Chadwick Steve: Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill — In Committee 
Chadwick Steve: Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:657;Page:6481] 
Hon STEVE CHADWICK (Labour) 
: 
 I also want to talk about the Auckland boundaries. I come from the Bay of Plenty and we proudly set up a Bay of Plenty hub. We had a great meeting with Phil Goff and the mayors of the region and we talked about the super-city because every region in the country is starting to ponder it. It was very clear from the democratic leaders of our region that we want to have a say. The good people of the Bay of Plenty want to have a say on what the correct and appropriate boundaries are if local government reform extends after the Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill. I told those mayors they could bet their bottom dollar the reforms would extend to the Bay of Plenty. Rodney Hide will not stop as the Minister of Local Government. After the Auckland super-city legislation he will move out into the regions. I told them it was time we got together so we can design our own future. 
When we look at the boundary issue in this bill we see what a botch-up has been made. It has caused concern and anxiety. People are marching on the streets because they know what is right for them and that the lines drawn on the map are simply wrong. Those lines are stupid and it took leaders in the community like Mike Lee from the Auckland Regional Council to say how ridiculous it is to manage the natural assets of the region by separating off an area from the Auckland region and saying we could manage it as one. It was great to see people like Mike Lee stand up and fight the good fight about boundary changes. We can be sure that members around the country from different regions are telling the Government that Rodney Hide who is a coalition partner and the Minister of Local Government outside of Cabinet is wielding such power of influence over the National Government—the tail is wagging the dog—that he will extend his fingers down into the rest of New Zealand and will tell them what to do. He will go out there and say that the Government is listening and that the door is always open and John Key will bounce around behind him and say that his door is also always open and the Government is listening to the good people. But the Government has drawn the lines on the map. 
Government members think they know best how local bodies want to manage their own communities of interest and the regional council configuration of local authorities. They have got it wrong in Auckland and at the last minute they changed what they originally proposed because the good people of Auckland got up and said that the Government had got it wrong. It took an eleventh-hour visit up to Rodney for a bit of deep and meaningful conversation for the Government to say it would change the boundaries and Rodney could come in. Poor old Dr Paul Hutchison really misses out. The good people of Rodney win but poor old Dr Paul who has been a fantastic member for the National Party advocating for his constituency has been trampled. The mana of the Maori Party has been trampled because the Minister who listened and knows best said there would be no Maori seats on the new Auckland super-council. He said there would be no Maori seats and no representation as he knows best. He said he will work out a mana whenua relationship; that will please everybody and then they will go away. Well the good iwi of Auckland will not go away and the iwi of New Zealand will not go away on this issue. The iwi of New Zealand will remind the Government after the 2010 local body elections that they were ignored and trampled over. 
Labour set up the Bay of Plenty Regional Council (Maori Constituency Empowering) Act that allowed three seats on the regional council. That was Mita Ririnui’s bill in 2001 and the good old Nats the way they used to let Georgina te Heuheu cross the floor because she felt strongly. But that is not the case any more; they are all muzzled. They all get up in the Chamber and rave and say they will go out into the community at community rallies and hikoi but nothing has changed. The people were not listened to. They were trampled over by the Minister in the chair Rodney Hide who dances on the head of a pin about consultation and listening and ignores the good people of Auckland. I think the rest of New Zealand needs to look very closely at this. In the next election they need to watch the power that the minority ACT Party wields over National.