Bob Edlin: Mayor Brown misses the matter of ministerial accountability....

Mayor Brown misses the matter of ministerial accountability when he upbraids critics of Auckland’s Maori board

It’s a familiar line of argument – you denounce something as “Maori bashing”.

But Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has gone further and compared an Auckland City apple (or is it puha?) with a central government pear (or kumera).

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Unsurprisingly, Wayne Brown might be a bully

I’m going to make a prediction that I’m fairly certain is going to bear out: no one is going to be shocked by reading in the Herald that Wayne Brown might be a bully.

This has kicked off again this week with a complaint from a new Auckland councillor, Bo Burns, that Auckland Council is so dysfunctional she has packed up and walked out of meetings twice because of behaviour she considered unacceptable. Then, the Herald dropped a much bigger piece expanding on all of this, featuring the accounts of multiple councillors who also complain and who then hone in on the mayor in particular.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Chris Bishop's housing u-turn is basic common sense

Well, finally Chris Bishop has done the right thing and made the u-turn on the two million new houses he had planned for Auckland.

It’s not altogether a surprise that he did this and announced it this afternoon, because it’s been rumoured for months - for the obvious reason that it’s election year.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Let's not get weird about helicopters and rich-listers

This debate about Anna Mowbray and Ali Williams' helicopter has just got really, really silly in the last day.

There is now a push for Auckland Council to ban private choppers in residential areas altogether when they next review the unitary plan for Auckland city, and at least 2 councillors now back that. And one of the councillors backing it is the councillor whose ward covers the Mowbray property.

Wayne Ryburn: Letter to Minister Chris Penk

The Minister for Building and Construction, Land information

The Hon. Chris Penk

Dear Chris,

In the West Auckland area of Taupaki-Kumeu, horticulturists including myself, have to comply with water-bore renewal fees which will cost property owning horticulturists $7000 along with a now separate hydrologist's report of $5000 or more, in addition there may also be a water meter verification fee requirement of over $800, the last two having GST added. Our bore consents, which last for 15 years, are due at the end of May this year. In 2012 the consenting renewal cost was only $2500 including gst.

Fiona Mackenzie: Co-Governance Bites in NZ’s Largest City

If you think the previous National Government’s Independent Māori Statutory Board (IMSB) is already wielding too much power in a compliant Auckland City Council, brace yourself for further attack on our democracy by its tribal representatives.

One third of New Zealand’s population are having their rights further eroded by the radical interpretation of a permittable (but not mandatory) ‘Deed of Acknowledgement’ in the Waitākere Ranges Heritage Area Act 2008. These innocuous words are being used to facilitate 50/50 co-governance over a significant portion of Auckland’s landmass - with more to come.

Point of Order: Auckland Council tosses $128,000 at Circus School

• The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance reports –

The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance can reveal through a Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act request that Auckland Council gave $128,352 to Te Kura Maninirau, New Zealand’s first kaupapa Māori circus school.

David Farrar: No one owns water, but someone makes a lot of money from it!

NewstalkZB reports:

Watercare is under fire for keeping a $20 million deal with Waikato-Tainui under wraps.

It’s been revealed the Auckland Council-controlled water provider last year signed up to paying $1 million a year, for two decades.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: I'm not getting excited about the money spent on that dance competition

Look, I hate wasteful spending as much as you do, but yeah, I'm just not getting that excited about the money that's been spent on that dance competition.

I just don't think that the comparisons between the money that was put into that and the nonsense that councils get up to are fair. I mean, that is certainly what the Taxpayers Union is trying to say.

Penn Raine: What a load of rubbish!

Ignoring the Greens because they’re crazier than a crate of snakes is my default setting although it’s hard work failing to notice that their leaders jet en masse to COP, steal stuff probably made in sweatshops and appear to support slavery.

But it’s not just Green MP’s who need a good talking to - Auckland Council, I’m looking at you.

Peter Williams: Will Auckland Council include Maori seats?

And will they be voted for ?

In the midst of the general election campaign, you would think that matters pertaining to local body elections would not be high priority for the population at large.

As a voter in a local authority, I’m certainly not thinking of local elections and most probably neither are you.

That lack of interest and attention is probably the rationale behind an extraordinary exercise by Auckland Council at the moment called “Deciding whether to introduce Maori Seats for 2025.” One might have thought this was quite an important issue requiring attention free from other political distraction for the voters of Auckland.

Roger Partridge: More planning madness from Auckland Council

Anyone hoping for an end to the country’s housing affordability crisis should despair. Or at least they should if they live in New Zealand’s largest city.

The villain in this instance is not the Resource Management Act. Nor is it Environment Minister David Parker's misconceived RMA replacement.

The current problem is Auckland Council itself.

Michael Bassett: The sinister thing about co-governance

The term “co-governance” trips off ministerial tongues with ease but it’s clear most people don’t know what it means. Nanaia Mahuta would have us believe it simply means that Maori would be guaranteed some sort of undefined say in decision-making. Fair-minded Kiwis think that’s OK. When I was Minister of Local Government I urged local authorities to set up standing committees of local Maori which would be consulted on matters of special interest to Maori. Most complied. But that was nothing like enough for Maori radicals who pushed for Maori wards, and then convinced Mahuta to legislate over the top of local referenda where moves to introduce Maori wards had been voted down, usually by large margins. Now that Maori wards are mandatory for all local councils, the radicals have moved to the next stage. It isn’t enough for Maori who nearly all have majority Pakeha DNA in their bodies. They are smarting from the reality that they form only 17% of New Zealand’s population. They now want that 17% turned magically into majority status in all decision making. That’s what the current calls for “co-governance” are all about.

Peter Hamling: Auckland’s cruise ship facilities – another perspective

Ovation of the Seas is 20 m longer than the height of the Sky Tower

Independent planning commissioners have switched on a green light for controversial mooring dolphins to be built off the end of Queens Wharf in Auckland to facilitate the handling of larger cruise ships.

Graeme Edwards: Taxes Anchored

We have much to thank the ancient Greeks and Romans for - the concept and practice of Democracy is an outstanding example, lasting as it has for many centuries.

Churchill allegedly claimed it to be ‘the least worst form of governance’ and a quick review of other forms  of governance confirms his assertion.

Nonetheless like all great Western ideas it has been subject to abuse and along with its many strengths, has weaknesses. Perhaps the most common weakness is the practice of hopeful candidates for election enticing voters with extravagant promises that they neither can nor have any intention of fulfilling. 

Mike Butler: Woodburner police for Auckland?

The Environment Ministry has fixed its death stare on Auckland and a ban on domestic open fireplaces and old wood burners affecting 85,000 homes looms.

A report in the New Zealand Herald yesterday, or should I say a press release from the Auckland Council reproduced in the Herald, breathlessly asserts that 75 per cent of Auckland's winter air pollution is due to fine particle emissions (PM10) from open fires and non- compliant wood burners.

Noting that motor vehicles account for 18 per cent of pollution, and industry 7 per cent, “the burning of coal and wood during winter raised the level of PM10 inhaled and lodged in lungs, and that 110 adults died prematurely every year due to emissions from indoor fires.