Wednesday 26 October 2011

Poor old Banksie

Poor old Banksie. There are complaints about the traps that Labour have stooped to “dirty tricks” in their attempt to smear ACT’s Epsom candidate John Banks.

Amusingly the so-called “dirty tricks” involve posting around the electorate flyers quoting the candidate, and posting online his fiscal record while in office–all very helpful you would think to a candidate whose billboards boast his “experience” as his best feature.

Yet his record has less than meets the eye; leastways, less than met the eye of Don Brash and the ACT selection team when they selected “Banksie” as their candidate in their must-win seat. Because they apparently didn’t know when they selected him what everybody else knew long ago: That Banksie is a bigot. That Banksie is a spendthrift. That if he wants to run on his “experience,” then he can expect his past experiences to come back and bite him.

 His statements quoted on the pamphlets would bad enough, especially for any candidate representing a purportedly “liberal” party.  But it his fiscal record as Auckland mayor that should frighten the socks off anyone voting for him in the hope that the ACT Party represent fiscal responsibility.

If there is a surprise for me in Epsom [writes Labour's Epsom candidate David Parker, accurately], it is that so few people knew that John Banks tripled Auckland City Council’s debt during his last three years as Mayor. This recent history is very damaging for Key as well as Banks, given their repeated assertions that they are fiscally responsible and Labour is profligate.
The reality that Banks was “borrow and spend” will get through. I am telling everyone! Every letter box in Epsom will get this message…
    The reality is that Banks’ very public record is there to haunt Key and Banks. The man who claims Muldoon as his hero has the worst economic record of any Mayor, ever, in the entire history of New Zealand.
    While the last Labour government ran budget surpluses and reduced government debt, this is what John Banks did to Auckland:

        Auckland City Council debt more than trebled in his last 3 years as Mayor!
            2007          2008         2009                31/10/2010
            $135m      $322m      $499m             $738 million !!!!!!!!

This was all pre amalgamation [and therefore represents the debt racked up just for the much smaller original Auckland City Council], and resulted in three credit downgrades for the council from Standard and Poors (from AA+ to AA-).
   
The Act spin that debt increased because the old Auckland City was borrowing for the new City is untrue. (That extra $416m of borrowing in the 2010 year took Auckland City Council debt to $1,155m at the time of amalgamation, but is excluded from the above figures.)
   So John Banks certainly does not stand for fiscal responsibility.

He sure doesn’t.

One can only wonder about ACT’s sickening pragmatism in selecting this bigoted moron as their candidate in the first place.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wonder how well the Libertarianz will do ?

Anonymous said...

he inherited hundreds of extra staff Hubbard brought on, and didn't make a single one redundant.

just borrowed to hide the true cost....

Capitalist said...

Well said and bravo. The good people of Epsom will show their outrage at this moron being selected at the voting booth.

One can only assume that Brash, having ruined his career, sought Bank's funding desperately.

Mind you Brash was never *really* an ACT person to begin with.

KP said...

Its just time people realised that NZ is a left-wing country, end of story.
There is no desire for Libz or ACT amongst those who are left there, all the people who feel they can get ahead in life without Govt handouts have left the country!
More than 10% (the best of the population!) are here in Aussie.

Hal Incandenza said...

Bullshit KP. Aussie's more left wing than NZ. end of story. NZers over there are no more skilled or hard working than those in NZ, they're just people with a very narrow focus on weather and money. Aussie can have them.

ACT Youth said...

PC if you say that Banksie is a bigoted moron, then how about a Libz candidate I recalled from the last election named Eli Lineberry, who is a bigoted moron. He hates niggers. I remembered a few posts here on your blog by Elijah calling Obama a nigger. Again, I said yesterday, why don't you Libz try and get your house in order before you criticize candidates from other parties, huh?

Richard McGrath said...

@ACT Youth: Elijah Lineberry is entitled to voice those opinions, but they have no relevance to Libz policy which is that government should be colour blind.

As for "getting the house in order" you will find that Elijah will not be appearing as a Libz electorate candidate or on our party list.

Unlike ACT, you will not find Libz pinning its hopes for survival on marketing an unsellable bigoted moron to the voters of Epsom.

Craig said...

@ACT Youth: Elijah is not and has never been a candidate for the Libz.

cheesefunnel said...

Ah...Elijah Lineberry, I'd forgotten about him. I'm pretty sure I remember reading he was the libz 'spokesman' on something-or-rather. Despite various people pointing out that he was, well, somewhat unhinged. It seems neither ACT or the Libz display much judgement in choosing the people who are involved in their parties. It would be awesome if there was a party right of National that wasn't a joke.

Greig McGill said...

I think Richard McGrath, Craig Milmine, and some guy who runs this blog are excellent faces for the Libertarianz. Cool, clear heads, always putting forward a principled and well reasoned argument.

James said...

The selection of Banks for ACT and Epsom is what has caused me to abandon the ship....however sadly as the other candidates seem pretty good and very liberal...especially the younger ones.

If ACT falls then I hope a new freedom party emerges without all the dross that's gathered around ACT and the Libz over time and we have something to fight for that's worth it...

Just my opinion said...

I suspect the "ACT Youth" commenter was a troll.

I cannot vote for John Banks, I told the party membership that if he was selected they would be regret it. It didn't take long for that to happen did it?