Crushing Community

by Gerard Couper

We live under a kind of delusion that laws are made in heaven. But of course laws are made for the benefit of those who make them, or those who pull the strings of those who make them. The kind of laws made are an indication of whose interests the lawmakers serve.

In 1974 the Labour Government instituted a scheme for Community Councils. These were to provide an opportunity for people in a community to have a say in the running of their affairs.

Unlike progressive associations, they were to be statutary bodies with rights to call meetings and to send a delegate with speaking rights to Council meetings. The important thing about them is that they were an officially recognised alternative to the present local body government ( not of course that they had power to change Council decisions). Because of this their existence was an obvious challenge to Local Bodies up till now, enjoying autocratic rule.

At the moment the National Party is introducing legislation (namely the Local Government Amendment Bill) which will effectively make such councils useless. The legislation prevents the creation of any further community councils and effectively prevents the formation of the two councils planned at the moment Tarangi and Cannon's Creek.

These are both in Porirua and in areas, of Porirua that have very little representation on the Porirua City Council. Two members come from the area, one of whom is the mayor.

What then are the reasons for axing these councils? The only assumption I can make is that they challenge the control of the power group in Porirua. It is possible that community councils would lead on to a 'ward system'. This means that the area would be divided into districts or 'wards' each of which would elect councillor(s) to represent them.

If the ward system was established and the working class areas of Porirua thus received proportional representation, it is obvious they would obtain much more power in council, to the detriment of other 'more conservative' elements. Whether or not the ward system would be established, the establishment of community councils is the first step in 'giving power to the people'.

These proposed laws were sprung on us with no warning at all and no recourse to the people involved - neither the community councils, nor the Porirua Town Clerk were informed beforehand.

This attitude is a very familiar attitude in the Government and local government -lets not worry the people with fiddly laws - that's our job' - of course it disguises the fact (hat the laws have been created in the interests of those who have most to lose from democratization.