MEDIA RELEASE

5 April 2004

Auckland Regional Council To Charge Ratepayers Rebellion For Information On Umpaid Rates.

For some months the RateRebellion campaign has had to fight ARC bureaucrats in efforts to find the numbers of ratepayers who are withholding all or part of their rates.

Every month the figures have been reported in a different format and it was becoming difficult to get a clear picture.

Now, in response to a request under the Official Information Act from Rebellion spokesman David Thornton, the ARC says it has stopped reporting all these figures to the council and if ratepayers want more details there will be a charge for extracting the information from its files.

David Thornton said today, "To withhold this information unless we pay for it is outrageous. Ratepayers should be given this information - and councillors should be demanding it"

"The ARC has advised me that almost 30,000 have not paid any rates at all - but they will not give me the figures for those who have paid less than the full amount. Thousands of people have protested by paying only the previous year's rate amount - or some lesser amount. This information should be given to councillors and made available to the public" says David Thornton.

"ARC officials are hiding this information and ARC councillors are being derelict in their duty on behalf of ratepayers by not demanding it. Accountability seems to be a word not in the ARC dictionary"

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