Stop Asset Sale - Picket



Christchurch City Council Building
Worcester Boulevard entrance
 9.30 a.m. 
Tuesday June 23rd





Its decision time!

The City Council meeting to adopt the Long Term Plan (including its decision on asset sales) is on this Tuesday, June 23 (plus the 24th and 26th if required).


Well they make a decision that respects the views of the citizens to the views
 

or will the blunder on and betray those they represent

 83% of Christchurch residents opposed assets sales

    68 % opposite to the Anchor Projects

The absurdity of it all



Mayor Dalziel’s suggestion that City Care should be removed from the City’s list of strategic assets in readiness for sale has been exposed as a high risk strategy – very high risk. 

The inability of the Dunedin City’s infrastructure to cope with the magnitude of last week’s flooding has been sheeted home in part to the contracting out the maintenance of the City’s infrastructure.

The Otago Daily Times received a steady stream of complaints from irate residents who attributed the magnitude of the flooding to the lack of basic maintenance in parts of the city.

Besides why on earth would you sell an asset that can bring in a $ 12.9m profit ?

There is also a National Radio interview on Dunedin’s flooding here


Speaking Truth to Power



You know your case has real merit when your opponent's attempt to suppress your views

Steve Howard and Bronwen Summers tabled the Keep Our Assets petition at the Deputations by Appointment section of yesterday’s council meeting. The petition underpins the KOA submission to Councils Long Term Plan consolation process. 

All the presentations are available to view on-line EXCEPT ours. 

So much for all the hyperbole about being  ‘community-orientated’ and acting with “integrity”. 

"We” the council website loudly proclaims “are honest, transparent and take responsibility”. 


Bullocks !!


Here’s what Council, and the vested interests that support the asset stripping agenda, don't want you to hear

KOA speech notes for petition presented To Christchurch City Council 11/6/15 

Mauri ora ki te whenua
Mauri ora ki te rangi
Mauri ora ki te ao whanui
He waka eke noa
Kia ora tatou 
Good morning to the mayor and councillors and Good morning to those who have come along in support. The whakatauki means we are all in the same waka together 
We are here this to present to the council a petition opposing any plan to sell publically owned assets as part of the council’s long term plan. 
Some points we need to make are; 
No councillor campaigned to sell assets and at least six councillors were elected on a platform of not selling assets. 
Aligning the council’s assets with the council’s strategic direction is a no brainer but selling these assets off means that profit for shareholders will over rule any strategic outcomes desired by council 
Many of the actions in the last year show a blatant pattern of the council having decided on asset sales before the process of public submissions for the long term plan even started 
The process has been rushed at a time when many in Christchurch have been suffering a range of pressures related to recovering from the earthquake 
The process has been contaminated by the reliance on Cameron Partners who on their web site boast of the Telecom privatisation, where both sides were played against the middle resulting in a telecom environment held back but plenty of profits for consultants, 
Hiring these consultants leaves a very sour taste 
Further to that, hiring Cameron Partners as permanent consultants is problematic. 
The latest memo from Camerons to the council shows a serious breach of process in that it appears to be based on a decision to sell having been made prior to the council’s deliberations 
Just on Tuesday a Wellington area local government politician spoke of how local democracy is undermined when services are not seen to be delivered by council, this pattern of democracy deficit with assets sell down is repeated throughout the academic literature. 
City Care’s raisone d’etre was always to deliver services which had previously been delivered in house. If the council is not happy with its direction the council should bring that work back in house or take a more direct control over City Care’s direction and directors 
If the mayor is serious about having an alternative budget let’s start the whole process again after the public have had a real chance to digest the new proposals 
Just to finish to suggest that residents objecting to an asset sell down don’t understand economics is simply insulting. The Triumphalism of the NeoLiberal model of private good, public bad has been really well discredited by a number of 21st century economists. Being trained in neoclassical economics models is the same as not being educated as an economist. 
Even the recent OECD report makes the point that these policies are so last century

Thank you for receiving our petition and please consider carefully before you forge ahead down the dead end of privatisation. A city council has to be a leader for the whole health of its city and as Picketty points out privatisation simply increases all the problems of inequality. And using disasters to drive further neoliberalism is a viscous attack on democracy.
Click to see page 





Five Deputations by Appointment at yesterdays Council meeting 

Only four make the public domain 


whose interests will council represent

83% of Christchurch residents opposed assets sales
68 %  oppose the Anchor Projects

Will council respond to the wishes of its citizens or will it kowtow to the ideological nonsense of vested interests? 



Put People at the Centre of the Rebuild



Christchurch has spoken

and the message is clear;




The summary of submissions to the Long Term Plan produced by council staff (available to download below) , is not the least ambiguous  
83% of submitters opposed assets sales
68 % expressed opposition to the Anchor Projects
Grab it here 

The message is abundantly clear – the community do not agree with asset stripping our City. 

Those who do both in council and their ideological supporters outside the council chamber – all but limited to the editorial policy of the Press and the Chamber of Commerce are the minority. 

Read it for yourself here