One Auckland

This idea has emerged from the woodwork again. This time there is even a Royal Commission of Inquiry in the the idea.

For those of you outside the Auckand region this is probably a bit of a perplexing idea. Auckland is Auckland after all so why should there be more than one council?

Not so. Currently there are eight councils in the Auckland Region.
The rather toothless Auckland Regional Council (ARC),
Auckland City (that is what Dick Hubbard is currently mayor of)
Manukau City
North Shore City
Waitakere City
Rodney District
Franklin District and
Papakura District

That is greatly reduced from 20 years ago when there were over 20 different local bodies each with their own mayor. They were all mashed into just seven and the Auckland Regional Authority became the ARC. This a loss of local identity that the locals are still struggling with.

In some cases the difference is geographical. North Shore is only joined to the rest by a pair of bridges, ferry services and Rodney to the north and bisected by a motorway. Waiheke Island is only linked to Auckland City by its ferries.
In other cases it is the urban/rural divide. The three districts are increasingly urban but still have large rural areas. The rural land within the city boundaries has almost all gone, except when you are an island.

The needs are quite different. Auckland City has huge problems with aging storm water pipes, sewers and gridlock caused by daily commuters from the other areas. North Shore doesn't want to spend any money on trains that don't cross the harbour bridge and none do. Manukau has problems with unrelenting growth and a large low socio-economic population. Rodney has problems with an incomplete motorway and lack of urban facilities, Waitakere has Westies and the list goes on.

Should all these groups be crunched into three or just one or not crunched at all?
Cost savings have been used to promote positive opinions of the idea but we have been down that road before and never saw the promised savings.

What the rest of the country has to think about is:
Do you really want one third of the country governed by a single local body?

That is the size of the issue.

Satire Rulz

This is the sort of publicity the New Zealand Government could do without.

http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_daily_show/index.jhtml and look for the clip titled America to the Rescue.

They even made an effort to pronounce Waitangi and Whangarei correctly and almost succeeded.

Enjoy!

The absolute futility of tinkering with the exchange rate

The headlines are screaming New Zealand Dollar In Free Fall less that 2 days after Bollard and Co. raised the official cash rate again. The rate increase should have pushed the dollar even further up into the stratosphere but instead it falls.

That just goes to show how futile trying to control our tiny floating currency is. Something happens with the US dollar or the Yen and up or down she goes almost totally independent of what in happening here where Kiwi dollars pay workers and buy groceries.

While my secretary keeps buying the nice catfood instead of that cheap stuff I am not worried about it. So long as it isn't that toxic stuff imported from China that caused such a fuss (and dead cats!) over in the USA that is. No worries about the exchange rate if it is made in NZ after all.

David Benson-Pope, GBL

Well, well, well, (3 holes in the ground).

Helen Clarke has had enough and David Benson-Pope really was Gone By Lunchtime.
Yeah OK he resigned his ministerial position but we all know is was either that or be sacked.

Now it is up to his electorate committee in Dunedin South to decide his parliamentary future.

Bollard's Game part 3

Up the rates go for the fourth time this year. Was anyone surprised?

Still a hint was dropped indicating that this may be the end of it. Just about everybody with a mortgage fixed for less than 5 years has now been hit with interest rate increases. Some may even be facing round 2 of the rate hikes that have occured over the last 3 years.

Oh well, such is life.

For Sale - one used airport.

Auckland airport, or rather 60% of its shares, is for sale and Dubai Aerospace Enterprises wants to buy.

The average kiwi doesn't like the idea, much to the surprise of Dubai Aerospace Enterprises. It seems we are a little concerned about the idea of some foreign investor owning our biggest international airport. Not that we have many international airports.

Now it seems that Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is preparing an offer as well.

Auckland and Manukau City ratepayers are going to have to put their money where their mouths are to stop a sale going ahead. It's their local councils doing the bulk of the selling.

NZ Dollar = sky rocket in flight

I am starting to feel sorry for Alan Bollard, reserve bank governor. The exporters are screaming, Cullen is dropping reminders in the form of spin, economists are jumping every which way and using a great number of words while doing so and mortgagees are whimpering.

Why? Because the dollar rocketed up not only over 80c US but over 81c US.

If you have a yen to buy some US dollars now is the time to do so. If you don't fancy that buy some Yen. Japanese grandmothers seem to by exchanging yen for NZ and AUS dollars by the truck load.

The worring thing is that there is next to nothing Alan Bollard or the New Zealand government can do about it without causing a crash.

Well at least it is keeping the price of petrol down.