Mayor & Councillors,
Here we go
again. Suddenly the tired old assets sale rabbit is once again pulled out of
the increasingly battered hat, in an attempt to bedazzle and bamboozle us.
Let's start
with some questions.
1/ Who
commissioned this "independent review" from Northington Partners?
2/ When was it
commissioned? Before or after the October local body elections?
3/ How much
did it cost?
We've been
here before, a decade ago, with a report by "experts" saying that
asset sales were the only solution to the cost of Christchurch's earthquake
rebuild. That City Council tested the waters with the proposed sale of
Citycare, and the people of Christchurch said "no way". Money was
found and the rebuild was completed without the need to sell any of our assets.
Citycare wasn't sold and asset sales dropped off the agenda.
Until now -
just after an election in which none of you campaigned in favour of asset
sales. Whose hidden agenda is this one?
The arguments
against asset sales are the same now as a decade ago - once they're gone,
they're gone.
Talk of
turning the "family silver" into "gold" is true, insofar as
someone else will own our assets and be reaping the gold. They're valuable and
profitable - why would you sell them, for short term, one-off gain?
One reason
might be to raise the extra hundreds of millions of dollars you blithely voted
to pour into the white elephant stadium. There's item number one for a
"line by line" cost-cutting examination.
The people of
Christchurch successfully fought you the last time you tried to sell our
assets. We will do so again.
Your
sincerely,
Murray
Convenor
