Having a Zen moment...
About sacking the ECan councillors (from http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/news/3531434/ECan-ndash-you-re-fired/):
Not a big fan of democracy then... I'm wary of the outcome of the next general election, can I just fire the current lot and install who I want too?Originally Posted by NickSmith
So, come on, all you "Democracy under attack" types: time for another march? No?
Redefining slow since 2006...
Psyclepath
I can't say I'm up to speed with the detail of this schamozzle, but the local paper seems to be supportive....
Only a homo puts an engine back together WITHOUT making it go faster.
Forum whore
A government appointed council, with no elections until 2013....this is Nationals idea of democracy - after all, if the electorate won't give business what it wants, then business will just ride roughshod over the electorate!
and no - this is not the same as the Rodney Council dissolution in 2001!
- He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it.
3825 67 944779 (oh yeah)
yawn - perhaps you should study a subject before trying to make cheap political shots out of something / nothing.
Read all the press - apart from the mouth breathing left - everybody else thinks that this was a good idea and that intervention was required.
Having a Zen moment...
Oh thank heavens for that, all the "right thinking" people think it's a good idea. Must just be us "wrong thinking" people who have qualms about the ongoing assault on our democracy that seems to characterise this government.
Believe it or not, I (based on what I have seen) think some form of assistance to ECan might have been in order. Given the political sensitivity of the water issues there, though, I would have thought that firing the entire council and not having elections for three and a half years might not have been the first thing that sprang to mind.
It's a water grab, which we will regret. More small-minded short-term thinking from the Nacts.
Redefining slow since 2006...
3825 67 944779 (oh yeah)
That from someone who supports the party that introduced the Electroial finance act - pffft - oh its only a assault on our democracy if the 'right' do it.
Wearing Hi-Viz Black.
"a council so dysfunctional that comprehensive and rapid intervention by central government was required"
Quite true. The fishermen are seeing the water resource disappear. More and more irrigators are set up which are adding strain onto the supply.
The plains are not suitable for dairy farming, but that is where the $$$'s are. Sheep farming is sustainable but out of vogue...
Hopefully a new council will be established, without the "old political influences"...
TOP QUOTE: The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other peoples money.
Celestine Prophet
Well as a Cantabrian I think the Government has done the right thing. Look what has happened with the banking institutions...no one did a jot and through mismanagement (and lining their own pockets)they lost billions. Now people are getting up in arms because the government has seen that the Council is fooking up left, right and centre and is not managing to follow its elected mandate professionally. If they are so bloody incompetent why wouldn't people want them out?
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have you found? The same old fears.
Wish you were here. QWQ
Trying to be a good dog
Vigilantes need to start shooting cows, pitbulls and anyone who flushes after number ones
Churches are monuments to self importance
Forum whore
Ah yes - the Electoral Finance Act - the Act that was meant to make all political donations transparent, (although badly drafted and not well thought out) and was immediately attacked by the right, as somehow "unconstitutional" and Labour as being corrupt! Oh - that's right, National likes to keep all it's donaters and their donations secret!
- He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it.
Forum whore
Quite true - if they are so bloody incompetent - put in a commissioner to sort the whole sorry mess out prior to holding new elections, in 6 months. This is basically what most people wanted and would have expected in a democracy
- not another Putsch like the Auckland superCity disgrace!
- He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it.
Having a Zen moment...
Whatever gave you that idea? I'm not a fan of the EFA, as it happens, although the issue it should be addressing is valid. It was a bad reaction to the Hollow Men Exclusive Brethren pamphlet, as I recall, which was actually an attempt to cheat the system. The Nats have not done anything to improve that situation (funny that). I understand the Nats have quietly removed the funding limits on the MMP campaign - no surprise, I'm not very happy about that either.
Dream on. Betcha a beer this results in more water being handed out to dairy.
Just following that through... this government is chalking up a pretty long list of incompetence too. Can they be chucked out? No, because they were elected. Doesn't matter how shit they are, or how much I personally don't like them, they are who we chose for the term of their office.
Dammit people, democracy is important - whether or not ECam were effing useless or not, they were elected at the will of the people they represent. If they were crap, the electors should chuck them out at the next election. This government will put it's cronies in to key positions (not what you know, it's who you know) and have them spend ratepayers money with no right to hold them to account at the polling booth. No taxation without representation, remember?
This is what our ancestors fought wars for. And we're giving it up without a protest because "at least it isn't Labour"? We should all, irrespective of political alignment, be calling this as it is - corruption.
Redefining slow since 2006...
Forum whore
Business is what employs people and minimises the leftist ideal of qwelfare and state dependency. In that light I am all for a strong business sector that rewards hard workers. No brainer really.
If it further weakens the left wing parties then even better
Hardcore Biker
Funny really they replace the elected members in Canterbury without giving those other than their own supporters the ability to re elect members to represent all the interests in the water rights, Ak has forced on them a super city where many of the essential services are to become commercial enterprises moving away from the greater good to becoming profit oriented. John Key a man I voted for has now supported the actions of one of his ministers who by his position is in the top 5% of income earners in NZ uses your & my money to the tune of $1400 for a family holiday and books it up to us because he didn't understand the rules, if he worked for some businesses in NZ he would have been charged with theft, same man sometimes up here so I've been told uses a limousine to get to Whangarei airport, costs us $170 where as the taxi ride is about $20, would I normally mind or even care - no - but they have been telling us all to tighten our belts ect ect, but they all continue to screw us as hard as they can, where has Key's high morals and standards gone I wonder. Tonight I read that the Mayor of the NorthShore a man who has stood up to Hide and his cronies and said the supercity requires a lot more thought and we need to slow down, and has not only come under attack from hide for peeing on a tree - from the man that attempted to rip us all off by taking his latest F**K on a taxpayer junket, but one of his councillors who I read tonight is the Act Party Secretary no less, the mayor as has been proved was having a few drinks with some mates was not drunk had a pee on a tree in the dark who cares, only those that don't want the cronyism of the Big City exposed. In changing camp and voting for JK I thought we were going to see a whole new era of politics in NZ, but all we are seeing is a man who's puppet strings are becoming more visible by the day, beating up on the people at the bottom of the wealth pyramid whilst running their own fingers through the honey pot.
Don't judge me based upon your ignorance.
Deus ex ukulele
Democracy is, quite frankly, overrated. In local government particularly, name recognition is more important than any aptitude or vision.
Even in central government, there is a whole bunch of people called "list MPs" who are accountable to nobody other than the party whose list they've found themselves on.
It's a bit of a paradox: people with ability generally don't run for elected office; and Joe and Kylie Public are strangely attracted to the goobers who do.
But don't confuse representative democracy with participative democracy. The former is overrated and the latter works.
Unfortunately the Canterbury Regional Council (Environment Canterbury) appears to have failed badly on both scores. That's why it is now to be run by Commissioners for a while.
"Standing on your mother's corpse you told me that you'd wait forever." [Bryan Adams: Summer of 69]
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