Central ordinarily trumps local in our politics, but the government is about to find out that the old saying, “You can’t fight city hall”, has acquired a new lease of life.
Auckland’s ornery new mayor, Wayne Brown, is clanking his chains, having just potentially deactivated a critical component of Labour’s Three Waters reform.
With the enabling legislation about to go back to Parliament, Brown has told Auckland’s Watercare to ignore the process henceforth. That latches a mighty drag-anchor to the reforms, as 90% of the new northern water agency would effectively be ghosting itself.
It’s not clear whether the government can stop him from stopping it, other
