McCarten worried Right may control Auckland
Matt McCarten writes:
Unless the left gets itself together, it’s pretty evident the National-Act aligned Citizens and Ratepayers Now (C&RN) party will take control of Auckland’s new super city next year.
That would be excellent. Lower rates.
C&RN strategists have been plotting the takeover of regional governance for years and are well advanced in their planning for October’s local body elections. The super city idea has been around for a long time, but local parochialism and fears in Wellington of a powerful Auckland state-let kept it off the agenda.
The scale of our region’s problems has finally forced everyone to accept it’s the only logical solution.
Good that Matt supports one Auckland. Almost everyone south of the North Shore does it seems.
When the previous government set up a three-person committee to produce a proposal, I assumed they’d come back with mere tinkering of our regional structures. But it seems they plan to go the whole hog and merge the region into a single super city.
Great – a Royal Commission that leads to real change.
Predictably, the centre-right is coalescing around Auckland City Mayor, John Banks, as their standard bearer. It seems the new mayoral role will be a powerful executive role with wide-sweeping authority. Insiders are already saying it will be the most powerful elected role in the country, next to the Prime Minister.
It’s clearly a prize worth having, and Banks will be hard to beat. He isn’t the Banks of old who was intolerant, bigoted and a right-wing street brawler. Since he won back his mayoralty in 2007 he’s a changed man. Even ardent detractors say Banks goes out of his way to be inclusive and non-sectarian. That’s because he knows that to win a majority of votes across the region he needs to appeal to unaligned voters as well as carve off a chunk of centre-left voters.
Indeed Banks 2.0 is a much harder target for the left to attack.
I’ve no doubt the real agenda by the pro-business lobby in Auckland is the privatisation of our public assets if they get control.
The old privatisation bogey. We don’t even have parties and policies yet, so Matt is ahead of himself. I would point out that the current climate isn’t exactly a good time to be selling companies.
I was dismayed when the best the Labour Party could come up with to stop this juggernaut was to run Judith Tizard for mayor and form a joint ticket with the Greens. They obviously didn’t look at the recent general election in which Tizard lost her safe seat and only one in three Aucklanders voted for that combo.
No, no ignore Matt. Tizard vs Banks would be a great competition.
A centre-left coalition would need to include the Labour, Green and Maori Parties and pull in NZ First as well as other leftist organisations, trade unions and social movement groups.
I assume there will be fewer than 20 super city council positions, so managing the egos of potential candidates will be challenging. But this is where we can take a leaf out of the American elections. If, as expected, the new councillors will be elected from parliamentary boundaries, then we could run a series of “primary” candidate selections. All members and supporters of the coalition groups should attend pre-selection meetings to vote on a candidate. The winner of this primary would be officially endorsed by all these groups for the contest against the C&RN candidate.
A region-wide primary contest to select a single candidate to run against John Banks would bring a lot of strong nominees and drum up publicity to enthuse and invigorate voters before the October election. You only have to look at the US Democratic Party primary process to see how successful that was in mobilising support for the eventual winner, Barack Obama.
The centre-left cannot allow itself to be marginalised and hand over governance to C&R Now. They can only avoid this if they form a unity ticket now. Tick tock. Time’s awasting.
That’s quite a smart suggestion.
February 15th, 2009 at 8:59 am
The right represent the people who are paying all the bills that McCarten and his mob dump on rate payers. And many many of those people struggle and go without to pay those Bills. Thats who the right represent.
February 15th, 2009 at 9:19 am
Well said, tvb. And it’s actually the Right, not the Left, who represent the poorer people who also pay exorbitant rates so that councils can just pour their money down the sinkholes of wastage. And in case Matt McCarten hadn’t noticed, there is a downturn. It isn’t going to be a case of councils voluntarily cutting rates and spending, they are going to run out of captive payers out of whom they can keep gouging those rates. Then they are going to have to draw up a priority list, of what things they spend money on are the most important; and they are going to have to draw a line across that list at the point at which they actually have the cashflow to pay their bills and their staff.
We can derive but small cold comfort out of that. It is our failure as a society to voluntarily tackle the issues of economic efficiency, that has primarily contributed to our coming collapse.
February 15th, 2009 at 9:24 am
So Matt says the Left should control Auckland. Well gee, Matt, that’s about as surprising as John Banks suggesting the Right should control Auckland.
Opinion based columns are crap. It all boils down to one man’s preference against another’s, and in effect, they’re a complete waste of effort.
At least Matt isn’t collecting a benefit.
