Set it free

Aurora is best set up as a debtfree communityowned trust. It's a great idea to free it up from the Dunedin City Council.

But the council does not deserve to sell it given DCC's bad behaviour over many years. Not mentioned in the proposal is where the $1 billion benefit to the council derives from? It will come from the wallets of Aurora users in future years as the buyers regain the billion dollars they pay.

They will have an unassailable monopoly. The behaviour of the council over some years has been egregious, ranging from smoke and mirrors to financing the stadium, stripping the council companies of cash. That led to a degraded network and outages..

At one time the DCC appointed existing councillors to Aurora's board. That was not in the interests of the network, its users, or its users’ pockets. The council has done well, at the cost to others. I suggest a new standalone trust to own and manage this network. It's big enough with guaranteed income stream to attract good talent and to run it well. It does not have to provide profit to anybody, thus maximising the money in its users’ pockets.

The income stream is predictable enough to finance and upgrade a good quality network. Should this trust pay the DCC for the privilege of owning this network? In a word, no.

If the DCC took responsibility for their behaviours it would come into existence debt free. The idea of a trust owning the network does no favours to the DCC. But the DCC is owed nothing by the network users. I suggest the DCC owes the users. So let Aurora go free at no further cost to users.

Kerry Hand Bannockburn and Dunedin