Auckland

ᔥ NZ Herald

[I]n a statement today, Len Brown reaffirmed that Auckland would not be selling off its strategic assets – the port and its airport shares.

“One of the biggest pressures we face is the costs around the amalgamation of Auckland Council, and that is a cost imposed on Auckland by the Government.

“Our core strategic assets will not be sold. Generations of Aucklanders have invested in them and they want them retained in public ownership. They bring in tens of millions of dollars a year, taking pressure off rates. Past assets sales have delivered very poor results. We do not intend going down that path,” he said.

But Auckland Council was considering the sale of non-strategic assets such as property, which could provide as much as $400 million dollars in revenue for ratepayers, he said.

The mayors press release is a load of rubbish.

Generations of Aucklanders have not invested in the Airport.  One generation of ratepayers as I understand it guaranteed any losses when the airport shifted from Whenuapai to Mangere.  I do not believe actual cash was invested but it was to create a benefit for Auckland.  Having created the benefit why do we not move on and use the Airport funds to create other benefits.  No problem selling one lot of family silver if you buy some other family silver.

We have the benefit of the Airport for growth etc whether the ratepayers own it or not.

Some one should ask Len Brown to specify exactly which generations have invested in the Airport and the Port.

ᔥ NZ Herald

Len Brown is doing a bang up job. In just two short years he has managed to get two thirds of the population opposed to his rate increases:

Aucklanders are not impressed by Mayor Len Brown’s plans to increase rates by nearly 5 per cent a year over the next decade, nor do they want him to extend the Manukau policy of free swimming pools in Manukau to the rest of the Super City.

Mr Brown’s first 10-year budget has drawn 9921 submissions – 4524 from dog owners outraged over planned fee increases for pets, which Mr Brown and councillors are backing away from.

Dogs aside, Aucklanders are most concerned about transport and rating issues, according to a council analysis of public submissions.

“We have serious concerns about a doubling of rates revenue from $1.1 billion to $2.2 billion over the next decade,” Heart of the City spokesman Greg McKeown told councillors on Friday.

“It’s getting too easy to say $1 billion in this city.”

I wonder when we will ever see a local body politician that will promise rate decreases ans spending cuts?

ᔥ NZ Herald

The vast number of commuters yesterday were unaffected by the outage of the train system in Auckland. Quite simply we, those of us who drive, didn’t even know and couldn’t care less that “other people” go held up by a cock up with the public transport system.

We don’t even care that the system was shut down because of a power outage in Wellington…the roads worked just fine for us. Len Brown can stamp his foot all he likes, the fact remains is the rail network is a dog, bugger all use it and in the event of a massive earthquake in Wellington Auckland’s trains will stop working…yet another reason to build more roads and ditch his stupid rail loop.

The mayor of Auckland is demanding answers, after the city’s trains were shut down in the middle of rush hour due to a major power outage in Wellington.

The outage at National Train Control hit around 4pm yesterday afternoon after backup systems failed.

It lasted for about an hour but caused disruption for much longer as commuters attempted to catch trains home.

Once signals were restored, commuters faced lengthy delays as trains got moving again.

Mayor Len Brown said the problem had been disappointing at a time when hundreds of millions of dollars were being spent on upgrading Auckland’s rail network.

“We’ve a got fully integrated electric rail system coming into position mid next year, and we do not want any of these types of control issues impacting on the delivery of super modern service.”

Len Brown said he expected a report into what happened on his desk this morning.

NBR Online

Len Brown has backed the SkyCity deal which will deliver a Convention Centre to Auckland at no cost to the ratepayers or taxpayers.

Auckland mayor Len Brown supports the convention centre at the heart of a contentious deal between the National Party and SkyCity Entertainment Group – a facility the council’s own research shows would be “break-even” at best.

Under the SkyCity proposal, the casino and hotel operator would pay the full $350 million construction costs for a centre capable of holding 3500 seated delegates or 4500 in an exhibition format.

The payback for SkyCity would be changes to gambling regulations that would allow it to install more gaming machines.

Brokerage Goldman Sachs last month estimated SkyCity would need 350 to 500 extra machines to profit from the deal, generating as much as $46m of revenue in the first full year of operation.

Labour is clearly opposed to any deal where private enterprise picks up the tag, oppsed to any deal that provides 1000 construction jobs and opposed to 350 permanent jobs.

Before we listen to what Labour has to say about this deal let them firstly pay back the dirty money they got in donations, then let them explain how they would fund  a $350 million Convention Centre.

This video was posted on Levi Hawken’s Facebook wall and apparently shot yesterday at Victoria Park in Auckland.

Good to see Christine Fletcher and C&R stand up for the Ports Management against Richard Northey’s desperate attempt to completely upend the council for his own arse-covering.

