Carter John:  
Carter John:  
[Volume:654;Page:57] 
Hon JOHN CARTER (Associate Minister of Local Government) 
: 
 I point out to the Committee that the previous speaker is the Opposition’s lead speaker; that is the best it can do. That must be a disappointment for everybody for a start. I draw the Committee’s attention to two points. There are a couple of things we need to tell the Committee that are actually quite important. This silly issue of all the Auckland councils suddenly losing their power is just nonsense. Nothing changes; nothing changes there. The first point is that the powers exist until they go out of existence after the local body elections in 2010. The second point to remember is that if members care to read the bill they will see that the Auckland Transition Agency may review if it wishes to. But the fact is that provided local government in Auckland has gone through its long-term council community plans put in the things that it intends to do told the public and consulted them and raised the rates to fund it then it will be permitted to carry on doing it because that is exactly what it is expected to do. 
As I was explaining to one of Labour’s former colleagues Richard Northey this morning we are not worried about the councils continuing to spend money as they have in the past and as the people expect them to. What we do not want is the Auckland City Council suddenly deciding it will spend $1 million on putting up a statue for Richard Northey. We do not think that would be a wise expenditure of ratepayers’ money. Therefore the transition committee will be vetting that sort of decision if it is made. Quite honestly it is unlikely that the local authorities in Auckland will make that sort of decision. It is very likely that there will be very little interference from the Auckland Transition Agency; nevertheless we do need to make sure that for example local authorities are not out there using ratepayers’ money to ensure that they were not misleading the public on issues in relation to this bill as they have been doing up to date. The transition agency is there just to ensure the ratepayers are protected. Surely even the Opposition would want that to happen. 
The second point I want to draw to the Committee’s attention which I think is quite important and I thought the Opposition might think so too is clause 36 which relates to employees. I would have thought that one of the points of concern of members on that side of the Chamber—because the members on this side of the Chamber do care—would be the 6000 people who will be affected by this. We are concerned because it will be an unsettling time for them. We do actually care although the Opposition does not. One of the reasons why we want to get this bill through as rapidly as we can is so that they can find out exactly what will happen and then they can get on with their lives. I would have thought that is not a bad thing to do. I would have thought that looking after somebody and saying that although we know it is an unsettling time we will give them some certainty as rapidly as we can—we want to move this through as quickly as possible so that they can look to their future and make decisions around what happens to them as individual employees. Of course we do care about that sort of thing. Clause 36 is in the bill to make sure that happens. 
I would have thought that everyone in New Zealand and particularly the Opposition with its socialist background would be worried about individuals but obviously those members are not. Members do not seem to be worried about them. It is quite strange that Rodney Hide and I and others have to be the ones expressing concern on behalf of the employees of the existing councils. The things that do matter are that we are putting in place this transition so that when the new council is elected in 2010 it will not walk into something and then have to set it up. We will have something that will be able to function immediately. Obviously there will still be some decisions for it to make but the transition committee will put a lot of that structure in place before the 2010 local body elections. It will ensure that there is no misuse of ratepayers’ money between now and those elections. Surely to goodness on behalf of the ratepayers the Opposition should think that is not a bad idea. I would have thought that looking after the employees of those organisations was pretty important. Those are the things that this transition agency which is provided for in Part 3 does.