Auckland City Council

Auckland City’s shares in Auckland International Airport Limited are not going on the market - yet.

A move to revoke the council’s August decision to defer a decision on selling until after the Strategic Plan Review was defeated by a majority vote at tonight’s council meeting.

Cr Gray Bartlett had offered a substitute resolution that the council’s shares be sold in conjunction with the sale of the shares owned by North Shore City Council at a price to be agreed.

An amendment added that the proceeds of the sale would be placed in a separate account for the council until the council decided how best to spend it. Infrastructure or transport systems were among suggestions for an estimated $60 million Auckland City’s shares would realise.

The alliance proposed with North Shore City - and possibly Manukau City - would give the three councils the extra "clout" of holding more than 43% of the shares.

Several councillors gave strong support to the sale, agreeing with Cr Bartlett that if the council held off selling, the returns may not be as good.

Others held the opposite view, that it is better wait for the Strategic Plan Review to identify the areas for expenditure rather than sell then decide how to allocate the returns.

© 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>>