An orchestrated litany of lies

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STOP PRESS: READ HERE WHAT THE CHRON WON’T TELL YOU!

Police are investigating an alleged assault at a Wanganui mayoral election forum earlier this week after a candidate's mother claimed that a man had hit her several times.
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Watchers reporting from the streets, supermarkets and cafes of the River City are seeing an overwhelming swing in voter opinion against Wanganui Mayor Michael Laws and his Vision Wanganui henchmen. Despite the outbreak of ratepayer-funded pork barrel politicking by Mickey (free ice-creams for kids, for heaven’s sake!), the electorate has had enough of three years of grandstanding, abuse and anti-democratic diVision party politics. Even previous non-voters can’t wait to cast Laws into talkback oblivion on October 13.

And Watchers are quick to remind their whanau and friends how lucky they are to have the right to vote for 12 non-Vision councillors after around 100 brave souls stood up for democracy, faced down the mini-dictator and succeeded when the Local Government Commission exposed MickeyMayor’s lies and propaganda and upheld the status quo. (Three years ago division ‘policy’ was to cut the number of elected councillors to eight with a claimed saving of $100,000 per annum). However, not even Cr Rangi Wills' duplicity and the Vision puppets' complicity could save this attempted further lurch to dictatorship after the people spoke – crucially they spoke to a statutory “outside” body where the customary Vision bullying carried absolutely no weight.

Meanwhile, as Capt Michael Laws steers Air Vision Wanganui on the flight path for its Electoral Erebus on October 13, our fair city finds itself engulfed in the white-out conditions of, in Justice Mahon’s immortal words, an orchestrated litany of lies. Only paid up mayoral groupies John Maslin (see Mas’s ecstatic editorial of May 2004) and Catherine Kennedy seem to have kept the faith.

And as the first hint of Wanganui’s equinocal nor-wester littered the Cave with a plethora of pamphlets from election hopefuls, Watchers weren’t surprised to find among the pictures of Mayor Michael Laws’ kids, parents, defacto etc (bet he’s wishing he had a dog or cat or two to complete the line-up – Ed) more dodgy claims of personal policy triumphs over the past three years than you could shake a mayoral stick at. In fact, we suspect that MickeyMayor has none other than his old PR queen Antoinette Beck running the Vision Wanganui propaganda machine!

When the Cave TV set is on the blink Watchers can sometimes be found playing a game of their own invention, called Where are they now? This involves crudely scrawling in charcoal on the Cave walls lists of Vision promises from 2004 that have never seen the light of day, or worse have turned out to be A-Grade, Money-wasting Flops. (You’ll note that we don’t include consequences like Politically Damaging, Ballot-Box suicide, Credibility Busting. These are the obvious kinds of collateral damage that Vision-style failures generally bring down on the heads of their promoters in more enlightened areas of democracy that are blessed with a free press, and journalists and opposition politicians worthy of the name. All entirely absent in Wanganui!

Scroll down for evidence of some 2007 campaign lies from Wanganui mayor Michael Laws and a small selection of broken promises and other lies from the 2004 Vision policy manifesto:

WALKING THE TALK

Regarding the new river walkway, Mickey said the following: "The total cost to the ratepayer will be just $800,000. The total budget may be $2.2 million, but $1.4 million of that sum has come from sources other than the Wanganui ratepayer."
The funding for the project includes $1.3 million from Development Contributions and approximately $800,000 loan funded. If you remove the spin, the Mayor has spent $2.1m ($1.3m + $800k) of Council money on the walkway. Council money. Our money.

AND

The financing of the walkway is perhaps the most cynical act perpetrated by M Laws and his Vision muppets since taking office. Development Contributions is a fund that is built up through a levy of $1800 per section paid by anybody who creates a new subdivision. It is set up by all councils to provide funding for future subdivision infrastructure. At 30th April 2007 Council minutes show that the fund had a balance of $1,120,627. I believe that Laws sought a legal opinion on whether he could divert the funds away from the purpose it was supposed to be used for- future subdivisions- and into his pet project. In the agenda preamble council officer Natalie Cowper said" Special Funds are Council's monies that can only be spent on expenditure for which the fund was originally set up. They are termed "restricted equity" according to the Local Government Act 2002. The redirection of these funds is a scandal, and would not happen in any other Council.

MUSEUM MOMENTS

Here's one, from a Chron article by Maslin on 12/6/07: “Mayor Michael Laws told Monday’s meeting that the museum board had cost ratepayers $60,000 because of its ‘intransigence’.”

