Media statement
Monday, March 22nd, 2004

ARC council votes for more meetings, more fees for councilors

The ARC councilors' resolution to vote all of themselves onto the Auckland Regional Land Transport Committee, plus other representatives, will see Auckland become the butt of more jokes, and the dinosaur holding back the country's success, the Employers & Manufacturers Association (Northern) predicts.

The first meeting of the new 31 person committee is tomorrow.

"The Regional Land Transport (sub) Committee of the ARC has more representatives on it than the ARC council itself," said Alasdair Thompson, EMA's chief executive.

"A 31 person sub committee is a hopeless number for reaching decisions efficiently. Councilors on this committee will no doubt expect to be paid for attending meetings but its not good governance.

"The RLTC has become a bad joke. It must give the Government little confidence in the institution's ability to take on the new governance structures and quality expected in its pre-Christmas transport package.

"Such an unwieldy sub committee hasn't a hope of unblocking the five critical projects ready to go now but held up by a 'review' under the Land Transport Management Act. Funding is available for these projects.

"But the new ARC transport committee is stacked with ARC councilors who oppose completing our long planned roading network.

"The five projects ready and waiting are the links between SH 20 and SH1 at Manukau, the Mt Roskill extension of SH20, the SH 1 extension from Orewa through to Puhoi, and the North Shore Busway.

"Greens' councilors including Crs. Coney, Lee and Walbran are responsible for this mess and Aucklanders should throw them out in the October elections or they'll hold back the growth of jobs and our communities for years to come."

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>