Comments on: Stop him before he kills again

By: jennifer

jennifer — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 03:38:35 +0000

Jeremy Harris, disbanding the BIA is irrelevant because any Crown liability would have remained, but the Court of Appeal found there was no Crown liability, so end of story. It is only the Nats who should hang their heads.

By: Jeremy Harris

Jeremy Harris — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:17:53 +0000

As regards future rates increases it has nothing to do with right wing or left wing, it is that giant elephant in the room… Leaky buildings…

The national liability is $11 billion, I don’t see councils getting away with paying much less than half which means all our large city councils are technically insolvent or we’re going to have large rate rises… If you live in Auckland get ready for it…

If were going to pay for it anyway, the government should fork out to help those in need, the occupants, their constituents, and then go after the councils and poor builders…

Don’t forget the government approved the products causing much of the damage…

I think the last National government can hang it’s head in shame for removing much of the regulation for building and Labour can for not dealing with the problem when it first arose and disbanding the BIA to cover the governments backside…

Look at the legacy we’ve got now, technically insolvent councils which allow a nutter like Hide to run his game…

By: TopCat

TopCat — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:59:08 +0000

If he makes them cap rates, the councils will just put up fees, charges and levy’s. If they get capped, they will find ways to put off the cost until the cap limit comes off. If they can’t do this they will start selling assets until they can raise rates. Or alternatively they will reduce rubbish collections, let there roads crumble or put off maintenence programs until the cap goes.
Every local politician knows that taking away community services (whether they be environmental programs, libararies, festivals, art galleries, community policing, town centre upgrades etc) which are the face of council activities is political death. Proactive councillors with the ideas are the ones who always get elected.
Rates caps are a short term fix- councils have thousands of ways to get around them and when they end rates go up by what they would have anyway. Rodney is barking up the wrong tree on this one.

By: jennifer

jennifer — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:35:02 +0000

If anyone thinks Hide’s ‘back down’ on core services means local government can relax, they need ECT. Wait until folks see what his cabinet papers have in store for them. This is the oldest trick in the book, propose a bunch of evil ideas, drop the nastiest, and everyone, including the MSM, can roll over and go back to sleep. Fact his Hide’s crazy ‘core services’ nonsense was never going to fly, but real kicker is the financial stuff that will strangle local government funding to the point that the his ‘core services’ nightmare will be delivered via the back door.

By: Spud

Spud — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 03:09:40 +0000

Well put Olwyn.

By: Olwyn

Olwyn — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 02:01:29 +0000

I have come to think that Rodney Hide plays quite a big part in John Key’s continued popularity, despite his having done little or nothing so far to deserve it. Rodney puts forward a draconian idea, John insists on its modification, everyone breaths a sigh of relief & NZ is winched incrementally rightwards without noticing. Along the lines of “Help, help! There’s an axe murderer at the door.” “No, wait a minute, it’s just the bailiff.” “Phew, what a relief.”

By: Gooner

Gooner — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 01:47:05 +0000

But if Hide, in spite of his soothing words in the Herald, persists with the nutty rate-capping and core services agenda he floated in April then he will surely have a fight on his hands.

You want a fight?

Bring it on.

You’ll lose, and NZ will be better for it.

By: tim garbutt

tim garbutt — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 01:31:31 +0000

Tim Way off thread – suggest you email darien.fenton@parliament.govt.nz She looks after transport safety for the Labour Party here in NZ. Trevor

By: Sandgroper

Sandgroper — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 01:21:31 +0000

Before he kills again? FFS.

By: jarbury

jarbury — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:33:48 +0000

TopCat, yes that is very true. A number of additional tasks have been put onto local government over the past few years by central government – that have added significant cost.

I have wondered whether local government should get a share of GST that is raised from within the area. That happens frequently in US cities.