Simon Wilson provided an interesting read in a newspaper on Saturday explaining how to make sense of the Auckland Council election candidates. What particularly caught my eye was his suggestion of judging a candidate by measuring them against some key requirements.
Here is Simon’s list of six:
- Do they support slow and steady rate rises?
- Do they want more cycle lanes?
- Do they want to build confidence in Council services?
- Do they want to help the homeless?
- Do they support the Arts?
- Do they talk about an integrated approach to environmental, economic, social and cultural goals.
I wish I could make sense of Simon. If you were to prioritise key requirements into a Group A and a Group B, then with the possible exception of his first one on rates, none fit into Group A.
Here, in my view, are Group A questions:
- Do they support going through the Council books line by line?
- Do they support reducing the number of Council employees?
- Do they support reducing the Council wage bill?
- Do they support Council having more control over the CCO’s?
- Do they support more priority being given to fixing Auckland’s ailing infrastructure?
- Do they support reviewing the Council assets?
It would appear to me that only by sorting out the above can you realistically start to look at Simon’s list which is basically a wishlist of the Left. It’s a NICE list. It would be nice to have slow and steady rate rises, to build confidence in council services, to help the homeless, to support the Arts, and to have an integrated approach to everything. It would NOT be nice to waste any more money on useless cycle lanes that hardly anybody uses.
The problem Simon, in case you haven’t realised it, is that your mate Phil has maxed out the credit card. That is why my list must take precedence over yours. Simon points out that even if you don’t agree with his list it is still valuable. Just use it in reverse.
Thanks, Simon. I think, in a way, that’s just what I have done.