Some indicators of terminal troughers emerged this week in the race for the Auckland mayoralty.
Call me naïve, but it amazes me when politicians insist on telling others how to spend their own money. At the AUT mayoral debate this week, Phil Goff was chuffed to announce he has introduced the living wage for all employees on the Council payroll. Woohoo and well done Phil; you didn’t bother to thank the ratepayers who are footing the bill. Goff thinks this is such a grand idea; he says he will demand that contractors pay their employees the living wage.
Yes, you read it right. Goff wants to dictate the amount a contractor puts through on their own payroll. Of course, he can easily do this by insisting contractors pay their employees the living wage or get dropped from council work approval lists. It matters not a whit to Goff because, in the end, ratepayers will foot the bill for the increased wages. Correct me if I’m wrong, but surely minimum wage is not a matter for local government? Has Phil forgotten where he is?
The second incident involves theft. Craig Lord was flattered when John Tamihere stole the “Waste to Energy” concept Lord developed and announced months ago.
“Mayoral Candidate John Tamihere and his expensive campaign team have announced a refuse plan that was already declared months ago by Candidate Craig Lord.
Having heard the plan at various meetings attended by Lord who is wanting to lobby for a Waste to Energy Plant, the JT campaign team have slyly announced the idea on “The AM Show” on Wednesday morning – something Lord finds intriguing.
“Great idea, but it’s already been talked about by me a lot – and I didn’t need a campaign team to tell me it’s a good idea. But maybe the team told him it was a clever idea to steal the plan and make a run to the media with it.”
Lord has had meetings with various international companies all of whom are lining up to be a winning tender for the construction of a plant, which by proxy changes the entire nature of recycling in the city.”
Scoop
Of course, it doesn’t actually matter whose idea it is if the idea is a good one and worth pursuing; which this one clearly is.
But what does matter, and Lord alludes to this, is why Tamihere and his expensive campaign team with all their resources, couldn’t come up with the idea themselves. We can add “lacking original thought” as another indicator of a terminal trougher.