Today I’m launching a new campaign to protect Auckland’s community assets. It’s called Not Yours To Sell.
Over the last few months of the super city debate, and the last four days of select committee hearings on the super city bill, it has been clear to me that Aucklanders fear the super city may be the prelude to privatisation of our assets.
Last week my member’s bill – the Local Government (Protection of Auckland Assets) Amendment Bill – was pulled from the ballot. Over the next three weeks I hope we can mobilise public support for the bill, and particularly pressure on Auckland’s National MPs to support it.
If passed the bill would give Aucklanders the right to a referendum before any public assets were sold off. The Prime Minister has said the Government has no plans to sell Auckland’s assets and it would be up to future Auckland Councils. Well…yes, precisely. It is not so long ago that they sold off shares in the airport, and tried to flog off the port. Add to that the fact that we have a Minister of Local Government who advocates privatisation. And a Rodney Hide-led Cabinet review that seeks to scale back local government to ‘core services.’
So if you want to help save Auckland’s ports, water company, transport, libraries, parks, sports grounds… go to Not Yours To Sell, sign up, and take action.
[...] echoing Phil Goff’s “the many, not the few” and Phil Twyford’s “not yours to sell” (though the visual style has come a long way since that campaign). The hard economic matters [...]
hands off freaks