Anderton Jim: Local Government (Auckland Reorganisation) Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
Anderton Jim: Local Government (Auckland Reorganisation) Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
[Volume:654;Page:3258] 
Hon JIM ANDERTON (Leader—Progressive) 
: 
 The Local Government (Auckland Reorganisation) Bill should be renamed the “Removal of Democracy in Auckland Bill”. This bill removes the opportunity for Aucklanders to say whether they want their councils replaced. The Local Government Act provides a chance for them to have their say in a referendum. That is how the Act is supposed to work: someone puts up a proposal and the people vote it up or down. If this super-city structure for Auckland is such a good idea then Aucklanders would vote for it. If it did not get majority approval and pass the Government would have to fix it and keep fixing it until Aucklanders would or could vote for it. But Aucklanders will never get that chance under this bill. 
We know that the next bill to be debated will put in a fix in the way the Auckland super-city council is to be elected. The super-city council will be effectively stacked. It will be back to the days when 21 out of the 22 councillors in Auckland City lived east of Queen Street. I know because I was on that council and I was one of them. Auckland ran into huge problems because it was stacked with conservative right-wing councillors for generations—that is why a ward system was introduced. That is why the National Government is going back to the failed structures of the past—only it is worse because they are making it an even bigger potential disaster. One would think that most Aucklanders would want to have a say in that and one would think the Government would acknowledge that. 
One would think that voters who live west of Queen Street—the ones who are less likely to vote for the National Party in local government drag—would want to say whether they agree with their representation being dramatically reduced or even eliminated entirely before it happens. One would think that the voters of South Auckland would want a say before they lose free entry to their swimming pools. Were any other members on the Manukau City Council that introduced free entry to swimming pools in Manukau City? Members are looking at one of the original members of that council. Will the Auckland super-city council’s self-appointed mayor John Banks follow Manukau City’s example and eliminate all fees for swimming pools in Auckland City or will he make Manukau City charge for swimming pools in the new super-city? I say we know exactly the answer to that question. 
That is what this bill actually does—it removes free entry to swimming pools in South Auckland and any effective say that local communities will have in the future about the way they are run. How does it do this? Well at the moment entry to public swimming pools in Manukau City is free. That is a good thing because the kids in South Auckland unlike a lot of kids in Remuera or Herne Bay do not have swimming pools in their backyards. That is how the kids in South Auckland get the chance to learn to swim. It is how they get a fair chance to have the childhood that a New Zealand kid should have. But across the rest of Auckland there is a charge for entry to swimming pools—in Auckland City out in west Auckland and on the North Shore. So what do members think will happen to the free entry to pools in South Auckland? It will be abolished and the people who are least able to afford to pay will have to start paying. 
I can already hear the presumptive super-city mayor John Banks giving speeches about why the ratepayers of Auckland City should not be subsidising the swimming pools of South Auckland. Well there is a point about that you know because the ratepayers of South Auckland now subsidise their own pools and they choose to do it. What choice will they get under this bill to continue to do that? I submit: none. 
There are literally hundreds of issues like this that the bill does not even begin to address or to propose consulting Aucklanders on. That is one result of having Auckland’s councils historically elected the way the Government wants them elected. It is only going to get worse. If the Government wants an at-large election across Auckland City it will disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of people who will never be able to stand for office in a public election. The Government cannot tell me that the 30 voluntary councils around the place like community boards and committees will have any power. I know they do not. They used to have in Auckland and they were emasculated. They used to have in Christchurch City where I live now and they have been emasculated there too. Their budgets have virtually been taken away and their authority to talk to local authority councils has gone. That is what will happen to those councils in Auckland too. 
I support a strong regional government. I was on the Auckland Regional Authority when it bought all the regional parks in Auckland. I was on the authority when it purchased the whole of the bus fleet and that was a good thing to do.