Pokies porkies

Len Brown is a muppet - isn't he?  He's a hopeless numpty from what I've seen.  He has no discernible critical faculty and has been adrift from his left wing supporters for some time after a series of ideological gaffes.  The worst and most unforgivable was his personal backing of the port company management when they tried to sack all the staff that do the actual work and locked them out, costing millions.  That particular piece of toast landed buttered side down on the pube-encrusted lino for Len, but he had to eat it anyway - he should have choked on it.  That event - from many - proved he was a man of the business elite and not the people.

What are Len's signal achievements? On his campaign site he promotes these:

Building strong communities

The Central Rail Link

Affordable Housing

Keeping Rates Low

Building jobs

Enhancing the environment

Going through this list shows a less than impressive leadership.

Building strong communities: Essentially an empty, wanky, statement.  He is taking credit for the normal, tedious business of the Council and its local boards. His lack of accomplishment is thrown into stark relief when he says:

"In particular, I will push to extend free entry to swimming pools to over 65s and disabled persons in a next term."

Meaning he hasn't even managed to do that one token policy in three years of bluster.  Could he set his expectations any lower?

The Central Rail Link:  During Len's term a giant tunnelling machine has begun digging a 7km long tunnel... for a motorway out the arse end of Mt Roskill.  Meanwhile the CBD rail corridor hasn't even been zoned.  Utterly hopeless.  To have the equipment needed - and the central government funding - for twin motorway tunnels in Auckland, but to have made no progress at all on the city rail loop demonstrates firstly his lack of vision and secondly his lack of influence.  And the long-term funding for the urban rail system as a whole? Much too difficult to have thought about, so he's leaving that till later.  But he is in favour of tolling and screwing the Auckland motorists as part of the package - charming.

Affordable Housing: This will be done via the government's Apartheidy sounding Special Housing Areas legislation - and Len's happy about it.  Gawdsake. House prices are out of control because of immigration and immigration alone (not land supply, not development contributions, not the RMA, not the Building Act, and not labour shortages).  Keep everything else constant and reduce immigration and Auckland's congestion and under-development issues will also ease, perhaps even to the point of sustainability.  But Len is a cheerleader for a million more people by lunchtime, so any commitment he pretends to make housing more affordable is a super, massive, gigantic, awesome lie.  The huge population changes he encourages makes Auckland less Auckland and more like any other generic colonial conurbanation around the Pacific Rim.

Keeping Rates Low: BFD. Big Fucking Deal.  So would any Mayor want to keep rates in check.  So do the Councillors. It isn't his achievement.

Building jobs: Right.  He backed the mass sacking of the port workers to convert their jobs to crappy casual conditions and bringing in scabs! And he reckons he's in favour of building jobs?! Developers are flying in Asian work gangs on lower rates and conditions than locals to build the houses (which will mostly be for Asian migrants anyway) and he thinks he is building jobs?  Really? Was that what he was doing swanning around the America's Cup in San Francisco during half the campaign waiting to coat-tail on an inevitable NZ victory (Ha!).  All that rubbed off was the smell of loser.

Enhancing the environment:  There doesn't seem to be anything here apart from the usual jargon about "liveable cities" and reducing carbon emissions.

A whole lot of not very much.

And now he's also a big fat liar:

NZ Herald:
--
Mayor Len Brown is trying to rewrite history over his support for the SkyCity pokies-convention centre deal, says mayoral challenger John Minto.
After being an enthusiastic supporter of the deal since day one, Mr Brown appeared to change tack in yesterday's Herald Super City election guide.
[...]
Mr Minto said Mr Brown had always strongly supported the trade-off of more pokies for a convention centre and voted against councillor Cathy Casey's motion in June to oppose "the Government's proposal for SkyCity to develop a convention centre in return for changes in our gambling legislation to increase gambling at the SkyCity casino"."Now in the middle of the election campaign, Mr Brown wants to rewrite history. What a shameless porkie. His fingerprints are all over this grubby deal with SkyCity," said Mr Minto, the Mana mayoral candidate.
When SkyCity was chosen to build a convention centre in June 2011, Mr Brown talked up the economic benefit to Auckland.
He opposed calls from councillors for a report on the social and economic impacts of more pokies at the casino, and figures on SkyCity's grants to charities.
Last year, he called for measures to reduce the impact of more pokies at the casino on problem gamblers, but did not oppose the funding model.
--

Len isn't much of an accomplished bullshitter.  He has legions of staff to do that crucial aspect of politics for him.  Len hasn't risen to any special level of bullshit artistry - so he's just a simple liar.