Hawkins George: Budget Debate 
Hawkins George: Budget Debate 
[Volume:647;Page:16479] 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS (Labour—Manurewa) 
: 
 I start by congratulating Kate Wilkinson—there is a person who has actually told the truth. We can compare her with some of the front-benchers on the other side members such as Maurice Williamson. 
Ron Mark 
: The tired and the restless. 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: Well the statue of King Dick outside Parliament does a lot more than Maurice Williamson does. We have the young David Carter; he is only as good as the seagull sitting on King Dick’s head. Then there is Anne Tolley the education spokesperson. All those people are on the front bench. I see “Dr Paul” Hutchison over there. He should be on the front bench. He does not work—I know that. But what happens is that National has poor old Maurice Williamson on the front bench. But why? He is no use whatsoever. 
Today in this Budget debate I want to talk mainly about a wonderful place called Manurewa. Manurewa has been very fortunate in having a Labour-led Government over the last 9 years. What has happened there over the last 9 years? Well Manurewa has had two new police stations and I was the person who actually signed them off. I was very pleased to do so. Manurewa happened to get two new fire stations. Who signed those off? I did. We got a women’s prison as well. When no one else wanted it we put our hand up because we do not believe that South Aucklanders should be sent away from their community. We even have a kiddies’ jail— 
Craig Foss 
: What’s Helen trying to do with you? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: If that member keeps quiet rather than sitting there being Johnny Appleseed he might find something out today. 
Craig Foss 
: Maurice Williamson is a very good electorate MP. 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: Stop him cursing Maurice Williamson! Maurice does not do anything; he is probably asleep right now. 
Then Manurewa got a new secondary school. And what else did the Government give us? It gave us lots of new classrooms in Manurewa. A little later on I want to talk about some of my schools. 
One of the things the Government has said that I really like is that there is to be a royal commission on the future of Auckland’s governance. You see I believe that somehow local authorities have become out of control. One has only to look back to an article in the  
Sunday Star-Times 
 about staff numbers. In 2001 Manukau City Council had 792 jobs. Now in 2006 it has 1050. That is a 32.5 percent increase. The salary bill went from $40.3 million in 2001 to $69.4 million—a 72 percent increase. But it is worse than that. Do members think that that means more staff to do more work? No it means more consultants as well. What has happened is that the council has increased its spending on consultants by 120 percent—a cost rise from $9 million to $20 million. That is the sort of thing that I think is pretty shocking. 
I want to talk about the council about the way it is spending its money and about the way it is charging its ratepayers. You see I believe there has to be a vertical integration of Auckland’s regional water industry. Right now the wholesaler Watercare Services collects the water in its dams stores it and distributes it to the retailers including Manukau Water for 45c per 1000 litres. But what does Manukau City Council charge its customers? $1.20! So all of a sudden the charge has gone from 45c to $1.20. By comparison with Watercare Services the council has only to continue to distribute the water through the pipes; Manukau City Council is ripping off its own people. I think that that is something everyone should be aware of. 
I want people to know that I believe that Manukau City Council does some fairly good stuff but there are problems it is not facing up to. There is a rail spur going to Manukau but now it will not be going the full way. The council has decided to save a whack of money which some media have reported as being about $10 million. It is very interesting that that amount seems to be about the same amount that the council is spending on doing up the council building. In these hard times that is not very good. 
When Manukau has had problems the community has tried to deal with them. The council has tried to deal with some of the problems. The council of course wanted to make sure it could get rid of graffiti and I was happy to take a local bill through the House for the council. I am pleased to say that the bill received very good support. 
I had also tried to take through an earlier bill for the Manukau City Council on street prostitution. It was a bill that I believed was put up by a council that was quite serious about the control of street prostitution. But what has the council done since? It now has civic-sponsored brothels in the name of public toilets in Maich Road Manurewa. I wrote to the mayor on 20 January and the council has decided that it will have a meeting about the issue. It will hand it on to the community board to deal with. If a problem is too tough the council gives it to the community board but it does not give the board any money to fix it. Community boards do not get a cent extra and they are expected to fix problems in some other way. I say to the Manukau City Council that that attitude is not good enough. I am prepared to fight for the city council. I am prepared to fight for ratepayers and other citizens but in the end the council has to take some responsibility. 
The council has now allowed a topless bar. Why does it have a topless bar? The reason is that competition to sell liquor is so strong. I think that when those sorts of things are happening we must try to do something about them. I know that when piles of liquor are collecting around and swamping the streets of Manukau something has to be done. So I have written a bill entitled Sale of Liquor (Objections to Applications) Amendment Bill and again it is focused not as a local bill but as applying to places all over New Zealand where dairies now make more money from selling booze than from selling milk. We have a situation that I think is very important and we have to deal with it. Its victims are Pacific Islanders and Maori—families in the main—because those areas are where liquor outlets operate. Outlets go to places where people do not have money and they then decide very cunningly to open up there. Well I do not think that that is very satisfactory. 
This Budget is a good Budget. The oldies love this Budget. My dear old mum God bless her loves it. She probably loves it as much as John Carter’s mother probably loves it. Mum will be able to go on the train or on the bus at off-peak times and now with a bit more money in her purse to spend at 83 she will be able to live it up. That is absolutely superb. This is a caring Government. This is a Government that really is getting on with the job. I believe that when Labour continues in office after the election people will continue to see more and more innovations. 
I seek leave to introduce the Sale of Liquor (Objections to Applications) Amendment Bill in my name despite Standing Orders 276 and 277 and for the bill to be set down for first reading. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Marian Hobbs) 
: Leave is sought to do that. Is there any objection? There is objection.