The Government has confirmed that it has replaced Basil Boom Boom Morrison at the Commission with another long-time friend of the establishment, Wira Gardiner.
Local Government Minister Paula Bennett joked in a press release that Gardiner and a new Commissioner Mr Leigh Auton “have the right knowledge and expertise to help communities focus on the issues that matter.”
‘Gravy’ Gardiner, as some call him, does NOT have local government experience. Auton does have experience as a council CEO, but Bennett fails to recall whether this experience was ‘successful’ (Manukau, so judge for yourself).
What made us all laugh was that a Minister in a National Government was arguing that you could not trust the community to focus on issues that mattered to them – they needed life-long bureaucrats to do it for them.
The mirth-making continued from Bennett; “We need local government to focus on delivering sustainable infrastructure, making sensible spending decisions, and listening to its citizens.”
It was funny because Bennett forgot about the Auckland Council. You know, that supercity which couldn’t add a new wharf, spends money of floating penis art and which ignores the requests of the local citizen boards to the point that they write complaining letters.
Bennett was on a roll, her third for the day; “For too long the argument has been on how many mayors we have, instead of looking at key infrastructure and economic growth.”
It’s been the Government, the Commission, and the smart-set who argued that there’s too many elected officials. Only now Bennett admits that maybe “key infrastructure and economic growth” are more important measures.
But Bennett and her press secretary have not been paying attention. The Wellington supercity proposal was lost because there was no evidence that either “key infrastructure” or “economic growth” was a problem, nor any evidence that different structures would improve them.
Two years after being warned that the Commission was crazy, Bennett now says she’ll be asking the Commission to “to be creative and think seriously.” So what the heck does she believe they’ve been doing until now?
Oh please… just close down that damn Commission, and leave us alone to work out our own local management – like a real National Government would.