Len Brown is going to have to grow a spine and deal with Richard Northey – as Chris Fletcher points out, it was Len Brown himself who put Northey in charge of this powerful committee. As fun as it is to watch the left turn on themselves, the effects of Northey winning his motion would badly hurt the council and ratepayers.

C&R Leader Christine Fletcher today confirmed that her team would support the Mayor and Ports management over the Ports of Auckland industrial relations dispute.

“The Mayor has been put in a very difficult position by Cr Richard Northey – who was personally chosen by the Mayor to be a chairman of one of the major committees at council. We are astonished Cr Northey would propose a motion at his Accountability and Performance Committee this Thursday that opposes the Ports of Auckland decisions on employment issues, a backflip from when Cr Northey voted to support the Ports of Auckland board on December 8”, said Cr Fletcher.

“It also puts the Mayor in a very embarrassing position should Cr Northey’s motion pass, as it both reverses the previous Auckland Council position, and is at odds with the Mayor’s statements that it isn’t the job of politicians to leap into this dispute and push management around”, said Cr Fletcher.

“We think the Mayor should take the initiative and call an extraordinary council meeting earlier this week to deal with this issue. Having it fester for all week will hurt the overall interests of all of the Auckland council”, said Cr Fletcher.

“We support Len Brown’s desire to ensure the investments of Auckland Council run properly for ratepayers. If we don’t get this right, then ratepayers will face large increases in their rates to replace lost council income. It could badly hurt council business for the rest of the term. This is a time for cool heads and not a time for council to try and circumvent the lawfully constituted labour relations processes”, said Cr Fletcher.

“The motion risks the council looking like it is at war with itself. Even worse, the passing of Cr Northey’s motion would confirm a very public schism between the Mayor’s office and the councillors he is supposed to rely on most for implementing his vision.”

“C&R therefore will support the Mayor’s position to let the Ports of Auckland mangement and Auckland Council Investments Ltd resolve the crisis as they see fit. We have also worked with key independent councillors to offer their support to the Mayor on this issue,” said Cr Fletcher.

Yesterday the Maritime Union had a march and called on all of Auckland to support them – 2000 turned up.

On the same day it was the annual Pasifika Festival at Western Springs – More than 100,000 people turned up to that.

It is 4.38 kilometeres from Western Springs Park to the start of the march….but too far for 100,000 to give a shit about supporting the rich prick wharfies and their overseas bully boy mates from Australia and the US.

The only thing worse that the Maritime Union could have done on TV was have a pasty whinging pom speak in their favour.

Lets put this into perspective using simple (because they are thick) maths. 2000 people out of a population of 1.4million is 0.14%….it is laughable. Pasifika Festival on the other hand enjoyed just over 7% of Aucklanders support.

The people have spoken, they prefer brown people over racist, sexist bully-boy unionists.

And you know the left wing is a lost cause when they steal right wing blogger’s nicknames: (On the 19 January 2011 I called Len Brown the Night Mayor)

The left wing is rabid at the moment. They think nothing of violence and anger in their protests even against one of their own.

Yesterday they targeted Len Brown because he has refused to act the way they think he should, in the interests of 300 selfish, striking wharfies.

Auckland Mayor Len Brown was the target of a lamington attack by an angry supporter of Ports of Auckland workers.

Brown had been speaking to students at Auckland University when the incident happened just after 1pm.

It’s understood he was targeted by a dreadlocked man, angry with Brown’s lack of intervention in the Ports of Auckland industrial dispute.

On Wednesday port management announced it would make 300 striking workers redundant following a drawn out disagreement over working conditions.

Brown has been criticised for not intervening in the bitter dispute.

Len Brown is doing what he promised in the election. He promised to be the mayor for all of Auckland. It is just a shame that the lhard left and the selfish unions think that means that he makes decisions just for them.

It just goes to show the perils of dealing with unions or accepting donations from them….they expect a pay off.

Len Brown will be taking this hard, because I think he is a genuine, caring man. But he wanted the big job and so he must make the big decisions and act int he interests of all Auckland. He is doing that….he should be getting kudos not lamingtons.

The leftwing are merciless on class traitors, but I think this is going too far on Len Brown. He is only acting in the best interests of all of Auckland in protecting the multi-million dollar investment the city has in the Ports of Auckland. The unionists are being extremely selfish in thinking the mayor should only act in their interests.

The left-wing has protested Len Brown calling him a scab at his regular Mayor in the Chair. I’d wear the badge of a scab with pride.

Here’s the full car crash David Shearer interview with Larry Williams on the Ports of Auckland issue.

I can’t believe this got so bad that Mr Invisible suggested “somebody” should show some leadership.

Given that Labour gets funding and support from this union, you would have thought that’s what he’s paid for.

Shearer is simply repeating the Maritime Union’s lies on port productivity. I blogged about it in February

Listen now to Shearer’s appalling interview.