Sage Eugenie: Local Government (Auckland Council) Amendment Bill (No 2) — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSage Eugenie: Local Government (Auckland Council) Amendment Bill (No 2) — First Reading[Sitting date: 02 July 2013. Volume:691;Page:11490. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]EUGENIE SAGE (Green):Tēnā koutou tēnā tātou e huihui mai nei ki roto i te Whare. Thank you. The Green Party is pleased to support this short relatively uncontroversial and technical bill the Local Government (Auckland Council) Amendment Bill (No 2)—in what will be a very short call—because it does allow the 21 local boards in Auckland to continue to delegate some of their powers duties and responsibilities that the principal Act the Local Government (Auckland Council) Act 2009 gives to them.The boards cover the area from Franklin to Rodney. These powers of delegation have been in place since the super-city was established in 2009. They are currently set out as other speakers have noted in transitional regulations but it is certainly preferable that the powers be in primary legislation which this House and the public through the select committee process can scrutinise. That is one reason to support the bill.It obviously needs to be supported too because if the boards are going to continue to operate effectively these powers of delegation need to continue whether it is the boards delegating to a member of the board a subcommittee or a staff member from the Auckland Council.It is worth looking at the purpose of the boards that was established under the 2009 Act and that is: “enabling democratic decision making by and on behalf of communities within the local board area;”—similar to local government—and at the time “better enabling the promotion of the social economic environmental and cultural well-being of communities within the local board area in the present and for the future.” But of course that second purpose got stripped out when the Government changed the Local Government Act last year. So now the boards have a rather circular second purpose of “better enabling the purpose of local government to be given effect to within the local board area.” rather than that promotion of community well-being. It is interesting that the Auckland Council has asked for and drafted this bill. The Government has listened. But last year when councils were asking that the four well-beings stay in the Local Government Act the Government did not listen.But going back to the bill the boards can delegate any of their powers and responsibilities except for a number that are set out in clause 5 which inserts new section 31A into the principal Act. They are not allowed to delegate the duty to identify and communicate the interests and preferences of the people in their local board area in relation to the content of plans and strategies. That is quite an important restriction on the powers of delegation because the boards’ powers include preparing local board plans which set out the key projects and programmes that the board is proposing and the key spending priorities and of course these local board plans influence the development of Auckland Council’s long-term plan. This is quite a crucial area of engagement with the community so it is entirely appropriate that the powers not be delegated. I hope in my next call on the next reading we will get a bit more time. Thank you.