Learning about your agenda through the media
Wellington Chamber of Commerce CEO Charles Finny blogs:
Many thanks to the Sunday Star Times for telling me something about myself which I did not know. In his column today (page A11) Chris Trotter advises us all that there is a right wing conspiracy about to re-launch the privatisation agenda (a vehicle for ensuring that the right maintains control – apparently) by cunningly opening a new front – on local Government. These right wingers are going to use a shadowy front organisation called the Local Government Forum to deliver this evil agenda.
Well it so happens that I know a little bit about the Local Government Forum. I have been a participant in its work for a couple of years and last week was elected its Chair. So apparently I am chairing a group that has an agenda that I don’t know about. Thanks Chris and thanks Sunday Star Times for conveying this news to me.
I thought the Local Government Forum was about promoting more efficient local government etc. Is the SST saying that the only way to do that is by privatisation? How very defeatist.
December 1st, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Well the Local Government Forum did recently release a report saying a very large proportion of what local government owns should be privatised. I agree.
December 1st, 2008 at 12:38 pm
And I certainly did not know I was competing with DoC for control of New Zealand’s resources. My few acres of countryside must be bigger than I thought,
Not sure if Chris Trotter’s praise is praise I need! He undoes all his kind words by calling me a planner!
I had no idea I was competing with DoC to own the resources of New Zealand. My five acres must be bigger than I thought!
This is what Chris Trotter has to say:
Local bodies face a big right turn
THEM & US – CHRIS TROTTER – Sunday Star Times | Sunday, 30 November 2008
You have to hand it to the Right – they’re thinkers. Not all of them, of course. Heck, not even most of them. But at the very tip of the New Zealand Right you will find a very small number of very clever guys.
I use the masculine noun in this context quite deliberately, because in New Zealand, at least, the right-wing movement is dominated overwhelmingly by men. This is particularly true of the movement’s ideologues. When we think of the Right’s intellectual leadership, we think of Graham Scott, Roger Kerr, Roderick Deane, Bryce Wilkinson, Stephen Franks, Owen McShane and Michael Bassett: every Man Jack of them, well – a Man Jack.
Not only are these blokes thinkers, but they are also (and this is much more serious) planners.
Read about the whole conspiracy here:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4777433a186
Am I supposed to have a sex change?
December 1st, 2008 at 12:40 pm
It amazes me that Trotter and his ilk are apparently so deeply ignorant of the basic difference in the two competing ideologies of left and right. If they had any idea at all, they would never write such simplistic garbage as has been written about above.
Let me try and explain it to you as concisely as I can Mr. Trotter. There is no right wing conspiracy. We are always only in defense mode. The left are the ones with the agenda, because they seek control, and they seek to use the institution of government as a means of achieving that control. All over the globe, they meet and they plot and plan to expand their power, and they draw their agendas in thousands of little groups all connected by the one core issue- the use of government to advance leftist political ideology and to crush any competing ideology.
The right seek freedom. They do not see government as a means of empowering themselves. As a means of gaining control over others. We merely seek to dismantle the power seeking institutions of the left. Not replace them with our own.
So everything the right do is basically done as a reaction to the left. We’re always in defense mode, and this is mainly because the very ideology we subscribe to does not allow us to organise and plot and plan the way the left do. There are no right wing counterparts to the myriad of left wing organisations like Socialist International, Global Peace and Justice, etc etc etc etc… Its just not our style. Never has been. Never will be.
Trotter’s fantastic claims are merely symptomatic of leftist brain rot. Like most of them, he doesn’t have a damn clue. Least of all about the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. The very fact that he thinks there is one proves his partisan ignorance well enough.
December 1st, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Chris Trotter wouldn’t know if you were up him.
This walking argument against releasing the mentally impaired into the community has managed to sucessfully fail to predict pretty much everything that has happened since the big bang.
Possibly that was the blow he took to his head.
December 1st, 2008 at 12:49 pm
The rotund Trotter is these days a well known writer of fiction.
December 1st, 2008 at 12:53 pm
But there’s your proof see, if there was a right-wing conspiracy behind the LGF, Finny would be denying it. He’s denying it, ergo, the right-wing conspiracy exists.
He might even be a white male of some age above that where chasing girls and drinking beer are the primary past-times. That would really cement the whole conspiracy angle into place.
Thank goodness Trotter is still not easily duped.
December 1st, 2008 at 12:53 pm
DPF
One thing I’d like to see your group encourage and even help reinstate, is the accountability through both the limits to spending and an ombudsmen that The Labour Party took away from local government, in their rewriting the rules to bring about their desired vertical hold on politics and our wallets.
Whilst I’m not naive to think party politics can’t be kept out of Local politics I’d like to see limits on their powers to spend outside their remit for infrastructure.
Then again I’d like to see parliament think carefully about what a law is going to cost to police and who is going to fund it?
