Wall Louisa: Local Government (Auckland Transitional Provisions) Amendment Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWall Louisa: Local Government (Auckland Transitional Provisions) Amendment Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 19 November 2015. Volume:710;Page:8330. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]LOUISA WALL (Labour—Manurewa): Kia ora Mr Deputy Speaker. Thank you very much for the opportunity to contribute in this the third reading of the Local Government (Auckland Transitional Provisions) Amendment Bill. As a member of Parliament in the Auckland area for Manurewa I just want to note that this process has been created in lieu of having council-appointed commissioners who would have in fact gone through what would be an engagement with the over 13000 people who chose to participate in the formation of an Auckland Unitary Plan. So I want to acknowledge all the people who took the time—all those Aucklanders; people who live in Tāmaki-makau-rau—and who through their submissions identified 93600 requests and there were over 1.4 million points registered in the 13200 submissions.For me this bill has to be about local people having and creating an opportunity for their city to have a vision and for us it is about Auckland being the most livable city so any critique of this piece of legislation has to be about ensuring the voice of local people continues to be heard throughout this process. Those local communities have to be Māori and those local communities and local voices have to be Pacific they have to be Asian and they have to be representative of the people who live in Tāmaki-makau-rau.When I look at this piece of legislation one of the things that strikes me about it particularly in Part 1 is the expedited processes but also the additional I guess power that this hearings panel has by virtue of this piece of legislation to actually produce recommendations that have not come from submissions. I find that incredibly undermining of a system that is all about local people having a say in their local community—about Aucklanders coming together and developing a vision in a unitary plan for our city that we want to take into the future.This has been about building a consensus of a vision for Auckland and what I see in this piece of legislation is actually an opportunity for people on the hearings panel who are appointed by the Government—so the Minister for the Environment and the Minister of Conservation—who actually may not have the best interests of Aucklanders in hand. If we had looked at having a traditional process and those commissioners had been appointed by the council then there would have been a relationship and an expectation that anything that those commissioners did would have at the heart of it what is in the best interests of Auckland and the vision that the governors of Auckland have. So in preparing for my contribution I did speak to councillor Alf Filipaina and I do want to acknowledge the Auckland councillors who have had many hours of consultation in and with our communities about what they are trying to achieve.Whether or not this piece of legislation is going to create something that everyone can be unified around we will see in time. So what I am really interested in is that this process is going to produce a report and some recommendations by 22 July 2016. That is why we were in urgency and why we are now trying to pass this piece of legislation—it is to meet that deadline.So what I want to be really clear about in the process going forward is that that is not the end of the process. In fact that report and those recommendations will go to Auckland Council and then it will be up to Auckland Council and our elected representatives as to whether or not we accept the recommendations that the hearings panel will provide. By September next year it will be the elected representatives of Auckland—it will be the people of Auckland—who actually have the final say about our Auckland Unitary Plan. I think that is really important to put on the record—that there is still an opportunity for local communities and for local people through their local councils to ensure that this process actually upholds our voice. Kia ora.