Andrew Bydder: The Councils’ Gold‐Plated White Elephants

Imagine a gold‐plated Rolls Royce for one million dollars. NZTA offers to give you $500,000 towards buying it, because it has a five‐star safety rating and your current car only has four stars.

Andrew Bydder: An MSM Headline Lies, Again

The government imposes an obligation only to encourage Māori to participate in the decision-making process, which means they get a chance to vote like the rest of us.

We are all used to MSM’s bias and trickery but it still galls me to read headlines such as RNZ’s “Hamilton City Council votes to retain Māori wards”. No. We voted to have a public referendum, knowing that the majority of our citizens are not racist and will get rid of race-based politics at the next election.

Andrew B: Hamilton Council Rates up 54%

While this article uses Hamilton as the example, it really applies to all councils facing the same problem for the same reason.

News that Hamilton City Council has proposed a 25.5% rates rise next year does not tell the full story. It is planned to be followed with a 12.9% rise the following year and an 8.7% one the year after. This compounds to a whopping 54%, showing just how bad things really are. What is really scary is that the mayor’s alternative was even worse at 57.4%!

How did it get to this?