Prasad Rajen: Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill — In Committee 
Prasad Rajen: Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:657;Page:6547] 
Dr RAJEN PRASAD (Labour) 
: 
 We have now been debating the Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill for 13½ hours and in that time we have heard from members on the other side of the Chamber nothing but inane calls. There has hardly been a contribution of note. We should reflect that members opposite have had two salespeople spinning the same lines over and over again. It is noticeable that the tones of the Minister in the chair John Carter are now becoming a bit more dulcet. He is speaking very slowly and he tells us he is the good guy; Nikki Kaye has repeated the same speech three or four times. For several hours members opposite said nothing. For several hours they took no calls. They sat there like stunned mullets. Then they came back—[ 
Interruption 
] The member should take a call then we will know how the member feels about what we are saying. Then Government members started a series of inane calls. What did they say? 
Sandra Goudie 
: What did he have? 
Dr RAJEN PRASAD 
: If the member listens I will soon tell her exactly what they have been saying. Mr Quinn who was one of the last two speakers took another unmemorable call. Let us put his speech aside. He will go and reread the definition of “social well-being” and I will quiz him again next time we are in the Chamber. 
A few minutes ago Mr Simon Bridges dared us to name the six things we have been asking for that came out in the consultation that have not been done. Well here are at least six things. Time and time again submitters to the Auckland Governance Legislation Committee asked for Maori seats. Members opposite have not listened; they are not here. There have been some inane conversations about one person one vote but nothing has happened. That is one of the things we asked for. Then there are the advisory boards. Time and time again submitters asked for advisory boards. I notice the Minister for Ethnic Affairs has still not taken a call to answer the challenge: what is her position in terms of the ethnic communities that want to be represented that want to be on advisory boards? Pansy Wong has not taken a call to explain what her position is and neither has Mr Bakshi. He read his papers and took a break. Nothing else happened. 
The third issue is the social issues board. That has been asked for; it was there in the submissions. But what have the members opposite done about it? They have done nothing. People asked for the guaranteed protection of our assets and we have been talking about them but we hear nothing from the other side of the Chamber on the guaranteed protection of our assets which was the fourth thing. The fifth thing is to get the process right. Here are major constitutional issues yet the members opposite have done nothing about the process issue. The members say they have listened but the evidence is that the members have not listened. The select committee has brought back a report and we have told members opposite time and time again the issues we take with it. Members from this side have led a very disciplined attack on this particular bill. Every member who got up talked about at least one issue that people outside have told us is important. The sixth thing is about powers of the board. 
Any number of factors were raised by submitters throughout the weeks and months the select committee was out there. The members opposite say they have listened but they have not listened. We do not see the results of them having listened here in the document before us. If National members had listened we would not be arguing so vehemently against many of the proposals that have come back. We support the notion of fixing up the issues that come up in Auckland. But we will not compromise the interest of the people of Auckland at all. We will not simply accept the ideas that they have brought back—we will not at any cost. 
Any number of things need to be fixed in this particular bill but they have not been. We hear now the way in which this bill is being characterised in emails to us today: “Rodney Hide’s super city time bomb set to explode grassroots democracy in New Zealand’s largest city started ticking today”. If it is a time bomb it will not be long before it actually comes to fruition. The promises that were given have not been delivered on.