who want to keep total control/responsibility of their 3 waters “Assets”. Across the country almost every council has neglected to maintain this infrastructure, and far from being an asset - it is a huge liability in unfunded current and future costs far beyond the ability of most councils ratepayer bases to afford.
The government should just let all the councils that don’t want to be part of 3 waters out of it, and they can face the future costs of that massive infrastructure costs themselves with each their own set of 3 water bureaucracy. All the other councils that do want to be part of 3 waters wont care if these other councils don’t want to be in the 3 waters plan. Everyone gets what they want.
Sounds like a good deal for Auckland. If you just want to make a cheque out for the portion of central-govt-driven new migration we've mopped up over and above our relative population level without the matching investment in infrastructure to support it then we'll be on our way.
The main reason we have a housing shortage is because the councils are so terrible, both in terms of planning and providing the necessary infrastructure. The more the government takes away from them the better!
The ironic thing is that Nick Smith got elected as Mayor by campaigning against 3 waters when he used to be housing minister wondering why no houses were being built.
The government is the one expecting Councils to absorb more and more people through unrestrained migration which was continuing right up until pre-Covid. Meanwhile the stuff like Light Rail to stop it all becoming even more congested just languished until it was political kryptonite.
If Auckland is meant to trust them to help us get us out of this because other parts of the country mismanaged their water function or push back against basic things like water meters and then wondering why their water networks are turning to shit then that's their problem, not ours.
I just can’t agree with you on this. Objectively, Auckland is the most progressive city in the anglosphere in terms of density. The unitary plan, while not perfect, is very enabling and that’s why so much housing has been built over the last few years. which, funny enough, has not been affordable.
Of course, the unitary plan was 8-10 years too late - many of our problems stem from the period 2002 - 2016. But hey we can’t change the past. The Clark government was asleep at the wheel on housing and planted the seeds for our housing crisis.
Guess who mandated the Unitary Plan and also submitted hard on improving it? The Key government.
The bigger problems lie beyond planning - high levels of immigration, taxation settings, construction costs, lack of social and community housing…
Correct, and add a failed local government funding system to the list. Quite ironic for central government to criticise local government performance when they have hamstrung those very Councils with their dumb debt to ratio ceilings. Rates should be there to maintain EXISTING infrastructure. NEW infrastructure should be enabled by cheap government loans, or better yet, direct funding. Particularly for growth Councils like Auckland, Tauranga etc.
... whoever wins in 2023 ( Luxon & Seymour ) will have a horrendous mess to clean up after the 6 years of Ardern & Robbo has transformed NZ into a basket case ...
Easy peasy ... the Gnats & ACT could hardly make it worse ... nothing to lose / everything to gain ...
We certainly get nowhere if we don’t hold our politicians to account. Giving the current lot another three years would be based on what rationale? Their past performance? The tax take is up enormously since 2017 and still they argue there is no room for cuts (I bet they will in 2023). Where are the outcomes? You can call Luxon a dipstick all you like but it I expect he will PM, mainly because the current lot are so bad.
You are correct,there could be room for tax cuts to be more evenly spread next year if the accounts allow it,but this year,we are just coming out of a crisis and possibly entering another,so do you give cuts the or pay some bills?
The Nats were stupid and fired their tax cuts early,which they have since back tracked on saying that was only for a budget response,they will re-visit them closer to the elction..in other words,do what every politician does ,get some polls done on what is polling well...it may be that they sacrifice those on over $180k to say they have listened to the people.In truth they will be seeing our Britain pans out and then just like Laboour,employ a sh*tload of political spin doctors & analysts,many who are guns for hire that consult across the global political spectrum for the highest bidder.Sure ,have an issue with this government,but don't give the likely next government a free ride.
