Sio William: Local Government (Auckland Transitional Provisions) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSio William: Local Government (Auckland Transitional Provisions) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee[Sitting date: 17 November 2015. Volume:710;Page:8279. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Su’a WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Māngere): Before I launch into my comments about the Local Government (Auckland Transitional Provisions) Amendment Bill can I state for the record that today marks 5 years since the tragic deaths of 29 miners at Pike River. Can I state for the record my acknowledgment of that Pike River community my acknowledgment of all the families who have lost loved ones and my acknowledgment also for the Hon Damien O’Connor who has been a consistent voice on behalf of that community. Sadly the tragedy is more enhanced because on reflection and after the royal commission report we know that those deaths could have been prevented. This House needs to take note that we have to unite ourselves around ensuring that we have legislation that protects the lives of all workers throughout this country. I want to table that for the record.I initially raised that acknowledgment of the Pike River community because legislation arising from the tragedy would have been a piece of legislation that I think this House would be united about if it came through urgency. However that is not the case.I now want to get on to the bill. I want to respond because last night members of the Government continued to crow about the fact that this bill would enable Aucklanders to have a view to have a say. The fact of the matter is that the Auckland Council has already heard 9000 submissions with regard to the Auckland Unitary Plan but what this bill does is it prevents Aucklanders from having a view on this piece of legislation. It prevents Aucklanders also from giving this Parliament the benefit of their experience knowledge and expertise.The reason why I say it prevents them is that under normal democratic processes—and we have one of the best in the world—in the first reading the Minister in charge the Hon Dr Nick Smith would have referred the bill to a select committee. The second reading would have enabled us to begin to talk about what Aucklanders submitted on this particular bill. It would have enabled us to thank them for their submissions and thank the members of the committee but that is not the case—that is not the case here. So we do not have the benefit of receiving the views of Aucklanders with regard to how they see things happening already under the structure that this Government forced upon them back in 2010.This is where I think Ron Mark made it clear that nobody can figure out this Government.On the one hand the rhetoric was that it is giving Aucklanders a view but in this particular case it is not. It is not going to give anybody a view and that is quite sad. So we miss out on that opportunity and I suspect if this went out for public consultation we would have heard like many of our colleagues the voices of the people of Auckland tell this Government that it has screwed up. It is its cock-upwhich we are now having to deliberate on with this bill.As I itemised last night Government members can crow all they want but the reality is that this bill fixes the errors that the Government made back in 2010 again because of a collapsed democratic process that it undertook during that period. This Government has a habit of believing that it knows best. And let me give you an example.You see prior to this Government changing the legislation it was councils that had the powers and ability to appoint hearings commissioners. What the principal Act did was it took that power away from Auckland councillors and gave it to the Minister for the Environment and the Minister of Conservation. So now we have the Ministers appointing the Auckland Unitary Plan Independent Hearings Panel—and this is not to denigrate the members of the panel because I have the deepest respect for the members of the independent hearings panel. What I am pointing out is this Government did not trust Aucklanders enough to choose their own panellists on the hearings panel. It could not trust them because it believes it knows best.So the Government gave itself the power to appoint members of the hearings panel. It thinks it knows best but here is an example—and this is one of many examples of the cock-up. When it repeats the same mistake over and over again people are inclined to say how incompetent this Government is. You know it attempts to provide this image of itself as some kind of master of the universe when it comes to running this country but these little things add up. I would say to Aucklanders take note. This is not the only mistake or cock-up that this Government has made; there have been several. And it has not just been for Auckland; it also applied as we saw in the bills that we debated last night.I want to say that the bill enables the Ministers to add other members to the Auckland Unitary Plan Independent Hearings Panel and I do not have a problem with that. But here is another example of this Government not trusting Aucklanders. If I were to view the membership of the independent hearings panel the only two people who I would recognise as Aucklanders—and again you know I have the deepest respect for the membership that is there; they are professional people with lots of expertise—are Desmond Morrison and John Kirikiri. I do not know the other members but I would have thought given they are hearing the unitary plan of Auckland that the membership should by its very nature of overseeing the unitary plan of Auckland have an interest in Auckland and should live in Auckland. I have no disrespect for the others because I know that this is an area that requires expertise but as an Aucklander I feel surely there are enough Aucklanders with the same expertise and the same professionalism who can deal with this.Again by giving itself the power to appoint members of the independent hearings panel this Government sends clear signals that it does not trust Aucklanders. It does not believe there are any Aucklanders good enough to make up the bulk of the panel. So by way of advice I would ask about that.I am glad that the legislation does say that the Ministers must consult. Well I am not sure. I will have to look during the Committee stage at whether the word “must” is in there or whether it is up to the Ministers but I would think that if they really trusted Aucklanders and valued the views of Aucklanders then they would be consulting not just with the chair of the independent hearings panel but also with the Māori Statutory Board as well as with the Auckland Council. But I would imagine in my gut that Aucklanders would want to see more Aucklanders on that panel because this is about our lives and this is about our neighbourhood. And as parochial as that view may be it is rightly so because we are talking about Auckland now and in the many many years ahead. When the Government members got up last night and crowed about this bill being a bill that provides Aucklanders with the ability to share their views the Hon Phil Goff said it was a cock-up and that is what it is. It reminds me of a Samoan saying: “E fiu lava e nana le tamaimoa i lalo o le tanoa ae ioio mai lava.” meaning that the hen could attempt with all her might to cover up the little chickens but we will hear the little chickens making their noise. We know they are there. So as much as that Government attempts to try to cover up its cock-up and cover its mistakes we all know—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): No no. Order! I know that the member is using fowl analogies but that expression is not one that can be used.Su’a WILLIAM SIO: The point I wanted to make is that this Government continues to try to cover up the mistakes it has made but we know—Aucklanders know—that this is a consistent pattern of an incompetent Government that attempts to rush things in and attempts to prevent Aucklanders from having a view and the mistakes have revealed themselves in this House.