Twyford Phil: Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill — Second Reading 
Twyford Phil: Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:663;Page:11397] 
PHIL TWYFORD (Labour) 
: 
 Labour opposes the Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill. It puts the final bricks in a poorly designed badly constructed structure. If it was a building it would be a sick leaky building. It entrenches the undemocratic and overcentralised corporatised model that this Government is imposing on Auckland. Aucklanders asked for three things from this Government. They asked for real decision-making powers to be guaranteed to local boards. They asked the Government to stop its corporatisation agenda and not roll 75 percent of local government in Auckland into stand-alone corporations. They asked the Government not to strip away the democratic safeguards against privatisation that would more easily allow Ports of Auckland to be sold off. This Government has said no to Aucklanders. It has said no to every one of those demands that Aucklanders have made and no one can deny that. The Government has said that it has listened. Clearly it has not. 
The context is that this bill comes at the end of a 12-month period in which this Government has rammed through one of the most significant changes to our system of government in decades. It has failed to consult it has rushed the process and it has consistently made poor decisions and poor judgment calls. It is no surprise that a solid 50 percent of Aucklanders in the recent  
New Zealand Herald 
 DigiPoll did not want a bar of this Government’s super-city. 
Let us examine the claim made in recent days by the previous speaker the Hon Tau Henare and by the Minister of Local Government Rodney Hide that they have listened to the submissions to the Auckland Governance Legislation Committee and that they have listened to the people of Auckland. They do a very good impression of listening. The member for Auckland Central on the committee was up there hugging every submitter who came along to the committee and then she turned round and voted for the very things people were arguing against. John Carter whom Brian Rudman referred to as the Sancho Panza to Rodney Hide’s Don Quixote is the kindly uncle on the National benches who was put in to clean up the mess that Rodney Hide made and to soothe the nerves of Aucklanders. He does a very good impression of listening. He says that yes they hear what Aucklanders are saying and yes every submission has a gem in it. He has been promising for the last 12 months that this Government would guarantee real decision-making powers to local boards and it still has not done that. 
There is one person who does not give a very good impression of listening to the public and that is Rodney Hide the Minister of Local Government. He is the man who is single-handedly killing John Banks’ election chances. He said in the speech we just heard that he has united the region. He certainly has united the region; he has united Aucklanders in a way that they have never been united before—in opposition to his policies. The Minister hangs around the neck of this Government’s re-election chances in Auckland. 
Let us look at the three claims that I have made. The first is about council-controlled organisations which are a breathtaking imposition of the commercial model on Auckland local government. The Government is still intending to shift 75 percent of the assets and operations of Auckland local government into those council-owned companies. It has even frightened its own friends. Michael Barnett from the Auckland Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry John Banks and almost all of the elected mayors and councils in Auckland have all criticised the corporatisation model that this Government is imposing on Auckland. Let us take the transport council-controlled organisation. As my colleague George Hawkins said it will spend approximately 54 percent of Aucklanders’ rates. It is the single most important thing that Aucklanders want progress on. Four Government departments have asked for Auckland transport not to be corporatised. Why? Because it will reduce transparency and it will reduce accountability to the Auckland ratepayer. It will reduce transparency and it will reduce accountability to the Auckland ratepayer. Yet the “Minister for Ratepayers” over there—“Mr 3 Percent”—likes to say that that is what he is in the business of doing—promoting accountability and transparency. 
But why is the Government imposing a corporatised transport agency on Auckland when no other city in New Zealand has a commercialised transport agency? Why is it doing it? It is just blind ideology; there is no other explanation for it. Why does the Government not leave it to the new Auckland Council to decide whether it wants to corporatise its transport agency? Why should we not leave it to the democratically elected councillors on the new council to decide what they want to commercialise and what they want to run in-house? There is no good reason; we have not heard a persuasive justification from the Government about why it wants to impose a commercial model on 75 percent of the operations and assets of Auckland local government. There is no good reason for it. Every other council in New Zealand gets to choose so why not Auckland? Mr Hide is still appointing a majority of directors of the council-controlled organisations because he cannot wait 5 months for the people of Auckland to elect their representatives and let them make the decision. 
There is no reason why this Government could not have allowed the existing operations of Auckland to be run in the way they are reporting to the new Auckland Council on 1 November then letting the council and the mayor decide. That Minister could not keep his grubby mitts off the future shape and governance arrangements of the Auckland Council because he does not trust the people Auckland to make that decision. He cannot resist the opportunity to impose his corporatisation agenda on our country’s biggest city. Nothing in this bill requires the council-controlled organisations that will be running Auckland to have their meetings in public. There is nothing in the legislation that requires them to meet in public. Holding a press conference every 3 months running a PowerPoint presentation and publishing a glossy brochure are not my definition of accountability even if they are the definition of that Minister. Government members promised they would listen but they have insisted on ramming their council-controlled organisations and their corporatisation agenda down the throats of Aucklanders. 
The second issue that Aucklanders had been concerned about is the question of local boards. For the last 12 months this Government has been saying “Yes we have listened and we have heard.” John Carter has said “We are going to put the ‘local’ back into local government.” but the Government is continuing with its strategy of not empowering local boards. Local boards will have no regulatory powers; they will have no ability to make by-laws. No matter how many times Rodney Hide and John Carter go around town and say they can make by-laws it is simply not true. They do not have the power to make by-laws. They will have no say over the 75 percent of issues that will be under the control of council-controlled organisations. The council will have to delegate downwards but not if the matter is deemed to be better dealt with regionally. Well we could drive a truck through that out clause. 
The third issue is about privatisation. Aucklanders had made it crystal clear in the last year that they do not want their assets privatised but what is this Government doing? It repeals the provision in section 28 in the Local Government (Auckland) Amendment Act which requires a referendum before Ports of Auckland can be sold. This Government does not trust Aucklanders to make that decision on their own. Government members do not want Aucklanders to have a direct say on that the next time they and their mates try to flog off the Ports of Auckland. 
This legislation comes at the tail end of a year-long process that has been utterly corrupted by this Government which has ridden roughshod over Aucklanders. It never consulted on the findings of the royal commission. The Government put out its own proposals less than 9 days after the royal commission tabled its report. The Government rammed two bills through under urgency. It is making some of the most fundamental governance reforms this country has seen in decades but the process has been abysmal. The “Minister of Ratepayers” Rodney Hide preaches transparency and accountability but has not said a peep until this debate. After 12 months he has not said a peep about what the transition process to the unified Auckland will cost Auckland ratepayers. We heard this afternoon that it will cost $94 million. Well I want to know how much of the costs of the transition and integration process have been pushed back beyond 1 November so that Aucklanders will have to pay the price. I call on the Minister to answer this question: what is the impact on rates and on water rates? That is what Aucklanders want to know.