Undemocratic

Has Damien O’Connor really changed his mind because he thinks a school fair needs a liquor licence?

There are many defects with our incredibly undemocratic local bodies, but nothing will change until the Local Government Act is overhauled. Both local councils here deny equal representation for all electors. Tasman’s urban areas have a greater voice than the rural ones, while the one-ward city favoured by Nelson councillors enables lobby groups like Hands Up gain power to promote their agendas. Once elected, councillors can remain in office long after their use-by date.

Since 2002, councillors have been discouraged from taking an interest in what the permanent staff are doing, and only go through the motions when the annual or long-term plans are up for discussion. Councils enter into major projects and seem unable to complete them within budget, happily lumbering the ratepayers with the cost overruns.

Councils can get away with wasting millions by having their illegal behaviour validated by retrospective legislation. This must stop, and the immunity of councillors and council staff from prosecution for loss loaded on to ratepayers must be removed. IPCC computers are predicting that; and the IPCC insists, as only scientific facts are fed into them, that this prediction must be true. But nature does not play computer games – and observations over the past quarter-century show that the theories are wrong.

The IPCC should be disbanded. In New Zealand, we should appoint a royal commission to investigate all the numerous scientific theories and findings. No ‘‘specialist scientists’’ should be appointed to the commission – but, of course, they should all be called to testify because they are specialists in their fields.