David Farrar: Local democracy saved

Simeon Brown announced:

Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has concluded the Future for Local Government Review and confirmed that the Coalition Government will not be responding to the review’s recommendations.

Good. The Nannie Mahuta hand picked review team managed to come up with an appalling set of recommendations. They included:

• mana whenua appointments to Councils to “supplement” elected members

• Pay rises for Councillors

• Forcing STV on all Councils even where residents have overwhelmingly voted against it

• To force Councils to adopt tikanga standing orders binding on Councillors

• embed social/progressive procurement and supplier diversity

• lower voting age to 16

So basically they wanted to end equality of suffrage in NZ. It is good the Government has binned the report.

David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.