Kedgley Sue: Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill — In Committee 
Kedgley Sue: Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:663;Page:11576] 
SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
: 
 My colleague David Clendon talked about the triumph of ACT in implementing its local government policy in the Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill and in other bills before our Parliament. I pulled out my file to remind people of the phenomenal success that Rodney Hide and the ACT Party have had in implementing their agenda. When I read this agenda a year or so ago I thought it sounded slightly radical and it went a little bit too far. But Rodney Hide has just about pulled off the whole lot. He said that commercial activities are best performed by the private sector and that local government should progressively shed ownership of its commercial activities. Guess what? Seventy-five percent of the Auckland bills are about local government progressively shedding ownership of its commercial activities. Let us put them all into these council-controlled organisations then get them ready for the asset sales. Local government will be required to shed its commercial activities. Roads and piped water will be supplied on a fully commercial basis. The policy to privatise the water supplies is in the next bill before us. Mr Hide has not yet come to roading but that will be around the corner. The promotion of contracting out of council services and requiring councils to focus on their core functions is included in the next bill before the House. 
It is quite extraordinary what Mr Hide has managed to achieve as Minister of Local Government. When we look at it in the wider context one of the main goals is to shrink local democracy. The great goal of right-wing parties everywhere is for Government to shrink local democracy and put as much as possible into private enterprise. What has the Minister done? He got rid of Environment Canterbury in one fell swoop. We cannot blame just him as the previous speaker Lynne Pillay said. The whole of the National Government wiped out Environment Canterbury. Those members have wiped out the Auckland Regional Council. They have wiped out seven well-functioning Auckland councils. We have water ready to be contracted out and privatised for 35 years. We have Rodney Hide’s legislation on shrinking council services. 
If we look at this bill in its wider context it is all about Rodney Hide trying to corporatise local government and shrink local democracy. In place of local councils we now have a form of state Government. We will have 20 councillors representing one-third of the population of New Zealand—1.3 million people. We are pretending that that is local government. That is a joke. With this bill we are wiping out local democracy in Auckland and replacing it with a form of state Government and we should be very very clear about that. At the same time we are siphoning out almost all of the functions of local government into council-controlled organisations these corporate entities where all the decisions will be made by unelected unaccountable directors who will be appointed by the Minister of Local Government to meet behind closed doors. Sure there will be some amendment. Twice a year people will be allowed to come in and vent their frustrations. They will be able to pound the table in frustration at the secret operations of these corporate boards but that is not democracy. 
One of the ways Aucklanders can get their revenge for this dreadful legislation is to not vote for the corporate candidate for Rodney Hide candidates or for National candidates. They should vote for the alternative for a mayor who promises that he or she will not use the extraordinary powers that no other mayor in New Zealand has to implement the corporate agenda who will seek to roll back some of the corporatisation agenda enshrined in this bill and who will give some meaning to these local boards which are comprised of four to seven members with a quorum of two. What a joke. They are just a fig leaf to try to pretend that there is some element of local democracy in what is state Government.