Tuesday 7 April 2009

'Super' city, uber state: "Just say NO!" [updated]

There's nothing "super" about the proposed Auckland uber state.

It will be fascist.

Wretchedly profligate.

Woefully inefficient.

Racist.

Anti-choice.

Monopolistic.

Bureaucratic.

Governed by ego-driven noddies.

A boot camp for left-wing politicians.

It will take the 'local' out of local government.

Be expensive to integrate.

And be opposed to the way NZers most want to live.

One city, one neck, one noose.

Absolutism limited only by inefficiency.

We don't need council expanded, we urgently need it contained. We don't need more centralisation. more central planning: we urgently need less. We don't need to make it easier for uber-planners to 'plan' the city, we need much greater freedom so we can plan our own lives for ourselves.

Instead, you will face more co-ordinated attacks on your private property rights. More focussed regulation of your business. More council competion with your business. More, and slicker, propaganda. Even more demands on your pocket, and more meddling from the planners. All of this, and (under Nick Smith's RMA reforms) you get even less say.

You don't even get a say on whether you get to live in an uber state. The good people of W(h)anganui get a vote on whether or not their local council gets to add an 'h' to its name; but we the people of Auckland will have no say at all on whether we get to add a whole new level of bureaucracy to the city.

It's all just madness.

As Owen McShane concludes,

this Government would be ill-advised to burden itself with a remnant of the last Government which was so committed to central planning and interventionism.

The economy and our people are under considerable stress and should not be tempted by the false fruit of fascism.
It will lead us down the road to serfdom and to ruin.

There is no need, no need at all, to conform to the value judgements of the Clark Government, who set up the Royal Commission, or of the big-government worshippers who sat on it. The right thing to do is to reject the built-in presumptions of their inquiry, and to throw out the conclusions they've drawn.

What Rodney Hide should do is cap real rates, repeal the Local Government Act 2002, remove the power of general competence from councils, and so limit the power of planners and local bureaucrats to push us all around. Won't it be remarkable if Rodney Hide becomes responsible for establishing the first Fascist State in NZ instead.

UPDATE: The announcement is out, and you can find all the sordid details here at the Government's official "Making Auckland Greater" website (oh, the pun!). And it must be true, it must be "great," because it says so right here on the label.

8 comments:

deleted said...

"What Rodney Hide should do is cap real rates, repeal the Local Government Act 2002, remove the power of general competence from councils"

PC, if this was done, would you then agree with an amalgamated council?

Surely it would make sense, get rid of all the crazy shit that councils get up, and have one, limited council, that is focused solely on holes and poles.

gregster said...

Owen should have put: "It will lead us further down the road to serfdom and to ruin."

Peter Cresswell said...

Mike, if you believe that a council overseeing around one-third of the country by populations would restrict itself only to holes and poles, then I have a bridge I can sell you.

The only serious argument FOR your uber state is that it would be cheaper to run, to which I say "Bullshit."

The cost of integration alone is estimated at anywhere between 120 million and 240 million dollars.

And there is no council in the world that has been integrated and hasn't taken it as an opportunity to add to its people, its powers, and its profligacy.

Peter Cresswell said...

Good point, Greg.

Anonymous said...

You don't need Auckland to demonstrate these tendencies when we have - CHRISTCHURCH.

Hot off the press their latest energy strategy which includes photographing and shaming residents who have the temerity to use more energy than the council considers appropriate.

Some great quotes too

"The continued increase in energy consumption, and the associated resources used
throughout the world, as well as in Christchurch, is unsustainable."

"We can not continue to increase our use of energy at this unsustainable rate and
must take immediate action to reverse the trend."

There you go. Because an official in CCC says so, Chch people are going to get hit with a whole range of costs and regulations to make them conform to his vision.

http://www.ccc.govt.nz/MediaReleases/2009/April/06110936.asp

insider

Anonymous said...

If you read the propaganda put out by our masters in Wellington the agenda behind all this is clear. You can see some quotes here:

Note to Aucklanders: prepare rectum for implant of jackboot

Comrade MOT said...

The Racist Label is not fair, because Rodney and National are not intending to implement the Maori seats recommendation. (It of course is a racist of the commission to recommend separate seats). I cant really comment on the other aspects, but I would have thought that many of the bureaucracy and inefficiency based criticisms would be equally valid for the current system. I would have thought it would be less bureaucratic to have one council and several community boards, two levels of bureaucracy than to have One ARC, several city councils, and several board (three levels of bureaucracy)

Zola the Gorgon said...

Leaving all the other arguments aside - in this horrendous financial climate, is it really ethical or moral to spend multi-millions on changing something that "ain't broke" ?

Anyone with a modicum of sense would put these plans on hold, or even cancel them completely.