Every so often local government in New Zealand is reminded who is boss. Power is very centralised in this country. We do not have states or provinces with constitutional autonomy in some areas of public administration. Here local government does what central government says it can do.
Seldom has this been more evident than on Friday when we reported that Housing Minister Phil Twyford is going to over-ride the Auckland Council's Unitary Plan in areas where he wants to get many more houses built quickly.
Twyford intends to put a proposal to the Cabinet "very soon" to establish a new Ministry of Housing and Urban Development and an "Urban Development Authority" for Auckland that will become the planning and consenting body for a dozen or more residential developments such as the one announced on the Unitec site.
So much for the Unitary Plan that Auckland's elected council members sweated on for years, submitting drafts for public consultation, and revisions for more consultation.
So much for the "Super City", conceived as a new tier of government, stronger than the regional council it replaced, over-riding local government as Auckland had known it, all to give the city, "one voice, one plan".