testimonials    

 

GREY POWER
ZONE 2 – AUCKLAND REGION

                                                                                    3 Ashley Ave
                                                                                    Long Bay
                                                                                    North Shore 0630
                                                                                    Email: fairgo@slingshot.co.nz

24 May 2009

Prime Minister, John Key
Minister of Local Government, Rodney Hide
Members of Parliament

 

My name is   Alan McCulloch.
I am Zone Director for Grey Power Auckland Region.

I write to you on behalf of our Associations in the Auckland Region in respect of:

The Proposed Re-structuring of Local and Regional Government in and around the Auckland Region.

We say it is time someone spoke the truth:

  1. That Local Government has become a human, fiscal, bureaucratic disaster and that successive governments have legislated to create this situation.
  2. We are adamantly opposed to the Super City concept.
  3. We do not want a Region wide mayor.

 

[We invite all of you to read the then Minister of Local Government Dr Michael Bassett’s 1989 publication “Local Government Reform”.
Important Information about the way we Manage our Communities].
(If your staff cannot supply this we are happy to copy it for you.)

Not one… not one… not one of the promised improvements come to pass.  Indeed in every case the opposite happened.

  1. We do not need Nanny State interfering in Local Government affairs.  We are perfectly capable of looking after the health, safety and well-being of our communities and if mistakes are made, quite capable of fixing them.  “Recognising and correcting past mistakes is a positive action.”

 

How did this mess come about?

In the 80s without being asked to Government legislated that Mayors and Councillors be paid.  Prior to this, they received only an honorarium to cover out-of-pocket expenses.  Government imposed these new payments and thus changed in many cases the sort of people standing for election.

1990 Parliament forced the amalgamations of TLAs against the wishes of the great majority of citizens.  Communities were fragmented and community organizations weakened.  Citizens lost their sense of community identity and civic pride disappeared.  Citizens became alienated from their elected representatives. 

 

Why did Parliament do this?

Progressively through the 90s and to the present Parliament changed, fragmented and emasculated the Auckland Regional Council which progressively lost contact with the people it purported to represent. 

The Resource Management Act with its amendments, Judicial precedents etc killed initiative, created a massive bureaucracy and caused unprecedented rates rises as well as adding huge costs to residential sections and indeed any form of development whatsoever.

Tree rules and the like gave the now uncontrolled bureaucrats the opportunity to prosecute and persecute any citizens who dared to question their power and authority.

The smallest building alterations became a major drama and a major cost.  Parliament decided that Local Authorities could only have 1 employee the Chief Executive Officer.

The Mayors and Councillors no longer defended their citizens against the bureaucrats.

Leaky and Rotting Buildings

The Government appointed Building Industry Authority started making changes to the Building Code.  Soon houses and other buildings were using untreated kiln dried radiata which rotes while you look at it.  Monolithic cladding became common, was generally badly applied and was approved by so-called building inspectors who often had no practical building experience.
As a result New Zealand has quite literally $ Billions of houses and other buildings which will have to be demolished.

Even when alarms were raised in 1998 no one acted and so the disaster continued for another several years.

AND NO ONE IS RESPONSIBLE!

The ‘buck’ stops no-where anymore.

Then of course the 2002 Powers of General Competence which gave Councils the ability to do anything they liked – and citizens no power to stop them.

Obviously this missive could go on… we have only touched…

This is what Grey Power Auckland Region wants Parliament to do.

  1. Forget the Super City lunacy.

 

  1. Forget the Super Mayor King?
  1. Upgrade the re-power of the Auckland Regional Council.

 

  1. Accept total responsibility for the Leaky and Rotting Buildings.
  1. Remove the Powers of General competence.

 

  1. Remove the Councils have only 1 employee stupidity.
  1. Get rid of the Resource Management Act and replace it with a commonsense based Planning Act.

 

Then when Parliament has admitted its collective responsibility for the disgraceful mess it has made – and gone some way to fixing it, then break up the existing TLAs into manageable units of say 60,000 – 70,000 people each with a Mayor and 9 Councillors who would be paid only an honorarium to cover general expenses.

When people are giving their time and energy as a service to their communities they tend not to tolerate bad legislation or bureaucratic tyranny.

 

Yours truthfully

 

Alan McCulloch