“No! The people have spoken…and they must be punished.”
As tempting as it is to quote H L Mencken’s famous quip about democracy, in this case, because of recent idiocies from the Wellington Mayor, I prefer the comment above made by New York City Mayor Ed Koch after his Democrat primary loss to David Dinkins in 1989 when asked if he would run again.
Aside from Toryisms the latest news out of our woebegone capital city is that rates are going to increase by 20% this year – and likely those sorts of increases will happen again in the near future, given the list of “projects” Wellington has going that will enter the usual government death spiral of slipped shcedules and costs blowing out, as DPF outlines in his post today, Remember these when the Wellington City Council claims it had no choice but to increase rates 20%.
The one criticism I have of DPF’s post is that hope in his headline, which is so typical of his general schtick that “Surely these Lefties will learn from their mistakes”, meaning at least the voters if not the city staff and council.
Come on!. If Wellington voters haven’t learned from the last decade plus of civic fuckups why on earth would they be moved now even by 20% rate increases?
And it’s not just their voting that condemns them to getting it good and hard from democracy. It’s the attitudes that go with it. With rare exceptions like some of the Wellingtonians posting here, what I’ve got from such people over the years is an aggressive Lefty attitude about the good of the power of the State: more government money on more projects to make life better for people – and that applies for both local and central government.
And when I say “aggressive” I mean that most I’ve encountered reacted badly to any suggestions about cutting back on all this, easing off on the Green stuff for example. Actual anger typically (Trump often comes up in these conversations for some strange reason 😉).
So when I say that these voters deserve it I’m not being mean-spirited about people who voted perhaps naively or innocently or carelessly.
They knew what they were doing and this is what they wanted. You could argue that they didn’t figure on the cost, but while that’s typical of the Left I don’t accept it from people who otherwise boast (usually by example or implication) as to how smart they are. And if they thought the cost would only be carried by “Rich PricksTM” then that just points to both stupidity and toxic envy plus ideological fanaticism.
So fuck ’em.
No Minister 
If you look at the Green Party in Wellington they are really well organised and they hit the streets canvasing votes, especially with younger people. You see it in the national elections with MPs, and they put in the same effort for local elections.
(I’ll put aside how much I hate central government parties wielding such influence over local elections for the moment)
It’s hard enough getting people to vote in local elections and when one side puts in a determined effort it is not surprising the result.
It has also gone on for so long now from Celia Wade-Brown that the culture is entrenched in the council staff. Even that waste of space Foster couldn’t make a difference.
When the (green) Mayor’s chief of staff is the missus of the leader of The Green Party and actively works to setup witch hunts against non green councillors it’s pretty hard for the decent councillors – and there are a number – to get their voices heard.
TL;DR It’s easy to blame the voters, and yes there is some merit, but it’s not as simple as people are making out. It is so deeply embedded in WCC that it’s going to take a miracle to turn it around.
Interesting Nick. Thanks. I guess all we can say is that other party’s have written Wellington off!
I’ve argued in the past that National’s policy of not contesting local body elections is an outdated one given the power that local government has wielded since the 2002 Act.
Still, you’d think the pain would be enough for some people to get started, backed by local businesses with money to contest the Greens??
Sadly your “miracle” may have to be a disaster for anything to really change. Unlike other cities there’s a limit to how many people can leave because of course you have the anchor of government jobs that are well paid. I presume such people are not being hurt by all this.
God help anyone in the private sector down there though.
Easy problem to solve for the whole country – if you don’t pay rates, you don’t get a vote at council election time. In the modern world of user pays, why should a local service provider have a universal franchise that has proven to be so badly abused over many decades now.