Williams Andrew: Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Williams Andrew: Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 27 November 2012. Volume:686;Page:6836. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
ANDREW WILLIAMS (NZ First) 
: 
 This afternoon and this evening have reminded me of an experience I had in the mid-1980s when I visited East Germany. When you went through Checkpoint Charlie and you went to East Berlin you saw in those days that there was a total absence of democracy. It was a sterile dull grey faceless society where the people had no say and people had no rights. It was all done by a handful of people back in some sort of a bunker in East Berlin. They lived their lives in misery. When I look at this bill the Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill and I look at Parts 1 to 3 and what is proposed here it is almost like this country is moving into the realm of where some of those Eastern bloc countries were 20-odd years ago. 
You wonder how they have come about this when they themselves admit that they know nothing. Rodney Hide when he was the Minister of Local Government came to an Auckland Mayoral Forum meeting. He sat with the mayors of Auckland and he said “I don’t know anything about local government. You’re going to have to help me through here. You’re going to have to work with me because I really don’t know what I’m doing. So to the mayors please work with me and help us through this.” That was after having released a 34-page report that overruled an 800-page report from the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance which had something like 30 international advisers and spent nearly $5 million preparing an extensive report on how Auckland would be restructured. Within 9 days of that Royal Commission report being released having taken a year and a half to prepare the Minister of Local Government at the time Rodney Hide threw it out and replaced it with a 34-page photocopied handout to say that this was how local government in New Zealand was going to work. Right up the back of Rodney Hide pulling the strings like a puppet were John Key with his hand up one side and Nick Smith with his hand up the other side. They were both manipulating him. Rodney was the puppet and he was doing their bidding. 
It was very interesting because prior to that when they announced what they were going to do I was called to the Prime Minister’s electorate office in Helensville to be given a pre-briefing. He called each of the mayors. Bob Harvey turned up first I was asked second and— 
The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch) 
: Order! We are on a bill and the member must tie it back to clauses 1 2 and 3. 
ANDREW WILLIAMS 
: OK well clause 3 talks about the powers and roles of the mayors and how they are going to change local government so that the mayors will have far more executive powers in this country and can basically take on their councils and do what they want to do. John Key said to me sitting in his electorate office that this is what they were going to do. I said “Oh so John is this along the lines of your member’s bill of 2005-06? You always planned to do this anyway.” He looked at me. He looked shocked because I had outed him. He looked at Jonathan Coleman sitting beside him. Jonathan Coleman was sitting right there and John said “What is he talking about?”. Jonathan said “Oh you remember your member’s bill? It never got picked from the ballot but we don’t need to worry about that.” But basically I outed— 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. You asked the member to bring his comments back within the context of clauses 1 2 and 3. The member asserted that clause 3 deals with the mayoral powers. Clauses 1 2 and 3 only cover— 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: This is a debating point. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: No it is not. It is a matter of what the content is that we are debating. We are debating the title— 
The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch) 
: I thank the member. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: That’s a debating point. Sit down. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch) 
: That is not necessary. [ 
Interruption 
] Order! I am on my feet. To Andrew Williams I mentioned before that you must tie in the piece of legislation we are dealing with now clauses 1 2 and 3. You have got 1 minute remaining. 
ANDREW WILLIAMS 
: It boils back down talking about clauses 1 2 and 3 to the fact that basically this Government knows very little about local government. Is it not interesting that tonight Paul Goldsmith Nikki Kaye Michael Woodhouse and Maggie Barry—twice—have all tried to close down the debate and have it stopped? What does that say to you about democracy in this country? What does it say to you that half of the National Party members who have spoken tonight have either said nothing or tried to close down the debate? I say to New Zealanders out there listening to this debate tonight is this the democracy you want to live in where all they want to do is close down the debate? Those members do not want to hear about what is happening. They do not want to hear about local government’s concerns. They do not want to hear the likes of Lawrence Yule a good National Party mayor from Hastings who is saying that this is wrong this is not good for New Zealand and this is not good for this country. Unfortunately what we are faced with here is a situation of local government being undermined in this country—undermined by former Minister of Local Government Rodney Hide undermined by the current Minister David Carter and undermined by the next Minister of Local Government Nick Smith.