Roche Denise: Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Roche Denise: Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 27 November 2012. Volume:686;Page:6820. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
DENISE ROCHE (Green) 
: 
 The Greens will be opposing Part 2 of the Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill—we will be opposing the bill in total actually—and I rise to support Eugenie Sage’s Supplementary Order Paper 159 which calls for the existing arrangements for the amalgamation of local authorities to remain. 
What we are seeing with this bill and what we are seeing with this part of the bill as well is unprecedented meddling by central government in local government. We have seen it time and time again since National took power. What it is about is wresting control and assets from local authorities all over the country. We have seen it in Canterbury. We have seen that forced amalgamation in Auckland as well. So this Government is not content with limiting the purpose of local government by removing the four well-beings which also limits the rights and abilities of councils to set their own course for their ratepayers. It is also not content with increasing the power of the Crown to interfere and intervene in the business of local government. It is also not content to limit even the ability of local authorities to set their own staff numbers and to interfere with local government’s ability to be a good employer and basically set councils up for a whole contracting-out culture. Not content with all that this Government also wants to remove democracy the ability of local citizens and ratepayers to determine whether they want to amalgamate their council with another. It removes the right to vote and replaces it with a petition. 
It says in the report that came back for the second reading of this bill: “The bill is intended to streamline local authority reorganisation procedures give the Local Government Commission more flexibility to develop reorganisation proposals put forward by individuals organisations or communities and make it easier and faster for proposals to proceed.” I said in my previous speech that the faster you go the bigger the mess and we have certainly seen that in Auckland with the forced amalgamation there and the removal of democracy that occurred around the amalgamation. It certainly has meant that people in our communities in Auckland have quite a lot of resentment towards central government because of this interfering and meddlesome approach that it is taking. 
Local government is at the heart of communities. It is where local democracy happens. It happens far more there than it does in these hallowed halls. The intent of the transitional arrangements around amalgamations is clear. It is about forcing amalgamations. Who are those organisations that can propose an amalgamation? Who would that be? Would that be organisations with vested interests? In Canterbury would it be Federated Farmers if they are unhappy about the water and the water plan? These are not issues that this Government should be forcing on to communities all across New Zealand. We will be supporting Eugenie Sage’s Supplementary Order Paper which goes back to the status quo in the way that reorganisation proposals are handled and we would urge everyone across the Chamber to do that. Thank you.