Fenton Darien:  
Fenton Darien:  
[Volume:654;Page:63] 
DARIEN FENTON (Labour) 
: 
 It is good to be able to take a call on Part 3 of the Local Government (Auckland Reorganisation) Bill. We talked about Part 2 being the death knell for the democratically elected councils of Auckland; Part 3 is the stake in the heart for Manukau City for Waitakere City for Auckland City for North Shore City for Rodney for Papakura and for Franklin. When we go through the transition provisions I am sure people will understand that. 
I want to talk to a couple of things. I would like to address clause 11 in terms of the transition agency and to speak in support of the amendment to clause 11(1) that adds the words “and one Public Service Association representative chosen by the Public Service Association” after the words “by the Minister”. Why would we want workers’ representation on the transition agency? Why is it important? Well we are talking about 6300 jobs in Auckland. That is a lot of jobs. We are talking about a lot of people. 
Phil Twyford 
: They don’t care about jobs. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: That is true. We can tell because those members have their heads down they do not really care about that. 
Louise Upston 
: We are very interested. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: In that case National will be— 
Hon Member 
: In their own jobs. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: That is right. 
National will be supporting the amendment being proposed on this side of the Chamber. This is really important. The Public Service Association is the representative of the workers and the association should be represented on the transition agency. As it stands the Minister can appoint his own cronies to the governing authority. He can appoint his own cronies to the transition agency. 
I am really concerned because it is absolutely critical that the workers in the transition authority in the Auckland Council embryo also get a say. Why should they not have a say? There are 6300 workers who carry out the work of all of the councils right across Auckland—Manukau City Waitakere City Auckland City North Shore City Rodney and Papakura. They are expected to carry on doing the work they do now until October 2010. Of course they should have a say. I think that National needs to prove by supporting this amendment that it does not want to keep kicking workers in the guts. That is what National is doing with this transition provision. It is kicking workers in the guts. If National is serious as I heard one of the Ministers saying before about supporting workers and about protecting them during these very very difficult times it will support this provision. 
I will speak to another amendment that has been proposed by members on this side of the Chamber. The proposed amendment is that we should have one member from the Council of Trade Unions and that that representative should be chosen by the Council of Trade Unions—not by the Minister but by the Council of Trade Unions. Who are the members of the Council of Trade Unions? They are the representatives of workers across all parts of the country including local government. This would ensure that workers are represented on the transition agency. As we have said the Minister can appoint his own cronies to the governing authority. We want to ensure that workers who are represented by the Public Service Association are also represented by the Council of Trade Unions. 
After all we are talking about social partnership here. I keep hearing from members on the other side that we should support social partnership but they really do not want workers to have a say. It is really important that we hear from members opposite that they are not just paying lip-service to social partnership. Maybe they do not understand what social partnership means. It means sitting down listening to the representatives of workers allowing them to have a say allowing them to make a contribution and allowing them to contribute to and give their ideas for the future of our cities. 
Further I would like to speak to another amendment which is to ensure that there is a Service and Food Workers Union representative chosen by the Service and Food Workers Union. Why is that? Why would we want someone from the Service and Food Workers Union? We need to ensure in this city of Auckland for the future of Auckland that low-income workers are represented in this transition agency. Who are we talking about? We are talking about the people in Manukau City in Waitakere City and in many other areas—all of the councils—who do the cleaning and the catering.