Rich prick doesn't want to pay rates

Penny Bright has shown her true colours of the ultimate hypocrite.

Not only does she own her own home mortgage free (rendering her by definition better off than most), she has taken it upon herself to attack every ACT and National Party MP in her miserable time as a lobbyist for the "poor".

Auckland Council uses these powers thousands of times a year, but Bright owns her own home without a mortgage, and is not salaried, and is therefore not susceptible to either tactic.

I find it astounding that left-winger Bright is the closest thing New Zealand seems to have to the  right-wing American Tax Protester.  She has no excuse for not paying her rates, she is active enough to attend meetings and involve herself fully in democracy in Auckland, all the while not wishing to contribute her legal share paying for it.

Penny Bright, a serially unsuccessful candidate in mayoral elections, stopped paying her rates in 2008 to protest a lack of council transparency. She said she would pay only when the council revealed details of the contracts it was awarding to private businesses as Aucklanders had a right to know where their money was being spent.

Recalling the reason for her rates protest, Bright said: "I wasn't going to pay my rates as long as they weren't going to tell me where my money was going."

How about the taxpayer get a list of everyone receiving the dole? Or the ratepayers receive a list of everyone in a council house and how long they have lived at the address?

Bright is merely highlighting what a blistering hypocrite she is.  She does not appear to actually have or want a job, lives in her own mortgage free home (Lord knows how she paid for that) and expects everyone else to pay for her all the time while wailing about how high rates and taxes are for those on "fixed incomes"?

Len Brown needs to man-up and send her the bill which chances are she will not be able to pay as it would be well into the five figures, with full interest and penalties and moves should then be made to sell her home. 

In the meantime, the Supercity council should release just how much money she owes.

Cathy Odgers is a Hong Kong lawyer. She blogs as Cactus Kate.