Complaint To Electoral Officer

Hutt City’s Electoral Officer, Stuart Duncan, has dismissed a complaint laid by mayoral candidate David Ogden over Council’s distribution of its Summary of the Annual Report 2004.

Mr Ogden complained that the distribution of this document amounted to a breach of Principle 12 point 4.45 of the Controller and Auditor General's Good Practice for Managing Public Communications by Local Authorities, which deals with the promotion of the re-election prospects of a sitting member.

In dismissing the complaint Mr Duncan pointed to Principle 13 point 4.52, which states:

“Curtailing all Council communications during a pre-election period is neither practicable nor (as far as mandatory communications, such as those required under the LGA, are concerned) possible. Routine Council business must continue”.

The LGA 2002 states, in Part 6, s98:

(4)A local authority must, within 1 month after the adoption of its annual report, make publicly available-

(a)its annual report; and

(b)a summary of the information contained in its annual report.

(5) The summary must represent, fairly and consistently, the information regarding the major matters dealt with in the annual report.

Audit NZ were required to sign of the summary document and gave the document an ‘Unqualified Opinion’ noting “In our opinion:

The summary document represents, fairly and consistently, the information regarding the major matters dealt with the in the annual report”.

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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>>