The Council Controlled Organisations, entities established to carry out public functions, have little or no scrutiny. Typical is Auckland Transport continuing with its predetermined policies rendering consultation farcical.
Central government continues the process of impositions undermining Auckland Council's own urban planning reforms of six years ago.
Edicts from Wellington, with the complicity of the National Party, will soon have a major impact on the city's heritage suburbs, along with policies that allow for three-storey non-consented buildings.
A reset is now required to put the 'local' back into local democracy.
Local community boards have few powers and unsurprisingly voter turnout declined to only 35 per cent at the last election.
Voters at this year's local body elections need to vote for a mayor and councillors who will implement and demand change. The status quo is untenable.
Labour's centralising and consolidation of powers into new, enlarged bureaucracies mirrors Auckland's transformation, but with co-governance in mind.
The co-governance arrangement of Auckland's mountains, shared between Iwi trusts and Auckland Council, illustrates how democracy becomes subverted. The Tupuna Maunga Authority merely reflects the world view of the Maori tribal trust in developing its own policies while ignoring those from local communities. Councillors merely rubber-stamp the trust's projects.
Starting with the Waikato River Settlement Act, National followed with additional co-governance policies and impositions. Among them was the Marine and Coastal Reform Act 2011, which overturned the previous act that kept the foreshore and seabed in public ownership. Iwi were extensively consulted, while all others were ignored.
In 2017 preferential consultation rights were given to Iwi under the RMA, which will become further enhanced under new RMA replacement acts.
All of these policies are now being implemented in the Three Waters Reforms, Health, and Polytechnics, to be followed by Resource Management, Local Government, Education and Justice.
In addition, an attempt will be made to curtail freedom of speech and political discussion on these issues, with the imminent "Hate Speech" law. All reforms will feature co-governance or variations.
Proportionality is lost when a minority assumes the same power as the rest of the population. Co-governance elevates the power of one group based on family and genealogy.
It is unchallengeable, unelected, unaccountable, subverts democracy and is ultimately self-serving. Democracy is egalitarian, embracing all groups in society and is accountable.
In all of the above policies both proposed and passed, the illusion of consultation has occurred but in reality the original version remains unchanged.
The majority of New Zealanders are not given the right to discuss, nor the time, to have direct input into the proposed changes.
The changes made by National and Labour were never mandated and thus lacked constitutional integrity.
The political changes proposed and now being enacted will ensure that Parliament will lose respect and consequently forfeit its authority as the majority of people become disenfranchised.
A counter-revolution is required for the next general election.
Despite the proportional MMP (a system implemented to prevent an "elected dictatorship"), unscrupulous politicians have worked to undermine our democracy.
New Zealanders will need to vote for reforming parties that uphold democratic principles, and demand a written constitution, including an effective bill of rights.
Changes must include binding referendums on all constitutional proposals, ensuring a more collaborative system of government and genuine consultation.
This is necessary to maintain an equitable system whereby the majority of people who pay taxes are fairly represented.
Simply put, it's 'no taxation without representation", otherwise we join those countries where democracy is severely eroded.
- Wayne Ryburn has taught social sciences at secondary school level for nearly 50 years.
