KEY POINTS:
Brian Rudman writes that a political friend suggests the following: move the capital to Auckland and give the cloistered Beehiveans a chance to mix a little. Preferably with people they don't work alongside.
Here is the latest selection of Your Views:
pCb (Auckland)
Ewwwwwwwwww no,
Geoff, Mainland
I have long held the view that Twizel is the ideal location. Invercargill is another sound option. If it must be in the North Island, somewhere in Ngati Porou territory on the East Coast would be ok.
Bruce
Nice little satorial piece. But I suppose if the capital was ever to be moved then I'd pump for either Nelson or back to Russell. Given so many public sector jobs sit with the government, a nicer warmer climate should be factored into any decision. Also with three quarters of the population not interested in living in Auckland I'd probably subscribe to the view, that Auckland is the last place you'd re-locate a capital city to.
Aucklander
Keep the capital in Wellington please. The last thing Auckland needs is thousands of overpayed public servants to bloat house prices even further.
Bec (Auckland)
Leave government where it is. Whats done is done. Anyway they would probably claim for travelling time to work.Bring Te Papa exhibitions / shows to Auckland so that more people can enjoy them without having to buy a plane ticket. No doubt main centers in the South Island would enjoy that too. Even little old Waitakere City had a higher population than Wellington about 10 years ago!
Daleaway
It would give us all a good laugh - for five minutes. Auckland is, of course, the hick town that runs seven water systems, badly, cannot coordinate its public transport networks or get its roads working properly. Most of New Zealand's major business frauds have occurred there, and surprisingly, also most major frauds run from government departments. It has let local government run riot and generally thinks with its ego instead of using common sense. In addition, Auckland supplies the leaders of both major political parties, and a majority of the Cabinet. It couldn't distinguish good government from a PR junket. Are you beginning to see where our political problems arise? Still think moving the capital to the City of Sales is a good idea?
Bryce (Dunedin)
If the capital were to move, the obviously place would be to the 'real' geographical centre of New Zealand: Nelson! As political scientist Stephen Levine writes in his chapter on alternative 'What If' histories of NZ, if the capital had originally been sited in Nelson, politics in this country would have a much more sunny disposition! MPs would be happier with the far superior climate, and the positive consequences of this would be huge for the country.
Elvis (Feilding)
Move the capitol to Palmerston North. It is central, has a international airport, and a low cost of living which would allow large savings in wages
rossnz
Sooner or later Wellington will suffer a catastrophic earthquake. We should have a plan B firmly in place to move the capital to a safer more appropriare location. It would be dumb to rebuild on a major earthquake fault-line in Wellington where the catastrophe would repeat itself in a future generation. The Auckland or Waikato regions have plenty of sites for a new capital. A spin-off would be a better quality public service. Many of the potentially best public servants simply refuse to live in windy earthquake prone Wellington. What we get is head offices full of second rate servants.
Larry, Aberdeen
This kind of thing happens in all of the capitals of the world, regardless of size. It happens in the US, UK and the European capitals. It's a function of the fact that people interested in politics have more in common, and get on with each other well, regardless of ideology or occupation. Politicians and journalists are two sides of the same coin, regardless of whether it is on Wellington, Washington, London or Edinburgh. Wellington is certainly full of people who are deluded in that they think that what they are doing is important - politicians, journalists and bureaucrats. It's a bit sickening, but suggesting that Auckland, the ultimate big fish in small pond could be, even tongue in cheek, superior is sad. Most people in NZ don't live in Auckland, don't want to live in Auckland, would rather live in some boring suburb of Australia than Auckland, hate TV Auckland masquerading as TVNZ & TV3...you've heard it all before. Move the Capital to Dunedin - a deeply modest city rather than deeply pretentious Auckland, or deeply conservative Christchurch or deeply deluded Wellington!
Brad
Defiantly bring the capital to Auckland. The views and the people are more down to earth and the diversity of people in Auckland will give policians a run for their money. Make them work for their positions and bring em to Auckland
JC (Wellington)
Taupo should be the capital - it's small enough that they could all be contained and there's plenty of cold water to cool the overheated ones off
Peeved Wellingtonian
No, Rudman is not right. Rudman is an ignorant Aucklander, who like many other pretentious and arrogant Aucklanders, thinks that the country should revolve around them. He makes me sick.
Chris (Manurewa)
The capital should be Auckland - without a doubt.The politicians should, however, be moved to the Auckland Islands!
Larry (Puhoi)
Brian is right, move the Beehiveans out of Wellington ... to Taihape, or Hinds, anywhere where 'reality' can be found around every corner. Beats being totally out of touch and 'unreal' in Lambton Key. Oh and Taihape has two good cafes serving passable coffee provide you are prepeared to leave your gumboots 'outside'
Hamilton
Have you run out of serious topics to debate. Why did Auckland lose the capital before? How will this help Aucklands infrastructure problems?
Michael (Wellington)
As a non-Government employee (i.e. I pay tax to support my neighbours), moving the capital would be absurd. This is the Government we're talking about! Imagine the study groups and their junkets to overseas capitals, political bickering over location of key buildings, cost over-runs, write-off existing buildings (like Parliament House), and then all the disruption of adding key infrastructure.