February 15th, 2009 at 9:31 am
Can anybody think of a left wing, McCarten backed Auckland super city? Good god.
February 15th, 2009 at 9:38 am
C’mon Tizzard, run; Auckland needs you. Tizzard for Mayor! C’mon Tizzard, run; Auckland needs you. Tizzard for Mayor!
C’mon Tizzard, run; Auckland needs you. Tizzard for Mayor! C’mon Tizzard, run; Auckland needs you. Tizzard for Mayor!
C’mon Tizzard, run; Auckland needs you- to lose!
February 15th, 2009 at 9:44 am
Come now Grant – it is actually “Judith Tizard for mayor on a joint ticket with the Greens”
Now THAT is even better!
Ha ha ha ha ha
February 15th, 2009 at 9:44 am
I think McCarten is his usual delusional self; to the suggestion the ‘right’ wants to privatise the assets of Auckland I say “if only!” ha ha!
John Banks is a splendid Mayor and nothing would give him greater pleasure than Judith Tizard as his opponent
February 15th, 2009 at 9:54 am
VOTE Tizard, get two for the price of one. Helen returns.
February 15th, 2009 at 10:06 am
Please, Please, Please let her run. Let her be the lefts main candidate, Denise Roche for the Greens, Maori Party? No I dont think so and who but Winston for NZ First. Now there is a winning team for the left.
February 15th, 2009 at 10:08 am
“McCarten worried”
Why do those two words put a smile on my face?
February 15th, 2009 at 10:09 am
Good plan from Matt McCarten. The strength of the Left lies in its people and creativity, just as the Right uses capital as its primary resource.
February 15th, 2009 at 10:11 am
Right on zippy, right on man.
February 15th, 2009 at 10:15 am
tizard.?
..i just choked on my (whatever)..
phil(whoar.co.nz)
February 15th, 2009 at 10:22 am
and it doesn’t even pay to think what tizard chokes on.
February 15th, 2009 at 10:34 am
Where’s Auckland – I seem to have heard of it somewhere.
February 15th, 2009 at 10:40 am
Its like WGN only bigger, warmer, doesnt have govt depts.
February 15th, 2009 at 10:58 am
excellent article farrar,
most of us down here like hardly know nothing
about Auckland
February 15th, 2009 at 11:00 am
excellent article farrar,
most of us down in the south
here know so little nothing
about Auckland, soon we see end of regional Councils.
February 15th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Matt McCarten is an old warrior looking for a war. Interestingly like most of those who have a vested interest in “cold wars” he is working up a bogeyman.
Let’s analyse some of his main contentions.
Matt: “C&RN strategists have been plotting the takeover of regional governance for year”
What strategists? McCarten clearly knows nothing of the personalities involved.
Matt is a bit behind the times. There is no Auckland Now involvement with C&R.
According to the C&R president he wants to gift the control of the brand to the National Party with C&R being some type of National Party franchise, this is of course is the ultimate admission of organisational weakness. It would also by its very nature exclude anyone who isn’t National party affiliated. This is a major departure for C&R which has always resisted direct Parliamentary political involvement in local government. Indeed it has previously selected Labour Party voting candidates to its ranks and made a public point of this.
Matt: “the centre-right is coalescing around Auckland City Mayor, John Banks, as their standard bearer”
Despite McCarten’s faint praise, Banksie is still a bogeyman for much of the left. The only problem is that Banks himself has said that if he runs he will probably do so as an independent, thus there is a bit of a problem on the standard bearer issue. If such an election is occurring it will be a complex and expensive campaign and will require focus and all of Bank’s considerable skill to win without worrying about a all the other elections.
I also doubt any coattail affect in fact the opposite might be the case if the role of Councillor is essentially to appropriate funds, makes secondary laws, adopt high level policy documents and most importantly, scrutinise and hold to account the administration (Mayor and management) voters may well seek to counter balance the power of the Executive mayor and management in who they elect to the Council.
Matt: “privatisation of our public assets”
Mmmmmmm twin bogeymen; Banksie and the sell off. One needs an imminent cataclysm to Unite the left (pun intended) and to get the necessary discipline for a primary system to work. Nevertheless good thinking from McCarten; he must be in his building phase rather than wrecking phase. Building a movement requires “organisation”. “Organisation” requires an immediate “purpose”. An election where Banksie, privatisation and horrid rightwingers gaining political power will occur unless “we organise” provides the “purpose”. The common enemy Unites the disparate and disputatious left.
The only point I would make is that consistent with McCarten’s nature this is entirely re-active or negative. If the identified enemy doesn’t play the role or confirm the stereotype one is vulnerable. It seems to me that to really prevail the left need to be as broad and expansive as McCarten suggests but also more positive.
