Gender balance in local government?
Kate Sheppard would be horrified to learn that women in New Zealand – the country that first gave women the vote – are still grossly underrepresented in the ranks of elected councillors in local government and very few hold leadership roles.
City Vision leadership wins better access to future train station
The City Vision-led Albert-Eden Local Board, Waitematā Local Board and Ward Councillors are pleased that Auckland Transport has relented and agreed to our request to provide for a second (western) entrance to the new Maungawhau rail station. While the new station,...
Peter Davis: Lessons from the Auckland Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak
Very unfortunate and troubling though it has been for all concerned, in retrospect the Auckland outbreak has been a salutary experience from which everyone can learn something. Our first wave seemed to involve – for the most part – youngish and healthy...
Peter Davis: Simpson report presents an opportunity for Auckland
The Health and Disability System Review (known as the Simpson Report after the chair, Heather Simpson) was recently published. It draws substantially on submissions from the sector and has been a couple of the years in the making. It is the most substantial review of...
3.5 per cent rates increase: Key to Auckland’s COVID-19 recovery says City Vision
Have your say on Auckland Council’s Emergency Budget 2020/2021 (feedback form) Auckland Council has produced an Emergency Budget to address the $525m shortfall in revenue due to COVID-19 and in so doing has to make some tough decisions about where to find...
Transforming How We Deal With Waste
NZ has one of the developed world’s lowest waste minimisation levies – $10 per tonne to landfill. MBIE plan to raise that to $50 but an independent study recommends a levy of $140 per tonne!
A call for more kindness from Councillor Casey
Some things can be revelatory in their simplicity. Take, for example, the little piece of paper laying between my cup of tea and lolly wrapper at the hair salon a mere eight days since I was re-elected as Albert-Eden-Puketāpapa ward councillor. “Kind is the new cool,”...
Mike Lee’s gerrymandering claim rejected
The serious allegations of electoral irregularities and gerrymandering made by Mike Lee (in Gulf News and Ponsonby News) to explain his defeat cannot go unanswered. His arguments set out to undermine a number of important democratic principles. Under the Local...