It seems it was Smith who lacked the technical expertise. Dr Kerry Grundy, the expert spokesman for the councils involved, rejected his claim, saying that medical trials were specifically exempted from the ban. "The plan provisions apply only to outdoor use of GMOs," he told the Science Media Centre.
Aucklanders, of course, are used to Smith's "mummy knows best" rants in his role as Housing Minister, as he tried to lay the blame for the Auckland housing crisis on anyone but himself.
He even threatened to sack the whole council and appoint Commissioners to run the local government of a third of the country, if the new Unitary Plan wasn't to his liking.
An empty threat in reality, given it would have meant the government admitting the Super City structure it had imposed on Aucklanders just a few years before, had failed.
An embarrassing admission that would have been, especially as the Government is now trying to push through a local government amendment bill proposing that major features of the Auckland experiment be imposed across the country in the name of efficiency.
Small councils would be amalgamated, and control of services such as water, sewage, roading and flood protection, be handed over to the misnamed "council controlled organisations":
Of course the trouble with our hierarchical structure of governance is that those on the level above can't resist tinkering with what's going on below. The poor old local boards in the Auckland Council structure are worst off, because when the dust settled after the restructuring, they ended up with the rats and mice that no one else wanted, and with precious little money to do anything.
At the top of the pecking order is central government, which can't let go. Indeed the present government, whose "Nanny State" attacks on the previous Labour Government, helped secure its victory in 2008, has been increasingly strident in reminding its local government inferiors who knows best.
Aucklanders learnt this lesson very quickly, when on taking office, the new government quickly over-turned the city's deal with the previous government to introduce a regional fuel tax.
It was to help fund and fast-track urgent transport projects such as the City Rail Link.
Turning off this funding tap was a decision that stalled Auckland transport solutions, and led to years of head-banging between central and local politicians.
The new government was also quick to remove the general tree protection rules that had helped transform the central Auckland suburbs into a remarkable urban park.
Aucklanders had chosen to live in a city where property owners had to seek permission to cut down trees over a certain height. Instead, the new rule requires council to do the impossible and traipse throughout the city identifying individual trees for scheduling, then going through a long drawn out consultation process.
Of course, local government politicians do have their uses. As fall guys. Last month, Minister of Workplace Relations Michael Woodhouse tossed a hospital pass local government's way.
After 25 years of failing to solve the Easter Trading fiasco, central government whipped through legislation dumping the issue in local politicians' lap. Given this sort of treatment, it amazes me anyone stands.