VMan - Whats happening in the UK is instructive - Einstein is quoted as saying - "Doing the same things and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity" Liz Truss is doing something quite different and the Establishment is screaming in horror so who is insane? Liz was a very sucessful trade and foreign secretary and the major problem is her own party MPs who appear to want the failed status quo and risk losing their jobs at election time and inflicting an even worse Labour party on the UK. If Liz cannot convince her MPs to pull together and suggest practical improvement to policies the UK will follow the EU down the drainpipe of failure and debt.NZ will do the same if the current clowns in Govt are re elected.
Liz Trickledown is revisiting policies that failed in the the 80's. Tax cuts for the wealthiest do not grow the economy.
The Tories worship at the altar of the markets and they have just given her and her Chancellor's policies a great big thumbs down.
Borrowing to speculate for too long has been a theme of both the UK and NZ economy. We need investment in the productive economy - not speculation in unaffordable residential housing.
Where Truss goes Luxon is following - neither seem interested in sustainable growth which is the future if we want a successful, durable and modern economy.
If 'listening' to this means we water down our action against climate change, or prevents intensification and favours more concreting over prime soils, then no. We should not listen.
Voting needs to be made easier, and it's pretty awful in local body elections, let's face it.
There are difficult times ahead in many aspects, they are worldwide and will require worldwide effort.
Here's hoping Brazil votes to try to save the Amazon, the actions of people who think we own this planet are appalling.
PIJF hard at work...
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/10/local-elections-siouxsi…
Efeso lost because he identified with the Council. Brown won because he would give the council a good boot.
Chris Trotter sees it ".......They were less interested in ideological concerns than they were in sorting-out the council. They liked the fact that Brown was abrasive. They did not want a Mayor who suffered fools gladly and allowed himself to be bossed around by city bureaucrats........"
There is a lot wrong with Central and Local Government 'servants'
In Dunedin it was similar. A landslide to Radich over now ex mayor Hawkins. Almost, almost two votes to one. Hawkins was an ideolog. Like make it difficult to be a car owner, the negative approach over the positive. But the voters want plain practical stuff. Radich offers a return to basics.
The basics that just don't work.
What is the positive approach to transport? More cars? I don't know about Dunedin, but in Auckland cars have almost taken over the place, its almost impossible to walk anywhere these days, crossing the road can take 10 minutes. I thought people would have realised how great a lack of cars can be from Covid, but it seems people have very short memories.
Exactly. New Zealander's approach to transport is very much like US approach to gun control. Everyone looking in says that's crazy, can't you see it's no it working. Inside little 'ol NZ everyone says rubbish we just need to double down on cars, parking and roads and move away from these foreign bureaucrat's crazy ideas. It is hilarious and tragic at the same time.
Fair comment Jimbo. But the point I was making about was options to modify it. Hawkins was a nasty, cars are bad, so his approach was to make it difficult for them. The punishment approach.
Better would have been to build better and folk would migrate. Eg: a workable bus system.
Their 2023 electioneering will be " team of 5 million " ... they'll revisit how we all pulled together to combat Covid19 , and as a team we will push forward into a transformational future ... a better , brighter future for us all , we're on this journey together ...
... anyone got a better plank for Labour to walk ?
They're doing a pretty good job of demonising people who oppose anything they do. Don't like our COVID-19 policy? Conspiracy theorist. Don't like our environmental policy? Climate-change denier. Opposed to Three Waters? Far-right extremist. Don't agree with co-governance? Racist.
Perhaps their approach this time will be based on hate.
3 Waters is dead in the water. If your small city or town has not raised enough in rates (property taxes) to maintain it's water supply and waste water infrastructure. That is not an Auckland or Christchurch problem.
Your town is going to need to borrow (maybe from a central government fund) to upgrade the infrastructure and then figure out how much in rates you will need to collect over the next however many years to pay off the debt. If that is reflected in a reduction in your property values, then so be it.
So again, the 'where' is important for houses. If you just want to ringfence the established Auckland suburbs and doom aspiring home owners to mega-commutes, you're still going to end up with protected inner city villa belts with great transport and the bulk of the development happening on the fringe, with no rapid transit for them to actually move around the city.