December 1st, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Turpin
The previous Labour government removed restraints on what local governments could do by allowing them to do anything a ‘person’ could do. The main practical effect would be to allow them to get involved more deeply with welfare, something which left wing politicians would dearly love to do. The other side of the coin is that the last Labour government loaded heaps of obligations on local government which they had to meet despite what councillors think. The Forum is obviously intended to look at both aspects.
Policing this sort of thing is not difficult – the Audit Office is responsible for policing local government expenditure and if they spend money on things they are not supposed to, the Audit Office is very quick to point this out an in blatant deliberate cases can demand the money come out of Councillors’ personal pockets. Moreover there are more than enough whistleblowers (often dissenting councillors) who will go screaming off to the Audit Office on the flimsiest excuse in the hope of embarassing fellow councillors.
December 1st, 2008 at 1:32 pm
The original post referred to Christ Trotter, a rather apt slip! I can see it taking off like Jeez Wayne.
December 1st, 2008 at 1:34 pm
If there was, Finny wouldn’t be its chief.
December 1st, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Look at the press release from LGF
“Rodney Hide’s appointment sends a very clear message to the local government sector that its performance will be key for any effective growth strategy to close the income gap with Australia. Local government can best contribute to such a strategy by refocusing its activities on the efficient provision of public goods at a local level (including core infrastructure), as discussed in the Forum’s 2007 publication Democracy and Performance – a Manifesto for Local Government.
Manifesto !!
So theres no “agenda” but there is a manifesto, what the bet its all about the P word. But of course the PR spin people have gone through and changed privatisation to efficiency and so on.
Nice try DPF but you have been fisked over this one.
Move over nanny state the privatisation bulldozer has Hide and the LGF in the drivers seat.
But be careful you dont get dropped on your head by your new dance partner
[DPF: Oh yes a secret agenda that has a manifesto and press releases. And nutty paranoid people who think efficiency means privatisation]
December 1st, 2008 at 1:51 pm
jacob, the LGF was constructed to seek new efficiencies in Local Government spending. It’s manifesto reflects that purpose. It’s not a new thing.
There are few options open to local government to cut costs – you can privatise, cease to offer some services entirely, play the stock market, invest or run the depts as gov. owned companies.
the other option is to continually get central gov. funding to cover shortfalls, which is just wealth re-distribution and will ultimately fail in our current economic climate.
What exactly is your argument? I bet you’d protest over higher rates too, huh? So you want lower rates? But higher rates so that central gov. (preferably leftwing) get two large bites of the tax apple to redistribute to, say, the Film Commission? What an absurd merry go round. Which is it? Lower rates and no payment for services you don’t use, or higher rates and ongoing increases for distant services you don’t use?
December 1st, 2008 at 1:58 pm
jacob is seen puffing cigar smoke out of both ears because there is a plan for efficiency. fancy that! efficient use of public money. it’s not the socialist way!
December 1st, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Jacob’s being efficient by outsourcing his thinking.
December 1st, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Efficency never means cheaper , remember amalgamation was going to have cheaper rates but that never happened.
How many councils around the world went for efficency and ended up with their reserve funds in Wall St or hedge funds- there would be 1000s and a few in NZ keeping quiet.
Just as well most of the electorate MPs outside the big urban areas are national, so dont expect the MPs for Rotorua, or napier or invercargill allowing wholesale changes so big business nz and its front organisation LGF can be happy
As for the RMA some its most enthusaitic users are big business shutting out competition like Foodtown or the oil companies
December 1st, 2008 at 3:36 pm
jacob
Glad you have noticed that businesses (and not just big ones) are using the RMA to nobble their competitors. Do you think this is a good thing or a bad thing?
If you think it is a bad thing, you should support National’s plans for a review.
If you think using a resource protection act to limit competition is a good thing, you appear to have the same opinion as the recently departed Labour government.
December 1st, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Chris Trotter calling someone else clever. Comparer to… Chris?
December 1st, 2008 at 3:56 pm
“Efficency never means cheaper , remember amalgamation was going to have cheaper rates but that never happened.”
The very definition of efficiency means value for money, not necessarily cheaper. Council XY could halve rates overnight. That’d be cheaper, but soon raw sewerage would be floating in the streets and they’d be no rubbish pick ups. The sudden flurry of activity to get the mess cleaned up would cost more than if you paid an “efficient” price to start with. So you still want cheap?
The question of whether a company installs a competent maintenance program has nothing to do with it’s style of ownership – state owned or private. Theoretically, those that charge maintenance and don’t do it will lose customers who go to competing firms. The problem in NZ is that there is usually a part owned company that is neither public or private and can be eternally bailed out because an ideological government can’t bear to see it fail. At the same time, they go out of their way to stop other players entering the market, removing the market force that would balance the system. The problem is caused by socialism nervously playing at capitalism – not private companies and not “big business”.
