Part one of Rodney Hide’s plan to corporatise Auckland and sell of our assets was ramming through the Supercity legislation. Part two is getting his people elected to run our region, and those people are C&R. Here are five reasons to reject C&R when you vote:
1) They are Rodney’s choice to run Auckland
C&R have been in lock-step with Rodney from the beginning. They cheered on his un-democratic Supercity proposals, seeing it as an opportunity to take control of the whole Auckland region. Sure enough, they then set up a region-wide political machine to try and take-over our city. They are not interested in local communities, only in winning power and exercising it. C&R do not let their Councillors take independent positions on behalf of their wards, they have a centralised political machine and whip Councillors to vote according to the dictates of the C&R leadership. A vote for C&R is a vote for Rodney Hide’s agenda, and will give control of Auckland over to C&R President John Slater.
2) They are anti-public transport
C&R are the pro-roads party. And we don’t just mean that in a sensible “let’s balance roads and public transport” way, we mean it in a “these guys are roads nuts” way. They never back public transport options unless they absolutely have to. They backed the Eastern highway, tried to get rid the Dominion Rd’s bus-lanes recently, and actively ridicule Len Brown and City Vision’s commitment to deliver rail to the airport.
3) They sell off public assets
C&R have a track record of selling off publicly owned assets. They sold Auckland City’s airport shares (while Manukau City wisely held them), and hocked off Auckland City’s pensioner housing. They have supported Rodney Hide’s legislation that takes protection from sale away from the Ports of Auckland and opens our water supply up to privatisation. C&R knows that privatisation is hugely unpopular so they say very little about their intentions, but their track record shows that they want to sell the family silverware.
4)The Disgrace of Monte Cecilia
No single episode has illustrated C&R’s arrogance more than their treatment of Monte Cecilia school. In aid of a pet project for Deputy Mayor David Hay, they are attempting to force the Monte Cecilia school off land it has occupied in Hillsborough for over 80 years. The eviction will cost tens of millions of public money and is totally unnecessary. The school is a little closer to the swanked up Pah Homestead gallery than C&R would like, but the school has offered to move back to a small 1 hectare corner of the vast Monte Cecilia park – no dice with C&R though. They have made up their mind to force the school out, and nothing, not even massive community opposition will move them. C&R even refuse to tell the public how many millions of dollars the eviction and re-building o the school will cost ratepayers.
5) Shambolic leadership
This campaign has exposed C&R as a declining political force, struggling to hold even itself together. In constructing a region-wide political machine and then attempting to impose central control, C&R have created huge tensions within their own tent, and these have often spilled over. Unable to select a candidate in the key Waitemata ward, they played Alex Swney and Tenby Powell off against one another publicly, ending up with Swney running as an independent, and Powell becoming totally alienated. In the same ward, a local board candidate has split from C&R because of their controlling tendencies. On the North Shore, C&R candidate George Wood stood up at a public meeting to dispute his own party’s water policy. Already rivalries are emerging about who will be the next leader of C&R. ACT party man Dick Quax fancies himself, while Christine Fletcher is trying to carve out her own powerbase. After the election it will get nasty. All in all, C&R have shown that they are simply not up to managing a rabbit board, let alone our whole region.
Coming up next, the other side – 5 reasons to vote for City Vision
**ADDENDUM**
Independent candidate for Waitemata Tenby Powell has contacted us to make it clear that he was always running as an independent and never offered himself up as a C&R candidate as the above post suggests. Mr Powell seems to be a fairly straight up guy so we will take him at his word on that and want to draw readers attention to this. We still maintain that whatever the exact dynamics, C&R made a pigs ear out of Waitemata!