Jones Dail: Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Bill — Procedure Second Reading Third Reading 
Jones Dail: Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Bill — Procedure Second Reading Third Reading 
[Volume:649;Page:18034] 
DAIL JONES (NZ First) 
: 
 When the Hon Brian Donnelly was New Zealand First’s spokesman on local government he spoke during the first reading debate on this bill and made this point: “New Zealand First members have made it absolutely clear that we give no guarantee that we will support this legislation beyond this stage. We will however give a guarantee that we will listen very carefully to the arguments for and against and make as we always do sound and sensible judgments.” 
I have taken the opportunity to have a look at the bill. I am familiar with the bill because a remit effectively opposing this legislation was passed at the North Shore annual general meeting of New Zealand First last year and we in New Zealand First take notice of remits that are passed at annual general meetings. 
Rodney Hide 
: What about the remit to sack the leader for being a liar? 
DAIL JONES 
: We actually have meetings unlike ACT which can meet in a telephone booth. We have regular meetings around the country. So New Zealand First will be opposing this bill. 
I made it clear to the New Zealand First conference that I as the spokesman on local government want to make sure that rates are reduced and that bureaucracy is reduced and I actually gave some credit to Rodney Hide for his initiatives a couple of years ago. Now I understand that Mr Hide will be supporting this bill which increases rates and increases bureaucracy and I find that very staggering. Of course I find it even more staggering that the National Party which opposes increases in bureaucracy is supporting the increase in bureaucracy proposed by this legislation in a half-hearted sort of way. 
We do not know what National’s policy is—it is worse than a flip-flop because it is somewhere in between. It is up in the sky. Will it fall on one side of the line or on the other side of the line? New Zealand First is very clear—we support a reduction in rates. We support a reduction in local government bureaucracy so we must and do oppose this legislation. 
I will make it very clear though that New Zealand First believes that the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust must be funded by the Government. We cannot allow something as important as this to be left to local authorities and left to some sort of an electoral college system that may not favour the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust in the way it ought to. This is really a national responsibility and it should be the responsibility of the Government of the day and New Zealand First will be making sure that that is what happens with the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust. 
This bill will obviously increase rates. For people like myself for example not only will it increase my rates but I and many North Shore people will actually end up paying twice. My rates will go up and I will still have to pay for the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra; I am paying twice for the same thing. If someone had been clever with this bill that person might have said: “Well we might give you a few free tickets to one of these things in lieu of the rates going up because there are always empty seats.” If someone had been clever and had had a simple idea that might have made me happier. It might have made a lot more people happier if they could have a free ticket to the Stardome Observatory and Planetarium the Auckland Theatre Company or something like that. But no it was far too simple an idea to come up with. So many people on the North Shore and around Auckland will pay twice for the same thing. 
Of course this will increase rates and we know it will increase rates on the North Shore. I have lived in the East Coast Bays area since 1970. I left in 1976 and came back in 1993 and I have lived there since. This legislation will increase Manukau City rates by $2.51 million and it will increase North Shore rates by $2.34 million. New Zealand First says to the people in Manukau City and to the people on the North Shore that it does not support this bill and it opposes the views of all parties in this House that support it. If people really are keen on voting for a party that wants their rates to be reduced and wants their bureaucracy to be reduced in rating areas then they must obviously look at supporting New Zealand First. 
What does this legislation do to the people of Manukau? A submission from the Manukau City Council said: “Manukau City Council has studied the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Bill and opposes the intent on the following grounds.” The important thing to bear in mind as it says is: “Manukau City residents have a median income of $24200 per annum which is 4 percent lower than the national median of $25220.” Yet in this area that struggles to survive we are going to increase the rates of landowners and property owners in Manukau City by over $2 million as I have already indicated. The Manukau City Council also stated: “Residents of the city are already levied a considerable sum: $6352868 for the Auckland War Memorial Museum the Museum of Transport and Technology and the Aotea Centre all by the way of a legislatively imposed levy. The amount proposed $2 million in the first year not including the Auckland Zoo will just add to the rates burden of our low and fixed-income ratepayers and residents.” 
New Zealand First says to the people of Manukau City—those people in the electorates of Pakuranga Botany Manukau and Manurewa—that New Zealand First knows they are struggling and it knows that life will be much harder if National ever takes office and they have to pay $50 a week in road tolls as Maurice Williamson has so truthfully told— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Or $100 if you go home for lunch. 
DAIL JONES 
: Or $100 if people go home for lunch—as some people do especially the people Mr Williamson might support. It is going to create massive difficulties there. 
I have looked at the North Shore City Council’s submission as well and it makes it quite clear that currently the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Bill is opposed by all Auckland councils except the Auckland City Council. New Zealand First makes it clear to the people of North Shore that we want to make sure that their rates stay down we want to make sure that bureaucracy stays down and we are opposing this bill. 
How much of this money—this $12 million that is collected—will actually be spent on these bodies? That is the tragic part of this type of legislation that creates more and more administration and more and more bureaucracies. This legislation creates a funding board and that board has a membership of 10 members an electoral college of six members and an amenities board of four members—that is 20 more members. How many staff will each of these 20 members have? We can see $1 million going out of the window—no trouble at all—by the time an office for these people is set up they are given a secretary and they are given telephones. People understand this only if they have been in business—and I have. I know what it costs to set up these things unlike so many people with a bureaucratic background who have no idea what it takes to run a business. 
Here we have a bureaucracy being established by this bill; it is another bouncing baby. National says it will repeal the legislation but we all know what happened—was it in 1906?—when some Prime Minister first introduced income tax as a temporary measure. Income tax was a temporary measure and we know what has happened to that. The National Party says it will support the legislation now as a temporary measure. This measure will stay permanent and there is no way in which the National Party will ever repeal it. The people of the North Shore will suffer the people of Manukau City will suffer and even the people of Auckland City will suffer. 
Of course if the people of Auckland City want all these things that is great; they can have them. But what does the legislation do for people on the North Shore? Nothing at all. We have the Bruce Mason Theatre on the North Shore. Does this bill do anything for the Bruce Mason Theatre? We have a big amenity in the North Harbour Stadium which costs us a bit of money. Does this bill do anything for the North Harbour Stadium? Not at all. We have a lot of other theatres—as Manukau City does and as I am sure Waitakere City does. What does this bill do for those burgeoning theatre groups and music groups around Auckland? Absolutely nothing at all. It gives the funding to the expressly mentioned groups. 
I say to the people of Auckland City that if they want a champagne way of life on a beer income that is their problem. That is what the ratepayers of Auckland City should be telling their city councillors. This legislation is a champagne way of life on a beer income. That is what it boils down to. 
Sandra Goudie 
: New Zealand First should know! 
DAIL JONES 
: Sandra Goudie supports more rates. She is a former county councillor she supports an increase in the bureaucracy and that is what this bill gives. Does the National Party not know that this bill increases the bureaucracy? It obviously does and it is quite disgraceful that we have parties in this House whose members say they want to see rates reduced but here they are supporting legislation that increases rates and increases bureaucracy. New Zealand First opposes this legislation.