“Aucklanders finding themselves in a state of panic over the Auckland region’s catastrophic shortage of beaches will be
overjoyed at a project by Waterfront Auckland to create an artificial beach,” says Affordable Auckland Leader Stephen
Berry. “The hordes of sand enthusiasts cheering this latest development should number between zero and two.”
Mr. Berry likes to think that years of involvement in politics have endowed him with a bubble of impermeable cynicism
that protects him from any further horror at the financial incompetence of Auckland Council and the organisations
controlled by it. “Alas Auckland politicians and bureaucrats manage to flabbergast me again and again with their
outrageous disrespect for ratepayer money. First there were the skateboard ambassadors late last year, then we have the
chandeliered state house which will cost ratepayers at least half a million dollars. Now we must deal with civil service
financial vandals, struggling to let go of their youth, who think it would be ‘totally cool dude’ to spend $25,000 on a
giant sandpit in Waitemata Plaza which will be open for two months. When will this incompetence end?”
Stephen Berry believes it would be bad enough if this $25,000 expense were the only thing Waterfront Auckland is
spending money on, but unfortunately it isn’t. “This sandpit by the harbour is costing less than half of the total
$80,000 Waterfront Auckland is spending in its effort to ‘revitalise’ Waitemata Plaza. I’m genuinely concerned at what
it considers appropriate to spend the other $55,000 on.”
“All organisations, private and public, have employees whose ideas could be considered a little bit left-field. Usually
someone at the top will identify when an idea is silly and put a stop to it. That has not occurred in this case and I
will be mounting an investigation under the Local Government Official Information Act to find who has authorised this.
I’ll also be asking just what they spent the other $55,000 on.
ENDS