Peachey Allan: Local Government (Auckland Reorganisation) Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
Peachey Allan: Local Government (Auckland Reorganisation) Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
[Volume:654;Page:3260] 
ALLAN PEACHEY (National—Tamaki) 
: 
 I am very pleased to take the advice of the honourable member Mr Ross Robertson and get up on my hind legs to defend the Government’s position on Part 1 of the Local Government (Auckland Reorganisation) Bill. In particular I want to address the purpose of the bill but before I do I want to issue a blunt clear warning to the Labour Opposition members. I hinted at it last night; I will now deliver it. The people of Auckland are not listening to them. They made it very very clear in the 2008 election that they had stopped listening and that Labour had let Auckland down once too often. I note with interest the warning of another fine member Mr George Hawkins that members will lose their seats over this. I can only assume that he had in mind—[ 
Interruption 
] In your dreams George!—members like Mr Cunliffe who really must be nervous. What the people of Auckland wanted and expected this morning was a clear rational reasonable debate on Part 1 of this bill—on the purpose of this bill. The Labour Opposition actually agrees with the critical purpose. It agrees that there should be a unitary governance authority in Auckland. Member after member has got up and said that. So why is it that so many of the members opposite choose not to debate the purpose of the bill but instead as they did last night in the first and second readings prefer to engage in personal attacks on members on this side of the Chamber? 
That is one of the reasons why Auckland is not listening. What the people of Auckland want to hear from us and what they are hearing from the Minister—and I compliment the Minister for the clarity and the precision that he has brought to proceedings—and from this side of the Chamber is this very simple purpose: will a unitary Auckland governance system set up the framework for the prosperity of that region and therefore the prosperity of New Zealand for the next 50 to 100 years? That is what the people of Auckland want to hear about. That is what they want us to debate. They want the assurance that we can— 
Phil Twyford 
: They want democracy. 
ALLAN PEACHEY 
: They exercised democracy in 2008—unlike the way the Labour Party treated that member’s ambitions for Mt Albert. 
Hon Gerry Brownlee 
: What did they do? 
ALLAN PEACHEY 
: I say to Mr Brownlee that Labour did not nominate that member for the Mt Albert seat that he thought he had an absolute right to. That is what it did. If Phil Twyford thinks that insulting the Prime Minister in this House builds his image or his reputation in any way I tell him to forget it—just forget it. The critical point is how the new structure contained in the purpose—in Part 1 of this bill—will develop Auckland to become the driver of prosperity for the region and not just for tomorrow or next year but for the next 50 to 100 years. That is the purpose as set out in Part 1. I invite subsequent Opposition speakers to get up put the personal insults aside respect what the people of Auckland want and get on and debate that simple point and debate the issue around the transition authority which I believe holds the key to making this all work in the next 18 months.