Hide's plan to roll out super city horror show
26.07.10 Kiwis who have watched Rodney Hide’s super city horror show in Auckland can stop wondering who will be next ---- it is them, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Phil Twyford.

Local Government Minister Rodney Hide today outlined to the Local Government New Zealand conference in Auckland his plan to “overhaul all of the country’s councils over the next two to three years,” Phil Twyford said.

“There was a lot of fine talk about consultation, but let’s judge the man on his track record not his rhetoric. The real agenda here is to drastically shrink local government in line with Act’s extremist ideology and hand over ratepayer assets to their business mates.

“In Auckland Mr Hide has taken away the voice of local communities and handed over 75 percent of the city’s government to hand-picked corporate boards,” Phil Twyford said.

“He’s making it easier to privatise, corporatise and contract out local government services, and removing the obligation of councils to consult their communities on local matters.

“Mr Hide wants to review the constitutional status of local government but if you apply their Auckland super city model to the rest of New Zealand you would only have 12 councils,” Phil Twyford said.

“This isn’t local government. It’s a return to the provincial government structure we had in the 1800s.”