The furore about Maori seats on the new Auckland 'supercity' council, while a vital issue in its own right, has served to create a smokescreen around many other equally or even more important issues.
The prime one is the make-up, size and election of councillors overall. If a system of councillors elected from wards based on electorates or areas of even larger size, plus a number of at large councillors elected across the whole supercity is instituted this will lock in a regime of the business and wealthy elite who will rule a third of the country from a virtually unchallengeable position.
The politics of local bodies is well-known with the richer suburbs always turning out in greater numbers than those in the poorer areas. This was recognised with all the councils facing abolition having an existing system of election of councillors by ward and no at large councillors.
The supercity, if it goes ahead in the form that seems likely, will turn the clock back decades with its inherently undemocratic consititution.
This is the issue on which we should be concentrating our political fire. This, and the issue of privatising of the present council-owned assets like the shares in the airport and the port itself, were the main concerns expressed at the public meetings I attended when the supercity was first mooted. These issues have been subsumed under the Maori seats controversy.
In the end the council can decided to incude Maori seats under the existing local-body legislation. The wider questions of the make-up of the council and the sucurity of publicly-owned assets is the one we need to urgently address now.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Friday, July 03, 2009
Long live the commons!
Tariana Turia believes that Labour’s seabedandforeshore legislation was the "the single biggest land nationalisation statute enacted in New Zealand history". Would that the last Labour government had travelled the nationalisation road even further. Re-nationalisation of ACC, Air New Zealand and the railways could have fruitfully been complemented with full government ownership and/or regulation of the vital telecommunication and energy industries.
But the seabedandforeshore legislation was no nationalisation measure. It was the enshrinement of that which already existed; namely it retained the seabedandforeshore, the beaches and the coastal waters of AotearoaNewZealand, as part of the commons of this country. Our town and city open spaces, the National Parks and marine parks, the rivers, the lakes, our coastal waters and our beaches belong to nobody; that is they belong to us all. The seabedandforeshore legislation passed by the New Zealand parliament ensured that particular part of the commons remained in common ownership. Repeal of that law will be huge step towards the private ownership and commercial exploitation of our beaches and coastal waters.
Maori claim customary rights over the seabedandforeshore. Despite all the declamations and protests about “confiscation”, Labour’s controversial legislation preserved customary rights to the seabedandforeshore. East Coast Maori have already had theirs recognised under the law. What will happen to these rights if the law is repealed?
Despite all the assurances that Maori do not seek private property rights over the seabedandforeshore, the Maori Party and the Ministerial Review Committee that has just reported to the government clearly take the term “customary rights” to mean property rights i.e. privatisation: Or, in lieu of that, massive compensation payments.
Corporate Maoridom cannot wait to get its hands on this potentially lucrative asset. The ramifications of a private-ownership precedent in this arena of the remaining commons will quickly become clear. Other corporate interests will soon get in on the act. The example of the destruction of the New Zealand fishing industry, now largely in those very same hands, provides a stark example. Ask the workers made redundant at Sealords in Nelson as jobs are transferred to cheap-labour, off-shore factory ships what they think of tribal capitalism. Money is no respecter of good intentions. It knows no tribal boundaries.
Long live the public ownership (“nationalisation”, if you will) of the essential economic, social and recreational assets of AotearoaNewZealand!
But the seabedandforeshore legislation was no nationalisation measure. It was the enshrinement of that which already existed; namely it retained the seabedandforeshore, the beaches and the coastal waters of AotearoaNewZealand, as part of the commons of this country. Our town and city open spaces, the National Parks and marine parks, the rivers, the lakes, our coastal waters and our beaches belong to nobody; that is they belong to us all. The seabedandforeshore legislation passed by the New Zealand parliament ensured that particular part of the commons remained in common ownership. Repeal of that law will be huge step towards the private ownership and commercial exploitation of our beaches and coastal waters.
Maori claim customary rights over the seabedandforeshore. Despite all the declamations and protests about “confiscation”, Labour’s controversial legislation preserved customary rights to the seabedandforeshore. East Coast Maori have already had theirs recognised under the law. What will happen to these rights if the law is repealed?
Despite all the assurances that Maori do not seek private property rights over the seabedandforeshore, the Maori Party and the Ministerial Review Committee that has just reported to the government clearly take the term “customary rights” to mean property rights i.e. privatisation: Or, in lieu of that, massive compensation payments.
Corporate Maoridom cannot wait to get its hands on this potentially lucrative asset. The ramifications of a private-ownership precedent in this arena of the remaining commons will quickly become clear. Other corporate interests will soon get in on the act. The example of the destruction of the New Zealand fishing industry, now largely in those very same hands, provides a stark example. Ask the workers made redundant at Sealords in Nelson as jobs are transferred to cheap-labour, off-shore factory ships what they think of tribal capitalism. Money is no respecter of good intentions. It knows no tribal boundaries.
Long live the public ownership (“nationalisation”, if you will) of the essential economic, social and recreational assets of AotearoaNewZealand!
Friday, March 13, 2009
Skyla - born earlier today
Skyla - 9lb 8ozs of joy (or trouble) - born 9.15am, March 13, 2009.
First child of my eldest daughter Carissa - 2nd grandchild of Len (proud grandfather).
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
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