Auckland Council : Maori seats issue

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10592190

I had to lol this morning at Rodney Hide being accused of playing the race card by Tariana Turia.

Um... Lady, you exist to play the race card.

Anyway... the issue itself. Whaddya reckon? Should the city be run more like a large company and devoid of political/race considerations? Should the ethnic population voting rights in normal elections be enough to ensure their representation?

What about the Asian community? What about the Pacific Island community?

large companies aren't devoid of race or minority group considerations though

all the large companies I have worked for have had an active program in place in order to ensure the inclusion of minority groups

I’m not talking about just race though because women were included as a minority group

So this talk of “large companies” not giving consideration is actually completely redundant because these businesses have the most reputation to lose if they were seen to be excluding minority groups




the treaty entitles Maori to their sovereignty and with that privilege comes representation at local and central government level

Large company? Yuck, it's representational democracy FFS.

Regarding Maori seats, I wouldn't have as many as the RC suggested but I THINK I support them. Nothing to do with race, just giving weight to our "contractual" obligations under the Treaty.
Now that is focussed on the Crown more than local Govt so that's why my "think" comes into it.

I didn't word it very well. I didn't mean they are run that way, but should it be run that way as has sort of been suggested by Hide/Banks etc?

Common sense consideration for minorities etc is fine but does this extend to having permanent race-based voting power for one ethnic group which is, technically at least, already catered for in the voting process?

The race/ethnic stuff is a distraction - it's purely about a signed Treaty at the "birth" of our nation that recognised existing tangata whenua retained sovereignty/cheiftanship/rangitiratanga. And they have been summarily denied that in the past.

As I said though, that was a relationship with the Crown. However the Local Govt Act does require the realisation of Treaty principles.

actually it doesn't

yes, it does

the second article allows Maori their tino rangitiratanga, Maori sovereignty, and with that representation

imo

*folds arms*

hahahaa and the debate goes on

You cannot divorce politics from human relationships. Where you have two or more people power is an issue. Relationships between society and business are full of in politics.

How on earth could you fail at such a simple understanding?

What you would really like to do is create an environment in which politics you dont approve of is deemed illegitimate and ruled out of court, and politics you support is allowed to enforce its rule over society.

... but you would like your politics to be not seen as political, because you no doubt think that your view is neutral and natural.

erm how can you miss the distinction between politics and political behaviour. The accumulation of power in a relationship or organisation is vastly different to politics in the govt/public opinion sense.

Govt departments are *supposed to be* and SOEs *are* run at arms length for that very reason. Free as much as possible from day to day political interference.

politicising is generally considered a negative in a private company as it is the collection of power for personal gain rather than the gain of share/stake holders. but like anything power & politics can be used for good or bad.

SOEs are given clear guidelines on what to achieve rather than interference on a day to day level by people who are short sighted and prone to pandering to the public on emotive decisions.

Auckland has been fucked by short sighted politicians with no incentive to do anything but provide short erm fixes and delay hard decisions for someone else.

For this reason I believe the council should be run by a CEO type with a board of directors being the elected people but without too much direct involvement.

On principle i am not keen on racial seats but i have little problem with there being a maori roll where the number of seats is dictated proportionally by the number of maori in the area. But there may not be enough seats to do this as well as it is done nationally.

while I disagree with Rodney's politics, at least we FINALLY have a politician willing to resign on a manner of principle. good on ya rodders!

does anyone think for a second (except perhaps Vads) that rodney will resign?

fat chance I reckon... but I do hope

you know he only threatened to resign his local govt portfolio not completely from parliament?

I am more than happy for Mr Hide to resign from anything

Sure, but this lifted the bullshit-veil on "we'll listen and let the select committee process define the solution" right? He's not interested in implementing whatever the select committee reports on - he's throwing his toys if HE doesn't get HIS model.
Same as most things with this Govt - they forced all their first stuff through on urgency, denying basic Parliamentary process to let people be heard. When they got called on it they implemented this "we'll listen/hold discussions/setup select committee but like that's actually going to change our plans LOL" model.