Early Edition with Kate Hawkesby

Just when you thought local council couldn’t get more absurd and extravagant, they’ve dreamt up a new way to not make decisions. To do less, with more. Citizens assemblies. A crackpot idea the Romans once used. But Romans did lots of weird stuff we stopped doing, and this should be one of them. They’ve got one on the boil in Whanganui.  In Napier, 40 unelected locals have just finished sitting around talking about where to put a new swimming pool and what that pool might look like.  Four weeks later. $800 per person, including refreshments and god knows what else - $100,000 total from the rates take. It's basically a catered chinwag between neighbours that they call an assembly.   And guess what? They couldn’t come up with a consensus on where to put the pool. Despite all the expertise, the opinions for Africa, the specialists, the Lamingtons, no location was decided.  You can’t make this stuff up. Why bother with a council, a Mayor, an MP? Like DJ sets and recycled period cups, these citi