A strange irony

I don’t mean to be mean spirited about the Auckland super city logo competition. Every organisation needs a logo, right?

It’s just that in the circumstances it seems a little bizarre that the Government is actively seeking public buy-in to a decision on the logo, when

• It denied Aucklanders the right to choose the super city in a binding ballot as all other Kiwis have under the Local Government Act
• Rodney Hide, not Aucklanders’ elected representatives, appoints the boards of the misnamed Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs)
• those CCOs themselves will remove Aucklanders’ democratic accountability over 75% or more of Council operations, allowing them to conduct business behind the veil of commercial secrecy
• local boards still haven’t been given real powers
• the Government is repealing the law which gives Aucklanders the right to approve or reject in a binding ballot any move to sell off the Ports of Auckland
• the Government is abolishing the requirement that councils must consult the community before they contract out public services to the private sector
• under the third super city bill Aucklanders will not be able to amend the boundaries or change the voting system until two elections have passed.

It is like forcing someone to live in a house against their will, in a location and with design and materials they don’t like. And then asking them what colour they want the front door to be painted.