Amalgamation (presumably of Borough councils into one uber council) is not an efficiency measure. It’s used to centralise influence, wealth for re-distribution, and political power. And since the VRWC aren’t interested in centralising power…well… guess who’s responsible? Rates could go down within the structure of a smaller centralised council – say, with two small boroughs independantly combining to share infrastructure costs and reduce rates – but the clash of ideology is outside the scope of most NZ politicans. In NZ independence is frowned on and you’ll damn well do what you’re told. Another trait not from the right.
“so big business nz and its front organisation LGF can be happy”
less slogans, boy. The LGF is not about big business. In fact, there is no coherent “big business” group that is controlled by one uber master – unlike business under a communist regime, for example. All of the business groups in NZ are as described above – co-operations between groups of people with mutual business goals. The very idea of being in business is to make a profit. Politics only costs time and money. If you think businesses get together to form VRWC’s you’re dreaming. Not only would it cost a fortune, if any competent business conglomerate had tried they’d have overun the economically illiterate Left several decades ago. Which supports the view that politicians aren’t our best and brightest. (Sorry , John!)
“As for the RMA some its most enthusaitic users are big business shutting out competition like Foodtown or the oil companies”
so reviewing the RMA is a good thing. Glad you agree.
December 1st, 2008 at 4:00 pm
After reading Trotter’s gruntling I am not sure if his praise is praise I need! But he undoes all his kind words by calling me a planner!
I had no idea I was competing with DoC to own the resources of New Zealand. My five acres must be bigger than I thought!
This is the first few paragraphs of what Chris Trotter has to say:
Local bodies face a big right turn
THEM & US – CHRIS TROTTER – Sunday Star Times | Sunday, 30 November 2008
You have to hand it to the Right – they’re thinkers. Not all of them, of course. Heck, not even most of them. But at the very tip of the New Zealand Right you will find a very small number of very clever guys.
I use the masculine noun in this context quite deliberately, because in New Zealand, at least, the right-wing movement is dominated overwhelmingly by men. This is particularly true of the movement’s ideologues. When we think of the Right’s intellectual leadership, we think of Graham Scott, Roger Kerr, Roderick Deane, Bryce Wilkinson, Stephen Franks, Owen McShane and Michael Bassett: every Man Jack of them, well – a Man Jack.
Not only are these blokes thinkers, but they are also (and this is much more serious) planners.
I have always thought I was the ANTI-Planner!
December 1st, 2008 at 4:03 pm
“You have to hand it to the Right – they’re thinkers.”
Shit. Who pays that baboon to write a column?
Ah well, it was a nice way to waste some unplanned thinking time.
December 1st, 2008 at 4:10 pm
llew (970) 4 0 Says:
December 1st, 2008 at 1:34 pm
“……if there was a right-wing conspiracy behind the LGF, Finny would be denying it……”
“If there was, Finny wouldn’t be its chief.”
Ah, you know this much about Charles Finny too, Ilew?
He is what Redbaiter would call an “appeaser”………
December 1st, 2008 at 4:19 pm
Well, I know who he is & what he does & can take an educated guess as to his “leanings”. I doubt his efforts stretch to a Right Wing Conspiracy.
December 1st, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Michael Basset? A rightist? More a leftist with an unusual degree of common sense.
December 1st, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Trotter’s retreat from reality continues at an ever accelerating pace. It’s as if he does his fact finding entirely in his own head and just makes up whatever suits his utterly predictable angle, collects his paycheque and goes back to sleep until next deadline.
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:57 am
peterwn
“The previous Labour government removed restraints on what local governments could do by allowing them to do anything a ‘person’ could do.
The other side of the coin is that the last Labour government loaded heaps of obligations on local government which they had to meet despite what councillors think. The Forum is obviously intended to look at both aspects.”
Thanks for that I couldn’t remember the detail.
I don’t trust pollies with OPM so I’d prefer the Local govt had those restraints back on it.
It was there for a reason.
December 2nd, 2008 at 4:08 am
When are they going to cancel Trotsky’s column? The guys a laughing stock.
They should at least move it to the humour section alongside the cartoons.
Seriously though, is going mental?
December 2nd, 2008 at 8:04 am
Gueez jacob v h … smell the roses, get a life and move on. Local Government and the LGA is a disparate grouping of the right, centre and left trying to pretend they like each other but united in their desire to preserve and enhance their own power. The worst thing that ever happened to NZ was the granting local government the ‘power of general competence’ i.e. the ability to do anything other than that specigically mandated against by central government. I far prefer the permissive model where LG confines its role to the tasks it is specifically mandated to do (roading, water, sewage, libraries and the like).
Buit to suggest that Labour luminaries in local government (Harvey, Waitakere, Brown, Manakau et al) would allow themselves to be rolled by the LGA as a vehicle for the ‘Right’ is so laughable as to make you, Jacab, look stupid.
So stop reading Trotter. Its bad for your health.