Hide Rodney: Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill — Second Reading 
Hide Rodney: Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:663;Page:11392] 
Hon RODNEY HIDE (Minister of Local Government) 
: 
 I move  
That the Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill be now read a second time 
. This bill completes the legislative framework that will define the new Auckland Council and unite the region with one mayor and an efficient effective single council. 
We can be proud of Auckland with its natural beauty a jewel of a harbour and its wonderful ethnic and cultural diversity. Auckland is already a strong international city but it is also New Zealand local government’s greatest tragedy. The region has fragmented governance confused responsibilities and limited accountability for the resulting gridlock. Wellington has crippled Auckland for 100 years. Michael Joseph Savage recognised the problem back in 1919 calling for a unification of the region’s disparate councils. It has taken nearly 100 years for Wellington to set Auckland free from the bureaucratic mess that has for so long stagnated Auckland’s progress. 
Last year this Parliament began the process of reform by passing two Acts setting out the Government’s high-level decisions for Auckland. The Local Government (Tamaki Makaurau Reorganisation) Act 2009 and the Local Government (Auckland Council) Act 2009 laid out the high-level framework for the structure of the new Auckland Council. The Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill we are now considering is an omnibus bill that builds on those previous two Auckland governance Acts considered by the House last year. 
The scope of the change to be achieved is significant and it is complex. Multiple organisations are to be disestablished and their staff and assets moved into new or different organisations. The planning and rating systems of 8 councils are to be integrated into one unified system by 2012. Local boards are to be established and integrated into the council’s planning and decision-making systems. The bill provides a governance framework for the council-controlled organisations to ensure they achieve the regional effectiveness of operation that these governance reforms demand. It also provides a mechanism to complete the rationalisation of existing council-controlled organisations in Auckland. The bill establishes Auckland Transport and the Waterfront Development Agency and makes further provision for Watercare Services Ltd. It also provides mechanisms to enhance Maori Pacific and ethnic participation in council processes and decision-making. 
Setting up the new council is a huge job. The Auckland Transition Agency under the stewardship of executive chairman Mark Ford is doing a world-class job. The Royal Commission on Auckland Governance estimated the total cost of its proposed reforms to be $120 to $240 million across 4 years. The Government has gone further than the royal commission recommended yet the transition cost is expected to be $94 million with the transition to be achieved in less than half the expected time. The transition funding of $94 million is a loan from the Government to the Auckland Transition Agency and it will be repaid by the Auckland Council by 1 November 2011. 
To put the transition expenditure into context I tell the House that local government in the Auckland region will spend more than $2000 million this year and it has a total asset base of more than $27000 million. The total cost of the transition and the information technology work before 1 November will amount to just 0.3 percent of the new council’s total assets. I will repeat that: the total cost of the transition and the information technology work before 1 November will amount to just 0.3 percent of the new council’s total assets. 
The Auckland Governance Legislation Committee has worked long and hard analysing submissions on the bill and I am very pleased with the constructive recommendations the committee has brought back to the House. As well as thanking the committee for its work I thank each person and organisation that made a submission. The bill as reported back reflects those submissions and is a stronger more robust bill as a result. I especially thank the chair of the select committee my colleague the Hon John Carter who did an outstanding job; my fellow MPs on the select committee; and the select committee staff especially Edward Siebert and Vathani Shivanandan. I must thank the staff of the Department of Internal Affairs for its support to the committee and particularly Caroline Taylor and John Sutton for the long hours of hard work and the quality advice they provided to the committee. I also thank the Parliamentary Counsel Office staff especially Leeanne O’Brien and the officials from the many other departments who contributed to the legislative process overall. 
The councils of Auckland both the elected representatives and the council staff and chief executives also have my gratitude. Their experience and their wisdom in dealing with amalgamation issues has been and will continue to be invaluable. They have worked with the transition agency with the best interests of Auckland and Aucklanders to the fore. That has made me proud and I think it has done Auckland very very proud. 
I am pleased with the result of the select committee process which has successfully addressed community concerns boosted transparency and made constructive changes and that is exactly what New Zealand democracy is all about. The committee recommends and the Government agrees that the bill should be amended to provide that the initial allocation of the non-regulatory decision-making responsibilities identified for local boards by the Auckland Transition Agency be given legal status. The Auckland Transition Agency allocations which have been prepared in consultation with Auckland councils and citizens will be published before the October local body elections and will stand until the new council adopts its own long-term council community plan for the period beginning 1 July 2012. The amendment will allow the new council to add to the responsibilities of local boards but—and this is important—not to reduce those responsibilities without full consultation with citizens in the course of developing the council’s first long-term council community plan in 2012. 
Council-controlled organisations also drew a lot of attention from the committee and the committee has addressed concerns over accountability by boosting the transparency of these bodies to levels not seen anywhere else in New Zealand local government. The Auckland Council will now appoint the chair and deputy chair of each council-controlled organisation including Auckland Transport and can remove council-controlled organisation directors from day one. The Auckland Council now must also have a council-controlled organisation accountability policy can require council-controlled organisations to report quarterly rather than half-yearly and in a first require them to have their meetings open to the public. Council-controlled organisations again including Auckland Transport will be subject to the council’s long-term and other strategic plans. To put it simply Auckland Council’s control over its substantive council-controlled organisations is now significantly greater than that of any other council in New Zealand. 
This Government wants to see an Auckland that is united that is prosperous and that is dynamic in every sense—economically culturally socially and ethnically. We will now have a city that all New Zealanders can be proud of and a city with world-class infrastructure that our children and our grandchildren will choose as a place in which to live to work and to play. I commend this bill to the House.