12 August 2009

Hide confirms ‘super city’ nation-wide roll out is still on his agenda

Local Government Minister Rodney Hide, in a speech delivered yesterday to the Southland Chamber of Commerce, confirmed that he still wants to see the ‘super city’ model rolled out across the country, North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams said today.

“Rodney Hide told the Southland Chamber of Commerce that “it’s too early to say what the implications of the changes in Auckland will be for other local authorities” despite the Prime Minister ruling out the export of the ‘super city’ model, telling the recent Local Government New Zealand conference in Christchurch that “changes to local government structures must be driven from communities, by communities, for communities, with a genuine desire for change,” Mayor Williams said.

“Back in May, Rodney Hide told an Auckland audience that he hoped to see the Auckland ‘super city’ “replicated around the country”, which struck fear into local communities up and down the nation. Now, despite the Prime Minister’s wise words of reassurance, he is at it again, raising uncertainty over the future of local governance structures elsewhere.”

“It is time that Rodney Hide started listening to his Prime Minister and abandoned his long held dream of turning our communities into corporations by imposing his ‘super city’model of local governance on the rest of New Zealand. It’s time that he made a clear and unambiguous statement that unlike here in Auckland, it will be up to local communities to decide for themselves how their local authorities are configured, elected and run,” Mayor Williams said.

Mayor Williams said that the people of Auckland had learned from bitter experience that Rodney Hide’s deep mistrust of local democracy and his bullying tactics mean that communities elsewhere need to remain acutely alert to his real agenda and must not take anything he says at face value.

“Kiwis understand that there is something fundamentally wrong with a ‘minor 1% party’ minister and a small cabal of power brokers tearing greater Auckland’s communities apart to satisfy their own egos and ambitions, declaring victory, and then railroading the rest of the country to follow suit,” Mayor Williams said.

ENDS

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