Councils & talkback

I'm not going near the smacking business - it is going to get worse before it gets better. We will have forgotten about it in a couple of weeks and then there will be something else. It won't be Bradford again but another of the dregs of society who knows better than the rest of . He/she will bring in another piece of legislation that seeks to right the wrongs of a small minority by making the vast majority of the country comply with something. We won't need it it, most of us won't want it but we will sit idly by and let it be passed into unpoliceable law with nary a whimper except a couple of morning's bleating on talkback radio. Talkback is hopeless, the only talk back that matters is the sort that hapens on a Saturday in primary schools once every three years. My only hope is that Phillip Field, marina consents, World Cup Stadia and, yes, anti smacking are remembered in eighteen months time.

There is a comment piece in the Herald this morning penned by an Auckland Regional Councillor. We are doomed. There is no hope for the entire Auckland region with wallies like this running the show. 1) He can't write half decent prose. There is hardly a paragraph in the piece containing more than two sentences. His writing reads like the agenda for a council meeting. 2) He can't think in anything resembling a straight line. He is writing about a second crossing of the Manukau which will probably be right next to the current Mangere Bridge which you will recall is right next to the previous Mangere Bridge. Simple, eh? Well not if you are an Auckland Regional Councillor it's not.

This bloke's contibution to the paper this morning is terrifying as it is obvious that it represents how councils work; or more correctly don't. He repeatedly gives many reasons why a problem cannot be solved and then tells you what the problem might be. Confused? I had to read most of his paragraphettes twice to have any idea what he was on about. He talks about making Onehunga a vibrant hub (every conurbation needs lots of vibrant hubs - I'm not sure what one is but you need them in abundance) but the Auckland Volcanic Cone Society have to be consulted to ensure that this would not interfere with returning the foreshore to the state it was in before the first bridge was built before building the third bridge. See, easy. But wait. You have to remember that the Resource Management hearing is not the place to sort this out as if you do agrieved parties would then have the ability to seek redress from the Environment Court if things didn't stack up their way. Have I lost you yet? This pratt then tells us that this hypothetical harbour crossing has been a 'high prioity' of the Regional Council's Transport Sub Comittee for 'years' (you can see why) but will now be elvated to the 'highest priority'. I assume that means he moves into 'obfuscation with turbos on' mode. But underpinning all this crap is the prerequisite that we get 'the bones' of the City right - I'm serious.

I think I'll spend a week in the far North as far away from this nonsense as possible.

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