Comments on: NZ Herald blasts faceless Auckland Transport

By: ingolfson

ingolfson — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 06:28:52 +0000

You could always print rumours and conspiracy theories.

That will be the order of the day, if we get transport planning and construction by stealth. Never thought I would end up in a real-world Douglas Adams scenario of waking up one day to have bulldozers running over my house (or may favourite park, or whatever) without even having been told about it in time to protest.

By: admin

admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 05:40:09 +0000

I think what really annoyed the NZ Herald is the lack of access to what Auckland Transport is doing. If they can’t get access to information, no stories, and that is a problem for the Herald.

By: Jeremy Harris

Jeremy Harris — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 04:52:41 +0000

Front page usually gets some changes… National knows Auckland is the reason they won in 2008, hoefully the whip will be applied to Hide and Joyce…

By: Matt L

Matt L — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:26:11 +0000

Ingolfson – I agree, they only put up features like this to get headlines and sell papers. In this case it is a good thing but it isn’t always.

By: ingolfson

ingolfson — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:56:26 +0000

The Herald is a newspaper, and (at least) 50% of their choice of what themes they run with is whether those themes are topical (rather than whether they are important). So all they do is “follow the smoke”.

Which still ends with a good result in this case, because there is a lot of fire under this smoke, to further strain my metaphor.

By: admin

admin — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:12:15 +0000

Excellent! It will be interesting to see how this turns out. I am glad the Herald finally seems to be taking an interest in the local government reorganisation.

By: Matt L

Matt L — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:06:08 +0000

The Herald has now launched a large campaign against the supercity CCO’s. Its on the front page today focusing on the Waterfront one. Tomorrow transport is being looked at. They also make it clear that opposition is from all sides of the political spectrum. They also mention it was Steven Joyce who forced through the Auckland Transport CCO against the recommendation of many government agencies like treasury.

By: admin

admin — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 21:10:37 +0000

Very interesting, thanks for the link Cam.

By: CamBennett

CamBennett — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 20:09:49 +0000

Jarbury – you might like this article from this morning’s Sunday Star Times by Finlay McDonald. Very complemntary of your blog

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/opinion/3414026/Auckland-drives-us-round-the-bend

By: admin

admin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:32:03 +0000

Interesting points Luke. Even assuming the currently proposed structure doesn’t change (which I think is unlikely), Auckland Council still has responsibility for high-level strategic transport planning I think. So they will have some transport expertise.

I think a wider issue is how Auckland Council and Auckland Transport are being set up to be quite adversarial to each other, which I don’t think is very healthy. These two organisations need to work incredibly closely together in my opinion.