Fenton Darien: Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill — In Committee 
Fenton Darien: Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:657;Page:6507] 
DARIEN FENTON (Labour) 
: 
 I want to talk a little about local boards but first I will acknowledge the chair of the Auckland Governance Legislation Committee the Hon John Carter. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: The Minister and the chair. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: Yes. The Minister in the chair was also the chair of the select committee. 
When I was at the select committee—and I thought it was rather sweet really—I heard John Carter saying as the community organisations came through: “Isn’t it great? I didn’t know all these neat community organisations existed in Auckland.” The comment was genuine I thought and it was nice but it was a bit ironic because he had not worked out before he came to the select committee that that is what Auckland is about. 
When we sat through the select committee hearings one of the primary themes from locals was concern over the loss of their community identity and there is an argument about whether the proposal from the Government deals with that—and I would beg to differ. There is distrust of the powers of the central agency and the mayor and there is also a real concern about local services. Quite frankly I do not think that this bill deals with that. I have to acknowledge that some of the issues have been addressed but only in part and not to the satisfaction of this Committee and not to the satisfaction of the local communities. 
The Government members from the North Shore—the members who work over there—need to be listening. I work on the North Shore as a Labour list MP and I have been listening. What people are saying to me is that there is still a huge power imbalance between the local boards and the super-city council. Local boards with four to nine members will be up against a powerful central body—with all the resources it gets—that doles out largesse if you like when it feels like it. 
I have a huge concern about all the services that are being provided on the North Shore when an all-powerful central organisation is to decide what is good for the different communities of Auckland. The communities of Auckland are different and the interesting thing about North Shore City is that it has a unique community coordination model. In fact the Minister heard about that. The various community organisations the mayor and the council came along to the select committee and talked about that unique model where coordinators are employed to build local community engagement and to tackle the particular issues in the areas they work in. 
The people are all different too. People like to think that the people who live north of the Auckland Harbour Bridge are well off rich and all that sort of stuff and that they are all the same but they are not. Northcote and Beachhaven are very different from Glenfield. Glenfield on the North Shore is different from Albany and Greenhithe. They have different populations different needs and different requirements for services. The services that are provided by the North Shore City Council are extensive. They are expected and supported by the people of the North Shore. 
So I cannot get my head around how the local boards will continue to deliver those extensive services when they will have to compete with each other for funding when they will have to go begging to the Auckland Council for money and when even then those local boards can have their decisions overridden. 
There are many outstanding questions about community services. What will happen to citizens advice bureaus? They are scattered throughout Auckland. What will happen to them? Will they be centrally resourced? 
Jo Goodhew 
: You guys are the princes of scaremongering. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: It is a fair question I say to Jo Goodhew and it is a question that people are asking. 
Will citizens advice bureaus be centrally resourced from the central agency? Will that agency decide where citizens advice bureaus should or should not be or will it be up to local boards to decide? If it is up to local boards to decide then how will they decide on the funding and allocation of resources? 
What will happen to the housing for older people on the North Shore? There are 458 low-cost units there. Who do they belong to and who decides what the need is? Do they belong to the central agency or to the local boards of which there could be three four or five? How will they decide who gets what? What happens to the 11 community houses across the North Shore and to the staff who service them? 
Community houses are extremely important organisations. People can just come along to them and use the various resources and educational courses that are facilitated by the community coordinators. What happens to those coordinators? Do they lose their jobs? Who knows? These are the questions that the people of the North Shore are asking. What happens to things like the Community Facility Development Fund and the Creative Communities fund?