Beaumont Carol: Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill — First Reading 
Beaumont Carol: Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:654;Page:3749] 
CAROL BEAUMONT (Labour) 
: 
 I am glad of the opportunity to speak on the Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill. This bill does three main things: it sets up the framework for the Auckland Council it sets up local boards and it describes the role of the Local Government Commission. I will talk about each of those elements because we have concerns about all of them. 
First of all the context in which this bill is being received into this House is absolutely critical. I do not think that members opposite understand the damage that has been done already. There has been— 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. It is a mark of respect for my colleague that I ask through you that the Minister who had her back to the member and was wandering around the Chamber and other members who were wandering around do the member the courtesy of listening to her speech. It is important. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Thank you for that. It is important that we give speakers a fair go. As I have said on previous occasions if members want to wander around and talk they should do that outside in the lobbies. Only whips should be walking around. 
CAROL BEAUMONT 
: There has been an absolute litany of arrogance since March when the royal commission report was received. I saw that arrogance just then when my colleague Su’a William Sio was speaking and describing accurately the view of the people of Manukau City. Honestly the smirking giggling and carrying on over on the other side of the Chamber was unbelievable. 
Anyway you took a report that the royal commission spent 18 months working on and you gutted it in a week—[ 
Interruption 
] Sorry not you Mr Deputy Speaker. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: “They”. 
CAROL BEAUMONT 
: They the members opposite took a report that had taken 18 months of work and gutted it within just over a week. A number of really interesting and important ideas in that report seem to have sunk without trace. There were good ideas around economic development a social board and greater coordination between Auckland and central government. Many many things are missing from the bill we are talking about now. The development agency is missing as I said as are the social issues board the joint management structures between the New Zealand Transport Agency and the Railways Corporation and many of the things the royal commission worked hard on. What has happened to those ideas? 
More important the Government’s failure to listen to Aucklanders will mean that this bill and the legislation arising from it will be fundamentally damaged before they have even started. Thousands of people have been involved in marches and meetings and many more marches and meetings are to come. Let us see what happens with the hikoi shall we? The media have also reflected people’s concerns—even the good old  
New Zealand Herald 
 
with headlines like “Let citizens have say on Super City”. What about the  
East and Bays Courier 
 with “Call to keep local voice”? What about “Who stole our voice?” “Democracy at stake” or “Welcome to Greater Auckland”? The Government is so arrogant that it does not see that it has created a monster already; that concern is reflected in all of the polls that have been taken so far. 
This Government made a number of commitments to Aucklanders. I remind members opposite of what it said to Aucklanders. I am appalled that members opposite can sit there and fail to recognise the statement they made in their manifesto: “National will: Support the Royal Commission providing an opportunity for people within the Auckland region to express their views about the structures that will best achieve the goals set out above.” It also states that National would “Consult with Aucklanders once the findings of the Royal Commission are known.” Well I do not know what has happened to those commitments but over the last few days we have seen the Local Government (Tamaki Makaurau Reorganisation) Bill rammed through the House under urgency. There has been no opportunity for Aucklanders to be consulted on that because the Government has passed the bill already. The Government has taken away the right of Aucklanders under the Local Government Act to have a poll on the issue. 
The Government has also established a small but very powerful transition agency—an agency that has no obligations to consult anybody an agency that is made up of three to five people picked at Rodney Hide’s discretion. Frankly that is hardly reassuring. The agency has huge power— 
Paul Quinn 
: Have you got the right bill? 
CAROL BEAUMONT 
: I am talking about the Local Government (Tamaki Makaurau Reorganisation) Bill as part of the context for this bill I tell Mr Quinn—if he were listening. The transition agency has huge power to control councils—huge power. It has more than $28 billion of assets and there are no protections against the privatisation of those assets. It has huge power around developing change management plans for 6300 workers who work in local government in Auckland. 
Over the last few days the Government has created a brand new select committee on the issue—a practice that National has been very strongly opposed to in the past. Why has that committee been created under urgency—why? We can only assume that the Government does not trust the existing Local Government and Environment Committee. Labour wonders what process that special select committee will follow. I can only hope that it will be a damn sight better than what has happened at the hearing on the amendment to the Resource Management Act. I had the opportunity to sit in on that hearing briefly and could not believe the way that people were being treated. It was absolutely appalling. Will the Government give a commitment on the bill we currently have before us that everybody who wants to be heard will be heard and that it will give them adequate time to be heard? I do not think so. All of these sorts of actions have created an environment of mistrust anger and real fear among Aucklanders about the ACT and National Party agendas for local government and members will continue to hear about that from Aucklanders. 
This is about a Government that is focused on centralising power—its power! Members on this side of the House do not question the need for change. Auckland faces many many challenges. It is true that there has been significant discontent about local government particularly about the inability to coordinate things regionally. There is no doubt about that. I might also say that there is a lot of discontent about the Auckland City Council in particular. Under the current mayor the Citizens and Ratepayers - dominated council is arrogant and it fails to address the needs of many of the citizens of Auckland. If people happen to live in Otahuhu they will know particularly what I am talking about. If the citizens of Otahuhu are listening tonight I tell them that I am making sure this Government hears about the appalling way in which money has not gone to those citizens and their needs but has gone to the wealthy in Auckland City. 
The previous Labour Government set up the royal commission because it recognised there was a need for change. Labour members broadly support a unitary authority because do we need greater coordination on key regional issues but we disagree with the way in which the Government has trampled across the rights of Aucklanders in this process. So far it has done nothing but be arrogant to Aucklanders and it has not listened to them. Labour members strongly disagree with a number of the key provisions in this bill. We disagree with the at-large councillor provision because we believe that only people with money or fame will be able to stand and represent the whole city. People may scoff at that concern but that was the case with the Auckland City Council until very recently—up until the late 1980s. If people took the time to see what the council looked like back then they would see that most of the people on that council were white were male and came from the eastern suburbs of Auckland City. So there are real problems about at-large councillors. 
The 20 to 30 local boards that are being proposed are completely powerless. Labour wants to see a second tier that actually has teeth and that can do things for local people. What about Maori representation? The provision is appalling; we support Maori representation on the Auckland Council. There are other many other provisions of this bill that we are very very concerned about. Another provision which again goes back to the issue of arrogance concerns the powers of the Local Government Commission. Under this bill the commission will have a number of very important responsibilities but nowhere does the bill talk about that commission consulting anybody.