RATES RORTS

This is a pretty good one about the rates. From the Chronicle 12/6/07 (Maslin, of course): Laws was adamant the rate increase and impact of the levies could not be considered in percentage terms. Cr. McGregor said it was "misleading" to keep the items separate. But Mr Laws said ....”You can’t, because it could then be argued we’ve delivered something like a minus 3% rate”. Mr. Laws said...for the third year in a row Wanganui was on target to effect the lowest annual rates increase in the country

AND …

I'm still trying to find somebody whose rates only went up by 1.7%. Most of the properties in my area had about a 10% increase even before the bullshit levies are added.

CAMPAIGN SLIME
Here’s a nice promise from Wednesday’s Chron. Virginia Lake will be algal bloom-free this summer. “in the short-term, and for a cost of around $20,000, we can ensure Virginia Lake is healthy and algae-free this summer”. That is the sort of promise you can make if you are willing to bypass democratic process completely. So much more efficient to just have a word with Leo and Dave. And why not. The timing’s perfect. Campaign in full swing. All those pesky meetings are over and YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH IT!

A SMALL SELECTION OF BROKEN PROMISES AND OTHER LIES FROM THE 2004 VISION POLICY MANIFESTO:

There will be no rates increase under a Vision Wanganui-led council in the 2005/06 financial year. #failed (oops – they forgot it was a revaluation year)

Create a ‘Residents’ Rights Charter’ that explicitly defines the service standards a ratepayer and/or resident may expect from Council #failed (mayor decided residents should have no rights)

Start discussions with our nearest territorial neighbours to see if some efficiencies cannot be gained from aggregating particular services. #failed (Mayor decided to insult and abuse them instead)

Institute quarterly suburban meetings to ensure that the Mayor and councillors go to their constituents rather than vice-versa #failed (no one turned up after liar-fatigue set in)

Hold a yearly Expo in the War Memorial Hall to canvas the options before Council before each yearly rates round and better inform citizens of the civic services available to them. #failed (Mayor replaced citizen consultation with citizen abuse)

Establish a Writer`s Residency that is regarded as one of the top literary prizes in New Zealand. #failed

Establish a mayoral office on Mainstreet. #failed (councillors & staff said ‘thanks but no thanks’ – too dangerous to actually meet residents.

Michael and the Bad News Bunny

Wanganui mayor Michael Laws rubbed his eyes and realised it was Easter. He leapt out of bed and raced out to the lounge to see what the Easter Bunny had brought him. Then he remembered he was supposed to have a broken toe so he stopped, hopped up and down and cursed a couple of times because his kids were threatening to dob him in with Women’s Daze.

But there it was! He could barely contain his excitement! A big Easter Egg in a special box with HIS name on it. Shoving the kids out of his way and shouting something about every parents’ right to smack, his trembling fingers grabbed the gift tag on his Egg. To Michael, from the Local Government Commission is what it said.

"Well, that’s about time," he thought to himself. "They’ve left it till the last minute and Bob’s getting all antsy. But here it is, time to really stick it to those anti-democracy whingers and nutters who reckon Wangas need all the non-Vision councillors it can get."

He ripped away the foil wrapping and bashed the giant egg on the hearth. It shattered into dozens of pieces and out fell the Local Government Commission Determination of representation arrangements for the election of the Wanganui Distsrict Council to be held on 13 October 2007.

His eyes darted through the 14 pages... 91 written submissions... 11 oral presentations... 37 appeals! "So what?!", he screamed. That meant nothing compared to HIS referendum and he'd done a fine job of abusing those malcontents who objected to him chopping the council down to size in the best interests of Michael Laws. Of course, the Local Government Commission would see it his way.

Tearing off page by page and flinging them round the room, he got to page 13. Commission’s Determination. He read on... No (2) was all that mattered.

(2) The Council shall comprise the mayor and 12 councillors, elected by the electors of the district as a whole.

He couldn’t believe his eyes! The fools! The bastards! How DARE they meddle in his town! How dare they listen to those malcontents! He stamped his foot a couple of times and then... It happened! All his fury became channelled into his foot. It lashed out and hit the hearth with the full force of a man thwarted.

"My God!" he screamed, "I've broken my toe!"

Watchers can find the full determination here at the Local Government Commission website. Pages 6 & 7 in particular show that the Commission took the submitters / appellants views on Mickey's referendum misinformation more seriously than it did his grandstanding and abuse. Some excerpts:

We understand that councillors do not have the ability to decline the salary determined by the Remuneration Authority. We agree with appellants / objectors who said that the alleged advantage of a reduced number of councillors was erroneous... Some appellants said that some councillors and the Mayor had not engaged in the representation review process in an open and transparent manner, instead deferring to the referendum results. We note that the High Court has ruled that the weight of numbers in favour of a particular position cannot be a mandatory consideration for it, and that a single submission may, in itself, provide sufficient material for the Commission to reach a decision...

We are satisfied that Referendum '06 ultimately formed a small part of the Council’s formal representation review process.

Happy Easter reading, Watchers!