Matt: “If, as expected, the new councillors will be elected from parliamentary boundaries”
Yes this isn’t terribly well thought out idea. First it’s been tried in Local government in Auckland; didn’t result in greater turnout or more voter knowledge about the structure or role of the body to which they were electing representatives.
More importantly, it will result in a National led Government with the support of the ACT party creating Maori seats in local government; something that can happen in local government in the regional already but has not happened. What’s more the drawing of Parliamentary boundaries is out of sync with local elections. It’s hard to imagine why population movements in the South Island should determine representation arrangements in local government in the Auckland region. Probably apart from the initial arrangements the approach should be consistent with the current law, representation arrangements should be left to local government itself and the Local Government Commission.
February 15th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Matt McCardboardcarton??
Who is he exactly?
Some soviet era pundit that some fuckwitted NYT times style editor thinks has got something relevant to say today??
Fucken Herald. What a commie rag.
February 15th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
The stutterer McArten is irrelevant these days. What he says or writes matters very little, so his latest colum will go unnoticed.
February 15th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
I say they put up Helen for the job! The UN will reject her so unless she gets a cushy Scandinavian assignment we might be stuck with her!!!
February 15th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Matts all for a super city but not so keen the idea of democracy.
Another who has missed that socialisms use by date has flashed past some time ago.
February 15th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
The fact that the left have controlled Auckland TLA’s for such a long time is the very reason all Aucklanders pay the high rates they do.
The strategy depts in TLA’s are so left wing many of them took bereavement leave after the election. You’ve had elected officials acting in executive roles for decades – the left of lefts own Sandra Coney acts like a CEO in the ARC, despite Lee and Winders presence. The same happens in every TLA in the region.
February 15th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
If the current government can make some changes to the 2002 Local Government Act then maybe much of the crap that has occurred recently will be stopped.
The Act opened the avenues for social engineering and empire building in all regions, paid for by ratepayers. It’s main thrust is to focus on ’sustainability’ (WTF does that mean?) and allows for what Sandra Lee & Genetic Fitzsimmons like to think of as a four pillar approach: social, economic, environmental and cultural.
Now we have councils staffed by cardigan and roman sandle wearing do gooders wanting my house and business rates to pay for their manipulative BS.
Examples from the small but growing Tasman District Council: All libraries have free internet access to all (not just library card holders) putting financial pressure on the internet cafe’s. The Richmond (near Nelson) library is about to have a cafe owned and run by the Council FFS! All Motueka houses are to be forced to go onto a town water supply at great cost despite having more than adequate bores on their properties.
I suspect there are numerous examples from all around NZ of the damage this change in legislation has done.
Please Rodney get off your arse and sort this BS! Unless changes are made it won’t matter if you’re a Jafa or not, the same crap will be delivered by people who should not be there. You may get a Shorty Street actor as mayor?
February 16th, 2009 at 6:25 am
Frankly this all shows why a big Auckland council is SO wrong. Big councils aren’t efficient, they get involved in interfering with more and more aspects of everyday life. It would become a challenge to central government, because it would claim such a huge power block of voters. It would become the centrepiece even more for left-right battles, without considering what the hell is the purpose of local government.
Labour extended the powers of local government with the “powers of general competence”, which essentially allow councils to subsidise anything they want, or enter into any business activity they wish, as long as they “consult”. It is a leftwing formula for ever creeping big government at the local level. The only legitimate argument about why local government should exist is to provide public goods – which are precious little in reality – like footpaths, public parks and the like. Frankly almost all that councils provide could be done so commercially or by the voluntary sector.
Look at how rates increased faster than inflation year on year, AND were inflated as property prices skyrocketed. Councils have been growing unsustainably for years, it’s time for less local government – it’s time for local government to be forced to exit any commercial activities that have private sector competition immediately, and to do no more than local streets, rubbish collection, stormwater drains and public parks.
February 16th, 2009 at 8:44 am
When did C&R EVER lower rates?
Local government is the refuge of busy bodies without the “talent” to get into central government.
February 16th, 2009 at 8:46 am
Agree with you Libertyscout, other than I think we should go to the single Auckland (and indeed a complete rationalisation of all of the country’s local government. I think we could get away with no more than 16 covering the whole country).
February 16th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
“Local government is the refuge of busy bodies without the “talent” to get into central government.”
so you’re suggesting Sue Bradford, Keith locke and Catherine Delahunty have more talent than say John Banks?