| Wednesday, June 13, 2012 6:09 PM

ACC

The ACC purge is happening at remarkable pace.

Yesterday Chairman John Judge supposedly resigned and today it was CEO Ralph Stewart.

At least two other directors are expected to fall on their sword. Deputy John McLiskie and Rob Campbell have been told they won't be reappointed.

It’s ironic that just a few days ago we had the opposition parties having fits over ACC and calling for heads to roll. Specifically the Chairman and CEO.

Now, that's not enough, they want more blood.

Labour's Andrew Little who was calling for the CEO's head now wants the Minister Judith Collins to resign. Oh, that's right; Little is being sued for defamation by Collins.

There is no question that there are systemic issues at ACC and they needed to be dealt with and clearly Collins is doing that.

I'm not sure that releasing Judge and Stewart will make a scrap of difference to cleaning the place up though. 

On the Pullar case, I'm guessing that Pullar and her minder spin doctor are rejoicing at the collateral damage they have created.

That might be premature.

Fran O'Sullivan in today's Herald says that "Pullar had sufficient clout to persuade another fellow director - John McLiskie - to organise a "face to face" meeting between herself and ACC management to sort out her long standing issues." She also rolled up to that meeting accompanied by a former National Party president.

Fran refers to an email from Boag to Collins in which Boag suggests that the ACC confidential information that was held by Pullar wasn't going to be returned unless ACC agreed to settle.

This wasn't brought up at all in the highly managed TV3 interview.

So, there is a stench around this case that is not going to be eradicated with a few of the ACC staff being sacked.

Casino

The Government's being told by the Greens to put its convention centre talks with SkyCity on hold.

The Greens have been successful in getting the Auditor General to investigate the process that saw the casino operator enter into negotiations with the Government to do the project.

Party Co-Leader Metiria Turei says the SkyCity deal can't possibly proceed while an inquiry is underway as the investigation covers how SkyCity was awarded the contract.

There is nothing wrong with scrutiny - if there's a dodgy deal in there - lets see - but I fail to see it right now I must say.

The Greens don't care about a 'convention centre' lets be clear about that.

This is about stalling any project in the hope that there is something in the tender documents that might, might, just derail it altogether. They hate casinos. They hate business. They loath anything to do withy the corporate world.

The Green Party, because they are more or less economically illiterate, would rather the ratepayers or taxpayers cough up the $350m, that some grubby corporate.

Queen St Booze

A raft of suggestions has come from the first meeting of Auckland  Len Brown's taskforce on beating booze-fuelled bad behaviour on Queen Street.

They include increased community patrols, including Maori, Pacific and Asian wardens, a better bus night service, improved lighting and tighter parking limits that target pre-loading hot spots.

The task force is also suggesting a voluntary one-way door policy for bars.

One of the key issues is lack of police presence.

The cops will deny it but there are just not enough out there on the beat anymore. In fact, you rarely see a cop in the beat.

You see them occasionally in a car but they are not out there on the beat in numbers.

The cops act as a reactionary force now, they might, I say might, turn up if there's trouble reported.

I run round the city a lot..... Remuera, Newmarket, Parnell, CBD, waterfront, Ponsonby and you just don't see them.

Anywhere in the world, any city, you will always find a high police presence - they are everywhere.

Not here.

So before the Mayor starts talking about the usual PC cuddly stuff to rectify the problem, start by getting cops back on the beat.