The council has announced its intention to increase rents on 1,641 pensioner housing units, and to sell the units when the existing tenants die or move out. The council also wants to sell 130 general rental houses. "They should be ashamed of what they're doing," said Elizabeth Withers, who lives in one of a complex of 140 council-owned pensioner flats in the working-class suburb of Otahuhu. "After the years of service we have given this country, people deserve better."

Chanting "John Banks, no thanks! David Hay, no way!" 1,200 people marched in downtown Auckland March 16. Hay is the deputy mayor. Over the previous month, a series of public meetings have provided an opportunity to speak out against the council's proposals, and protesters have voiced their opposition at city council meetings.

"Twenty-three of us were at the meeting in the Otahuhu town hall," said Withers. "We didn't have transport for the march downtown, and some people here can't walk very far, but we've asked for a march from this complex. We'd love that."

In addition to targeting housing, the council's proposals include increases to rates (local taxes) that would impact most heavily on working people, including a flat annual charge of $121 for rubbish collections, and the removal of rebates on water bills. At the same time, a council budget projects a 3.9 percent rates reduction for businesses in the central city, and a 1.7 percent reduction for other businesses.

Other measures are the sale of car park buildings and the council's stake in the city's airport, and the slashing of spending on arts, culture, and recreational activities. A report commissioned by the council from former national government finance minister William Birch, which recommended many of the "cost-cutting" measures the council aims to introduce, stated, "The provision of arts, culture, and recreation is not a public good."

The council has already acted to end special services for immigrants, in a city where according to the latest government census one in three of the population was born overseas.  
 
 
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