If you don't want to add supply in a place people can actually commute to/from and still have a life then you aren't solving the problem, you're just creating new ones to ignore. It's not a good enough answer.
I suspect that they will ignore this. This Labor Government has been a very sad disappointment. It really leaves a lot of voters with no political options that represent their interests.
Interesting to see that included in the new mayors are at least 4 engineers and a handful of others who are anchored in a facts based straight forward no bullshit approach.
I think that a lot of people are totally fed up with the empty PR driven rhetoric and spin.
It will be interesting to see if those engineers are indeed facts based. Some example facts I'm sure they will ignore:
1) The free market is best suited to decide the best use of land
2) Cars have terrible land use compared to cycling / walking / public transport and road space should be reallocated to those to reduce congestion
3) We need to cut our CO2 emissions drastically.
As usual CT articles are so predictable - he is so deep into the left is best that he cannot admit that what is being undertaken is not acceptable to the majority - no its not that their policies are stripping the local out of local bodies or centralising control along with a failure to deliver etc etc but rather that Labour havent mastered the message or the machine
So he thinks the propaganda message needs better delivery - which is a concern on two levels and partly because he sees that we have a master communicator in charge in NZ
The reality is that the people do understand and have rejected the arguments put forward - but hey carry on the next election will provide the answers
The main issue with Auckland is it's like a very high-priced derelict house. Too far gone to try and renovate without spending more than it's worth, yet you have already paid too much for the existing dwelling to demolish it plus tip fees.
You have to almost treat it as saving some sort of historic folly, to become a warning for future generations, or get the local volunteer fire brigade in to burn it to the ground and get some firefighting practice so you can rebuild from the ground up.
Either way is costly and given there is no example in the world where an overpriced housing market etc. has ever been successfully unwound without a lot of pain, Brown needs to get in asap, and sort it out, even if he won't be rewarded for it at the next election.
Unfortunately, the numbers said that.
Eligible voters: 1,133,880 (https://elections.nz/stats-and-research/enrolment-statistics/enrolment-…)
Wayne Brown: 180,173. So about 16% of eligible voters actually voted for the new mayor.
And obviously, the other candidates got even fewer votes.
Note also that the turnout in places such as Warkworth, Wellsford and Orakei was more than double the turnout in, say, Otara. Which deserves some thought and discussion...but by whom? The commentators here are self-selected and no doubt not representative of the populace.
I would much prefer to see higher levels of eligible voters placing their votes and for all demographic groups to be equally represented. And I'm sure anyone who is elected would rather have a stronger mandate from an election where that happened. Can that be achieved? Should it? How?
Seriously, there was NO information. I don't pay for news, and even though I have some interest in the local elections there was virtually no information on what the candidates stood for! And they wonder why people don't vote!?
i think the Electoral Commission should be required to make a candidates page for every candidate, including as much information on their policies as possible. That would give one “source of truth” for voters looking for some information.
Hugely disruptive of Aucklanders’ lives though it was, AT’s decision was conveyed to Auckland’s elected councillors only after it had been announced publicly. A peculiar way to demonstrate Council Control!
To have this colossal bit of bad news drop after most of the votes had already been posted, suggests that the Auckland Council may have had some control. Like little Captain Renaults they were shocked and so surprised.
In theory, the move to centralise should make things more efficient – but history is demonstrating that is not the case. The amalgamation of the polytechnics, the removal of the DHBs, three waters, local government representation and the rest seem to be so short on detail planning, and the execution is so inept, that it looks like they will be less effective and efficient than what they replace, let alone represent the citizens.
If you want an example of the latter, look at how the government completely lost control of the messaging around three waters, or the way the polytechnic’s amalgamation is happening next month – but there is no real detail yet about basics like structure, how it’s all actually going to work, or how the academic standards are going to be unified across so many institutions.
It’s a vast amount of change that’s turning in to a hot mess, and the government seem to have lost control of the public service that’s driving it.
We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment.
Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.