Finally caught up with this week's edition of The Bradbury Group and it's a really good one, with NZ Herald columnist Simon Wilson, former Winston First and Nat MP Tau Henare, and Green MP Steve Abel;
They talk about the challenge of funding local government, and public perception differences between tax and rates. Again, I think both need to be collected by IRD and split between central and local;
In the local government reform issue, once again, I see the importance of an accurate and highly visible record of our political history.
We can and will disagree on what that history means. Which reforms were successful and which ones led to our current problems. That's fine, that's what democratic debate is all about.
But we need to be able to agree on *what* was done in our institutions, when, and by who. So that debate is based in reality.
