But apparently we wasted our time with all that campaigning and voting, because National is just going to overturn the elections and smash the lot of them:
The Government is set to announce local government reforms that could spell the death of regional councils, it is understood.And of course it will likely be done under urgency, because National doesn't do consultation or democracy any more.Multiple well-placed sources have confirmed reforms being announced on Tuesday will mean the dissolving of regional councils.
It is understood the first steps could be within this current three-year council term with talk of a panel of regional mayors taking over the running of regional councils. This would be the first steps towards removing the councils all together, it is understood.
To do this so soon after elections displays a complete contempt for the democratic process, and invites suspicion that National just didn't like the results. Though the alternative - that National just made us all vote knowing we were wasting our time and didn't tell us isn't exactly great either. As for temporarily installing panels of regional mayors in the place of properly elected representatives, this effectively silences the cities and ensures rural over-representation, allowing these unelected bodies to make environmental decisions while ignoring the wishes of their local populations. Which is exactly what they did to ECan in 2010. And the result was giving Canterbury's water to farmers and letting them intensify and pollute with abandon - with consequences we are still suffering from.
Overturning elections and removing democratic representation in order to advance the interests of cronies and donors is the act of a corrupt and undemocratic tyranny. We should not accept it, or the regime which does it. So its something else to be reverted in the Omnibus Repeal Bill.