Wed, 1 Sep 2004

Berry targets youth vote in Auckland Mayoralty

"Young people don't want a council led by people hungry for power. Whether they be left or right, time-servers or bran flakes, young people have had enough - I will give them a voice in Council that gives money and power back to people," announced Libertarianz candidate for Auckland mayoralty Stephen Berry.

Berry, the youngest mayoral candidate at only twenty-one years of age, says that Council shouldn't be about friends of central-government politicians gilding their egoes with grand plans. Instead, they should get out of the way of businesses and citizens.

"The council has 'strategies' on everything from alcohol to freight to swimming pools," points out Berry. " I would stop wasting ratepayers' money on trying to regulate Aucklanders' behaviour, and concentrate council on getting businesses, volunteer groups and individuals to take responsibility for the city themselves"

"I'm a young Aucklander, who doesn't want every aspect of my life interfered with by local government, and I don't want to be paying off big debts for pet projects like the Eastern corridor or an underground rail system. New motorways should be private toll roads and new railways should be commercially viable in their own right. Council should concentrate on maintaining what it's got and meeting its statutory responsibilities - and no more!" Berry concluded.

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>>