RAM - Residents Action Movement

Election InfoLine 3.10.07

'Deceptive propaganda' over waterfront parks

Regional People is a Labour-aligned ticket contesting Auckland Regional Council seats in the Manukau and Auckland constituencies. Mike Lee, chair of the ARC, is Regional People's only sitting councillor.

Deceptive propaganda over waterfront parks is a central feature of Regional People's election campaigning, say RAM candidates for the regional council.

"At the regional council, Mike Lee was the prime mover in turning Pikes Point, the last public green space on the Upper Manukau Harbour, from a popular recreational park into a Japanese used car lot. This amounts to eco-vandalism and de facto privatisation," said Bronwen Beechey, a RAM candidate for the ARC in Auckland Constituency.

"Yet Mr Lee is crowing about how 'Auckland will finally get the waterfront it truly deserves, one that includes much greater public access'. The ARC chair is, however, talking only of how the tank farm on the Waitemata Harbour is to be greened." (Joint media release by Auckland City Council, Auckland Regional Council, Auckland Regional Holdings and Ports of Auckland, 29 June 2007.)

"The Regional People leader simply ignores his role in transforming Pikes Point on the Upper Manukau Harbour from a public green space into a 'brown' industrial area under private control. Mr Lee is doing the opposite on Upper Manukau Harbour to what he boasts about on the Waitemata Harbour," said Bronwen Beechey.

"The two Regional People candidates in Manukau, Steve Bayliss and Lindsey Britton, are also misleading voters about waterfront parks," said Grant Morgan, a RAM candidate for the ARC in Msanukau Constituency.

"In the official Regional People brochure letterboxed around Manukau City, they promise 'more parks along the shores of the Manukau Harbour for the people of Auckland'. This flies in the face of Mike Lee depriving Greater Auckland's people of Pikes Point, the only public green space on the Upper Manukau Harbour."

"Mr Bayliss and Ms Britton are attempting to rewrite history because they cannot justify the ungreen actions of their political boss, Mr Lee," said Grant Morgan.

"Regional People candidates are engaged in deceptive propaganda over waterfront parks," said Bronwen Beechey and Grant Morgan. "RAM is committed to rehabilitating Pikes Point as a recreational park as well as promoting the least-commercialised greening of the tank farm."

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Photos of Pikes Point when it was a recreational park. Electronic copies available from Grant Morgan (contact details below).

RAM's "Save our Park" election billboard about Pikes Point. Electronic image available from Grant Morgan.

The RAM Team is standing for 27 positions on the Auckland Regional Council, Auckland City Council and Community Boards, and the region's three District Health Boards.

RAM blog - www.ram-auckland.net  
Features profiles of all RAM candidates

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