Robertson Grant: Local Government (Auckland Reorganisation) Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Robertson Grant: Local Government (Auckland Reorganisation) Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:654;Page:3624] 
GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to take a call on new Part 11 which establishes the Auckland Transition Agency Review Commission. The Leader of the House in relation to the first speech given on this part by the Hon George Hawkins said it was bureaucracy gone mad. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: He’d know! 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
: He would know about that I say to Mr Hughes because since being in office the National Government has established 36 review committees. Most of them have been set up by Mr Brownlee who is trying to review what he knows about the energy sector. Unfortunately he does not know a lot so he has had to establish 36 review committees. 
This particular review commission has been established for a very very good reason: National has pushed this bill through Parliament under urgency denying Aucklanders the right to have a proper democratic process. In the light of that and of the fact that last night we sat in this Chamber and established without a select committee process an agency that would be responsible for $28 billion of assets and for 6000 people’s jobs we need a review commission. This is a serious amendment and a serious new part because this Government has decided that Aucklanders should not have a say about the transition to a super-city. It has tried to push that through without any input at this important stage in the process. A review commission as established under Part 11 would be able to let Aucklanders have a say. 
We see very clearly when we look at this part that the review commission will be established on a far fairer basis than that of the transition agency it will seek to review. If we note the membership of the Auckland Transition Agency Review Commission we realise it will consist of the chair of the commission and five commissioners. We noted in the debate last night Part 3 that clause 11(1) states: “The Transition Agency must have a governing body consisting of a chairperson and no fewer than 2 but no more than 4 other members appointed by the Minister.” There we go; we will finally have a sufficient number of people to look at this matter properly. 
I now turn to how those people will be appointed. For the review commission we have an appointment process that will involve a range of people. It will involve people such as the Prime Minister the Minister of Local Government the Minister of Maori Affairs and the Attorney-General; they will all be involved in the appointment of the commissioners. That is unlike the Auckland Transition Agency where one person will appoint the members of the governing board and that one person is the Hon Rodney Hide. 
The Hon Rodney Hide said that the Auckland Transition Agency will be responsible for a rationalisation of governance arrangements in the Auckland area. Members on this side of the Chamber know very well what Mr Hide and his ACT Party friends believe is a rationalisation of services. It is not about making them more efficient and it is not about making them effective; it is about cutting and slashing them. That is the agenda. It is about privatising assets taking them away from the people of Auckland taking them away from the people of New Zealand and returning them to Mr Hide’s mates. That is why in this part we are asking for a review commission to be appointed in a way that will reflect a wider set of interests than the narrow ideological interests of Rodney Hide. We are certain that when Auckland people see a review commission established in this way they will know they are getting a proper review of arrangements for Auckland governance rather than the sham of democracy that we have seen from members on the other side of the Chamber. 
I also want to refer to another reason why the review commission is vitally important. Clause 13(1)(b) of Part 3 which we passed last night states that the transition agency will have the ability to look at and review every single item on the agenda of a meeting of an existing local government organisation during the transition period. If that is not the action of the nanny State I do not know what is. Every single item down to the toilet rolls and the stationery of a local government organisation in Auckland will be reviewed by the transition agency. What kinds of decisions will we get in that environment? We need to be able to review those decisions and ensure that Aucklanders have a proper say about what is happening to their local government organisation. The transition agency is a sham from the Government.