Herald on Auckland transport funding
The Herald editorial: The first of the group’s two recommended solutions to plug a $10 billion to $15 billion funding gap in the council’s 30-year integrated transport programme fails to meet that...
View ArticleMassive fail for Labour and Greens
This is incredible. They spent around $400,000 gathering signatures for their asset sales petition, and they failed to get enough valid signatures. They needed 308,753 valid signatures but fell short...
View ArticleWill the Greens take their own advice
In April 2008, the anti-smacking petition fell short of the required signatures for a referendum, just as the asset sales one did. The petitioner can resubmit it with more signatures up to two months...
View ArticleHamilton City Council votes against science and people
Daniel Adams at Stuff reports: Health authorities say removing fluoride from Hamilton’s water will result in at least half a million dollars of extra dental treatment costs in the city every year. In a...
View ArticleWhy the assets sale petition failed
The assets sale petition that failed (but can be re-submitted) had the highest number of non valid signatures of any CIR since the 1990s. I was interested in why this was the case so requested...
View ArticleAsset Sales referendum is go
The Herald reports: A referendum will be held on asset sales after confirmation that a petition under the Citizens Initiated Referenda Act gained the support of 10 per cent of eligible electors. The...
View ArticleCheek indeed
John Armstrong writes in NZ Herald: The week’s prize for barefaced cheek must surely go to the Greens. With Parliament’s Clerk of the House yesterday finally giving the okay for a non-binding...
View ArticleThe Press on CIRs
The Press editorial: When the act allowing for citizens initiated referendums to be held was passed in 1993, it provided that they could only be started after a petition to Parliament signed by 10 per...
View ArticleArmstrong on asset sales referendum
John Armstrong writes in the NZ Herald: The time has surely arrived to dump New Zealand’s failed two-decade-old experiment with American-style citizens-initiated referendums. Anyone questioning that...
View ArticleThe $9 million waste of money dates
3 news reports: A citizens-initiated referendum into National’s asset sales will be held by postal vote in November. Prime Minister John Key confirmed the referendum will cost about $9 million and is...
View ArticleSanity in Switzerland
TVNZ reports: Swiss voters have rejected a proposal to cap the salaries of top executives at 12 times that of a company’s lowest wage, heeding warnings from industry leaders that the measure could harm...
View ArticleMuch higher yes vote than I expected
I was expecting the yes vote in the referendum to be around 15% to 20%. I’m amazed it was 32.1% and the no vote won by 2:1 rather than 4:1. There wasn’t a single party or organisation campaigning for a...
View ArticleReferendum stats
The breakdown by the 70 electorates is interesting. The turnout by group was: Below 30% – five electorates 30% to 35% – five electorates 35% to 40% – seven electorates 40% to 45% – 14 electorates 45%...
View ArticleThe Press on referendum
The Press editorial: There was never any chance the present Government was going to take any notice of the latest one. In any case a botch-up by the organisers meant it was delayed so that by the time...
View ArticleDom Post on referendums
The Dom Post editorial: The referendum on state asset sales was not the first held under the Citizens Initiated Referenda Act 1993. It was the fifth. If opponents of partial privatisation believe the...
View ArticleFinal CIR results
The final results are here. Not Vote 54.93% Vote No 30.30% Vote Yes 14.59% Informal Votes 0.14% Invalid Votes 0.05% Tags: Asset Sales, referendum
View ArticleCraig demands binding referenda
The Herald reports: Conservative Party leader Colin Craig says he would not form a Government with National unless it agreed to introduce binding referenda. Mr Craig confirmed the party’s bottom line...
View ArticleCouncil votes for a policy impossible to implement
Taranaki Daily News reports: A monumental decision made by the new guard of New Plymouth’s council has been revealed as an embarrassing botch-up. Last week the New Plymouth District Council narrowly...
View ArticleA binding referendum on superannuation
Stuff reports: ACT wants a binding referendum on the future of New Zealand’s superannuation and raising the retirement age. Leader David Seymour says a public vote would end the “Mexican stand-off”...
View ArticleThe problem with binding referenda
For advocates of binding referenda, consider this story from The Atlantic: California has always done democracy a bit differently than most other states. Every other year, voters in the Golden State...
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