Super-city a National plan

Having campaigned against the super-city, I am delighted public opinion has thwarted it and that Porirua City Council will live on. It is a victory for local democracy.

The super-city would have meant the abolition of the district level tier of local government, a huge reduction in the number and diversity of local councillors, and huge wards in which the representation of communities would be lost.

The influence of ordinary people over local government would have been lessened. The Government pretended disinterest in the Wellington debate, because it knew that overt support by the National Party would have been the kiss of death to the super-city project in this region.

However, the National Government was behind the super-city project.

It changed the law to make a vote against amalgamations more difficult to succeed. It appointed a clearly biased Local Government Commission to front the amalgamation crusade. John Key slyly tried to jog along the supercity proposal with his ‘‘Wellington is dying’’ comment.

The wonder is that Labour figures like Ken Douglas and Nick