Fitzsimons Jeanette: Local Government (Auckland Reorganisation) Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Fitzsimons Jeanette: Local Government (Auckland Reorganisation) Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:654;Page:3629] 
JEANETTE FITZSIMONS (Co-Leader—Green) 
: 
 It is very good to get a call for the Green Party after many attempts on this excellent amendment in the name of my colleague George Hawkins to insert new Part 11 which appoints a review commission for the Auckland Transition Agency. If ever an organisation needed judicial oversight by a review commission chaired by a judge this agency does. Three people—the Minister and two of his henchpersons appointed by him—will be able to countermand every decision made by every council in Auckland and make them do something different. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: So it could be a squash player and a dancer who has been dropped on her head? 
JEANETTE FITZSIMONS 
: Well the mind boggles at just who those two people might be but regardless of who they are they are clearly subservient to the Minister. 
Our largest city is not run as a dictatorship by one Minister in Parliament who incidentally had the support of some 3 percent of the population when his party was elected. That is what we call a dictatorship and that needs judicial oversight and a review commission. Although the debate yesterday talked about the councils still having decision-making powers it is very clear here that they do not actually have any decision-making powers at all unless the Minister happens to like the decisions that they make. They will be completely neutered organisations for 18 months they will be completely subject to the will of the Minister and that could include doing anything. As colleagues have said it could include selling assets it could include taking a different approach to implementing the plan—the possibilities are limitless as to what these councils might be required to do by this transition agency. 
This review commission is a very sensible idea. It will be chaired by somebody who is or is eligible to be a District Court judge. That means that there is some respect for the law in what is going on there and I think that will be a useful thing as well. It is a five-person commission so it is actually somewhat larger than the body that it is reviewing which I think just reflects on the stupidity of having a mere three people able to run the whole of Auckland for 18 months. So it is a very well-worked-out amendment. It has all the detail in it about the appointments and the oath of office. The commissioners will even have special advisers to help them with proceedings. My colleague has thought of all the details about the remuneration of commissioners and their procedures and hearings. There is no doubt that they will also have staff and that they will be protected. 
We had concerns yesterday from the Government about 6000 local government workers who were scared about their jobs. I have to ask who made them scared about their jobs. It is not the Green Party that is making them scared for their jobs and it is not the Labour Party or the Maori Party that is giving them all this anxiety about their employment—it is the Government that is doing so. There is a very easy way to address their concern about their jobs and that is to just get rid of this silly legislation or send it to a select committee so that we can hear from those people about whether they are adequately protected. 
Again this is the first of many good amendments to this bill. I strongly support it because if we are going to have this stupid structure there are a lot of checks and balances we have to put in place. The Green Party has six proposed new parts coming up which will ensure that this transitional authority does sensible things sustainable things fair things peaceful things and democratic things in Auckland. Maybe when we have passed all those amendments we will end up with a transitional agency that will actually do what the people of Auckland want it to do despite this legislation being very poorly conceived in the first place. As I say this is just the first of a number of parts that will improve this legislation enormously. It would of course be much better if it were sent to a select committee so that the people of Auckland could have their say about how they want this legislation to be improved and that may yet still happen if we persist.