Bridges Simon: Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill — In Committee 
Bridges Simon: Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:657;Page:6487] 
SIMON BRIDGES (National—Tauranga) 
: 
 It is very good to take a call in this debate. I say to the members of the Opposition that if they pipe down a little they will be able to hear me and I know they want to hear what I have to say. I wanted to take a call this morning but like the National Party and like the Government I have been too busy listening. National members love to listen. I have been listening carefully to what members have been saying. 
I was interested to hear what Carol Beaumont had to say right at the end of last night and I was interested to hear Kelvin Davis earlier this morning. Of course Carol is the fresh dynamic face of Labour. She is a unionist I think. She is clearly a more dynamic fresh face than Kelvin Davis is because Kelvin is only a principal. Unionism is a much better career path to get ahead in the Labour Party. What they both said was interesting and it had a superficial appeal. They were saying that it does not matter that people say they are listening listening listening; if they are not listening and it is just a mantra it does not mean anything. I agree with that. What they are saying is perfectly right. Too often I think in politics we have mantras and we say things but if they do not have meaning behind them they are not worth the paper they are written on or the air in which they are expelled. So that is no good. It is a bit like Phil Twyford and the secret privatisation agenda campaign he has been running. What is it called? 
Phil Twyford 
: Not Yours to Sell. 
SIMON BRIDGES 
: It does not matter how many times the member says “Not yours to sell”—and he could get some second-rate guitarist to do him a song—[ 
Interruption 
] That got them going. It does not matter how many times he says that; if there is no substance there if there is no secret privatisation agenda then it does not mean anything. 
The difficulty for Carol and for Kelvin and for my earnest friend Phil Twyford is that actually National members were listening. New Zealand really liked the fact that we acted on what we heard. Let me give members a couple of examples. Labour members do not like this because they want to say the Government was not listening and nothing happened. The first example concerns the local boards. We changed the shape and the form of those local boards and we beefed up their powers substantially because of what we heard at the Auckland Governance Legislation Committee. We made changes based on what we heard from Nikki Kaye’s “Waihetians” from Waiheke. We heard from people in Devonport whom Phil Twyford got to know a little during the election campaign. We also listened to the people in Mangere and the people in Waitakere. We heard what they said. We heard that they wanted a more inclusive lower-to-the-ground local board that listens to what they say and we acted on that. 
Dr Rajen Prasad 
: And you gave them one with no power. 
SIMON BRIDGES 
: We do not need a commissioner for social inclusion actually I say to Rajen Prasad. We gave the local boards the powers they need. We listened and we acted and we changed things. What about the councillors? There will be 20 from local wards. There were going to be some at-large councillors. I will be honest: I went into the select committee process thinking that at-large councillors was a good idea. I thought it would allow elected people to stand back and take the whole region’s interests into account. I superficially quite liked that idea. But we heard from the people of Auckland. We heard an overwhelming number of submissions from people from diverse communities and they did not like the idea of at-large councillors. 
Phil Twyford 
: Were you on the select committee Simon? I never heard you say anything. 
SIMON BRIDGES 
: The member never heard me say anything because I was too busy listening. I remember one lady from the North Shore I think who said that as a member of Parliament I am elected to a constituency and I have to listen.