Hawkins George: Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill — In Committee 
Hawkins George: Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:663;Page:11496] 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS (Labour—Manurewa) 
: 
 I want to comment on the speech made by the member for Hunua Paul Hutchison. He said the Government has been listening to people but of course it has not because he has had to put an amendment up in his own name. If a Government member has to put an amendment up in his own name that means no one is listening to that member at caucus. Paul Hutchison talked about the vegetable growers in Pukekohe. Well he is a wee bit like the vegetable growers in Pukekohe: sometimes very very wet; at other times dry. I think that people out there are finding that a bit hard to work out. 
The Opposition wants the Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill to be as good as it can be. We know that the whole concept that the Government has embarked on does not go down well with Aucklanders so I have lodged some amendments to the Government bill. My amendments provide that every council-controlled organisation will need to be open to the public. This is what I am proposing in my amendments. There is no discrimination from members on this side of the Chamber. We do not think just three Supplementary Order Papers should be out in the open; we think all the amendments put up by members should. The council-controlled organisations should have to hold at least two meetings a year. What is more those meetings should be held at the most critical times when accountability and interaction with the public and local boards are needed. One should be held when the statement of corporate intent is to be signed off and the other at the time of the annual general meeting of council-controlled organisations when their directors have to report on how well the organisations have performed. The shareholders and the people of Auckland should be given the opportunity to attend and hopefully to make their views well known. I think that if these amendments are adopted by the Government it will give people a greater degree of confidence. 
But of course that does not solve all the problems that people have. We have a situation where the Opposition really wants to try to help with regard to this legislation but on the other side of the Chamber the Government members sit looking like stunned mullets. 
Dr Rajen Prasad 
: More like dead ones. 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: Well yes they are; they are not a very lively lot. 
We have in Auckland something that I think is very good and that we can be proud of: the mayors of Auckland who are getting on with their jobs at the moment. I think that is very important. We have people like Bob Harvey who has been around for some time and is still endeavouring to make sure that the people of his area are being well served. I imagine he does not think that they will be better served when the new super-city comes in. There are John Banks and Len Brown. Len Brown the Mayor of Manukau is getting out in the community and doing marvellous things. Calum Penrose is the Mayor of Papakura District. I do not think his council is up to much but he is the sort of person who gets out and keeps an eye on his community. He is a community leader and that is what will be lost when we have the super-city. Instead of there being one mayor who has to look after 1.4 million people Calum is able to look after 50000 people in his area very well. Then there is Mayor Mark Ball who would have been amazed to hear what the member for Hunua said previously because it did not bear any resemblance to the real situation. Of course there is also Mayor Andrew Williams who is quite controversial and Mayor Penny Webster. The mayors are all trying to do their best. Penny Webster a former ACT member has actually started to think that maybe the Labour Party is not too bad.