Kedgley Sue: Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill — First Reading 
Kedgley Sue: Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:654;Page:3740] 
SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
: 
 I also start by expressing the gratitude of the Green Party to all the staff in Parliament who have kept the place going over the last few days. I hope they understand that it was a protest. It was a protest against the slashing and gutting of democracy in Auckland and against the profoundly undemocratic way in which this far-reaching bill—which will obliterate layers of democracy in Auckland—was whacked through this House without any ability for the people of Auckland to have select committee hearings or to be consulted in any way. I hope the staff of Parliament and the people of New Zealand understand that that is what it was about: it was a protest. What did the Government expect us to do? Did it expect us just to stand by while this Draconian legislation was being rammed through the House? 
Rodney Hide has been very chipper since the dinner break. He has been very very chipper bouncing up and interjecting and looking incredibly pleased with himself—and why would he not? He has pulled off a coup—in fact it is a coup d’état. He has justified his being the Minister of Local Government. No doubt the ACT Party will have contributions rolling into its coffers from people who will be deeply grateful for what he has done and who will be rubbing their hands together as they envisage the $28 billion worth of assets that will eventually be privatised in a year or two and that they will be able to get their hands on. Of course the people of the Auckland Citizens and Ratepayers Association are gearing themselves up all over Auckland even as we speak and are looking forward to the day next November when they hope they can take over the council of the super-city of Auckland and unleash their agenda on the people of Auckland. So a lot of people are very grateful to Rodney Hide—or at least a lot of business people are. But I think that once what has happened here sinks in Aucklanders will not be grateful at all. I think there will be a major backlash when they realise what a coup d’état Rodney Hide has pulled off using the classic techniques of Rogernomics. 
National is now pretending that it will go out and consult after pulling off the coup d’état after setting up the super-city and after wiping out eight democratically elected councils. The Government is now telling Aucklanders not to worry because it will go out and consult it will set up a committee and it will listen to the people of Auckland. The only trouble is what is the Government going to listen to them talk about. What is there left to consult about? The whole thing has been set in place. There is one aspect left to consult about—the power of the local boards. The super-city is in place; it is ready to be taken over by John Banks who will be the next tsar of Auckland. We hope he will not be as David Cunliffe said but that is the possibility that we need to face up to. He will have unlimited mayoral powers that no other mayor in Auckland will have. The only counterbalance to the power of the mayor who will completely control the super-city will be the local boards. 
Let us look at the legislation to see what the local boards are. The first thing that one notices in the legislation is that it states that a local board is not a local authority. I will repeat that: “A local board is not a local authority”. What is it then? It is an “unincorporated body”. That is what those local boards are and they have no powers at all in the legislation. The only powers they will have will be delegated by the super-council. So the super-council may decide to delegate some piffling little powers or it may decide not to delegate anything. The bill then says that there will be four to nine members on each of the boards. We were told in a briefing that the board members will be paid $10000 each. Those people will represent about 70000 people. The people of Manukau are going to find themselves with instead of their city council—which as far as I know most of the residents of Manukau are very very satisfied with—two councillors on the Auckland super-city council and a piffling little board with four members which is an unincorporated body. They will not have even a local authority. 
And what will these local boards do? They will have absolutely no resources and no power. The local boards will not be able to hire staff. They will not be able to own anything. They will not be able to levy rates borrow money make by-laws or develop plans. What will these boards do? They will do absolutely nothing. I say to Mr Hide that this is not local democracy; this is a pathetic joke. The Government has also got rid of the Maori seats which were one of the best recommendations of the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance. What an outrage that the Government would simply obliterate the Maori seats. 
I warn Aucklanders that the consultation that we are now going to embark on having set the whole thing up will be—I am afraid to say—a completely pointless exercise. As everyone knows a select committee is completely pointless if the Government has already made up its mind. Let us make no mistake: the Government has made up its mind. I say to Aucklanders: “Do not be conned.” Nevertheless I still urge all Aucklanders who understand what is going on here to make their voices heard and to protest at the select committee because there will not be anything else to do at the committee hearings apart from perhaps talking about the powers of the pitiful toothless impotent local boards. I encourage those people to turn up nevertheless because as the Prime Minister said in this House every Aucklander who wishes to be heard by this select committee will be heard. I urge people even though it is too late to get out there and make their voices heard. 
I predict that this super-city is not going to bring about any savings at all and I am really worried about that. The international research that has been done shows that none of these forced amalgamations—because that is what this is—none of these super-cities has ever delivered any savings. Most of them have come out and estimated savings; of course Rodney Hide has refused to tell this House whether there will be any savings at all. Some super-cities promised 18 percent savings and they eventually saved maybe 1 or 2 percent. 
The super-city will disenfranchise whole Auckland communities. There will be a backlash against it and it will not solve any of the so-called problems of Auckland. The problems of Auckland do not relate to its structure. This whole debate has been about structure. The problems people have with local government are things like the phoney consultation and the lack of accountability and transparency. None of those problems will be solved by this super-city. 
The people of Auckland are going to wake up and find that they have this huge bloated remote inaccessible super-city which will be a bit like a supertanker and they will not be able to access it or influence it. The super-city will have $28 billion of assets and it will be a huge mega-city—one of the biggest in the Western World. The irony is that most places—for example the United Kingdom—are going in exactly the opposite direction. These places have worked out that big super-cities do not work. They are not flexible. They are not able to deal with the problems of local democracy. So they are going in exactly the opposite direction. They are setting up local councils that are smaller and are genuinely close to the people. 
I predict that New Zealand will have a big bloated super-city for a few years and then we will work out that it has been a complete disaster and a huge waste of money and that far from solving the problems and the alleged parochialism of Auckland the super-city has only unleashed resentment and disempowerment. In a few years’ time we will go back to what we had before.