Twyford Phil: Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill — In Committee 
Twyford Phil: Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:663;Page:11548] 
PHIL TWYFORD (Labour) 
: 
 I want to continue from where I left off a little while ago. We are talking about local boards and on the issue of local boards we have heard more spin from the Minister of Local Government in the last year than on almost any other issue. He has talked repeatedly about putting the “local” back into local government yet out of the other side of his mouth he talks about replacing a perfectly good plan for large capable empowered councils with what are little more than community boards. He is a big-time repeat offender when it comes to spin. 
A year ago the Minister of Local Government promised that local boards would have control over dog laws brothels and liquor licensing but they do not even get that under this bill. He has never delivered on that promise. Local boards will not have any ability to make bylaws in spite of the fact that he and John Carter have been going around town saying that they will. They will not have any ability to have a significant say over things that are corporatised under the plan of this Government. Is it any wonder that the Minister of Local Government is about as popular as Mark Hotchin is in Auckland right now? 
The Minister has offended every Aucklander of almost every political persuasion—no hang on; a few ACT members in the blogosphere still support him. Not even the Minister’s own caucus members support him. Actually that is not true either—I think John Boscawen does. The Minister is an albatross hanging round the neck of John Banks’ election chances. Every time Rodney Hide appears on television John Banks’ poll rating drops a point. 
The Minister took the great idea of integrating the governance of the Auckland region and the work of a royal commission—which generated confidence and high expectations among Aucklanders and inspired them—and he turned it to dust. His dodgy rushed process and countless poor judgment calls about the future structure of Auckland have burnt off all the goodwill that existed 18 months ago. This is far from being a sound foundation on which to enact comprehensive reform of the governance of our nation’s largest city. 
I want to speak in favour of my amendment which would insert a new clause 39. It would allow the full powers of local boards to be determined by the Local Government Commission. A majority of submissions to the second bill and to this bill asked that the powers of local boards be guaranteed and enshrined in law. The  
New Zealand Herald  
has called for it. Almost every major interest group and organisation and hundreds and hundreds of individual Aucklanders have asked for this to be done but the Government in its wisdom knows better. I urge the Government to think again and guarantee the powers of local boards. 
The Government likes to talk about subsidiarity—the principle that decision making should be devolved down to the lowest practical level. But this bill and the second super-city Act is the opposite of subsidiarity. It is an incredibly weak and watered down form of subsidiarity. It is a joke. Local boards have no regulatory powers. They have no jurisdiction over the matters that are controlled by the council-controlled organisations. The council is required as a matter of principle to devolve downwards to the boards but not if it deems a particular matter or particular decision to be better made on a regional basis or if the matter that it is talking about concerns more than one local board area. That is an exception that one could drive a truck through and the people of Auckland know it. That is why they reject this Government’s plan. 
The very notion of consolidating power in the Auckland Council for a city of 1.4 million people has been premised right from the beginning right from the time the royal commission set about its work on the idea of a strong second tier with real decision-making power. This bill does not deliver that in spite of John Carter promising countless times over the last year and a half to put the “local” back into local government. This bill does not deliver it. At best local boards will have the ability to choose the colour of the carpet in the local library or to arrange the park furniture in their local park. That is not good enough.