Local Government Minister Rodney Hide wants Aucklanders to have "maximum input" into the Government's super city proposals but he has ruled out holding a referendum.
NZPA | Friday April 24 2009 - 04:28pm
Labour leader Phil Goff today called for a referendum to give Aucklanders a voice rather than "ramming changes through by special legislation".
He said the Royal Commission consulted widely and undertook extensive analysis over 18 months before making its recommendations, but the Government had fundamentally changed them without any further consultation.
Mr Goff said the proposals looked like a "jack-up" between National, ACT, Auckland City Mayor John Banks and a "small but powerful business elite".
The Greens also want a referendum, and MP Sue Kedgley said Mr Hide had effectively thrown the Royal Commission's report into the bin.
"The Local Government Act stipulates very clearly that before any significant local body reorganisation can be made, an extensive public consultation process must take place," she said.
"This must include consultation with stakeholders, notification of the draft proposal, a public submission process and a poll of electors to determine by simple majority whether the proposal should proceed or not."
Mr Hide told NZPA he wanted Aucklanders to have a bigger say than just a `yes' or `no' to a super city.
"The difficulty with a referendum is it would cost a million dollars and it would just ask `yes' or `no'," he said.
"What I'm picking up, very clearly, is that a lot of people favour a super city but they've got particular views about how it should be structured and run -- it's not just a `yes' or `no' question, that's why I've been so actively engaged with the mayors."
Mr Hide said he was going to move fast with legislation, which would go to a select committee for public submissions.
That would allow Aucklanders to have their say, in detail, about the proposals.
Mr Hide met Auckland's mayors this morning and said good progress was made.
"Everyone has left their differences at the door and they're working in the best interests of Auckland," he said.
"We're continuing to meet with the mayors, we've set up a process for that."
Monday, 27 April 2009
Hide rules out referendum on 'super city' proposals
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4 comments:
What give Aucklanders a voice thats not ACT policy... ACT policy is to "ram changes through by special legislation". Just like they did with Labour in the 80s with Rogernomics. They are now doing for National. The governing party may have changed but the means in which to do it hasn't.
The joke is still on us. The joke of true democracy and the joke that MPs talk of peoples referendums. Yeah Right.
To be honest, having a referendum on this issue does not really bother me. What does bother me is that binding referendums are not (as far as I know) planned to be incorporated into the new format. Neither are they considered to be a way for citizens to have "maximum input", as Mr Hide puts it.
Binding referendums are just Democracy...and Democracy is another form of dictatorship.The only difference between a tryanny and a Democracy is often the number of feet on your throat.
No....give me a free society...not another form of control and infringement on my,and everyones elses, individual rights.
Rodney Hide is a Libertarian...Libertarians don't support democracy as the ideal social system....they support individual freedom and natural rights....democracy violates those.It may be ok to decide who's on the borard of the Cricket club etc but it has no place in determining good and just law and the limits to human action.
See here..
http://www.isil.org/resources/libertystrategies/initiatives-caveat.html
http://pc.blogspot.com/2007/07/democracy-vs-freedom-middle-eastern.html
Democracy ain't the answer...its the same old problem wearing a tie.
I would suggest that a totally free society with no boundaries, left to control itself, would soon turn to anarchy. Where the fist and the gun would be the biggest threat to individual rights.
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