Kedgley Sue: Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill — In Committee 
Kedgley Sue: Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:657;Page:6433] 
SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
: 
 It is customary for the Minister in the chair to answer questions at the Committee stage when serious questions are raised of that Minister and requests are made to clarify genuinely significant issues. I have asked a genuine question of the Minister in the chair Rodney Hide. I have asked him to explain whether the provision in the Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill to give the mayor powers to establish processes and mechanisms for the council to engage with the people of Auckland—in other words to decide on all consultation that the Auckland Council has with Aucklanders—overrides all of the other consultation provisions in the Local Government Act. I really would appreciate the Minister’s answering this question. If he will not do so I would appreciate Mr Carter the Associate Minister of Local Government answering it. 
It was interesting that when I asked Associate Minister John Carter whether he could point out what provisions of the bill he said gave local boards autonomy and power he was not able to even though he has chaired the Auckland Governance Legislation Committee for weeks and months. He was not able to point to any such provision; he recommended that I go to the officials instead which I did. Of course the officials gave me exactly the information that I already knew which is that the local boards will not have any local autonomy and powers. 
I thought it might be worth raising a couple of further issues. First what do the mayors of Auckland think of the amendments that have come through as a result of the select committee hearings? I also want to talk about the costs and benefits of this organisation. Well Bob Harvey said despite all of the spin that unless the boards were given additional powers the local boards would be little more than sewing circle meetings. In the meantime the North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams says that the upshot after all the consultation “is an all powerful super Auckland Council a super Mayor with even more power than before 20 to 30 completely powerless local boards with no statutory powers or resources in their own right”. He predicted: “It will only be a matter of time before communities realise that despite Rodney Hide’s lofty promises their democratic right to decide local issues for their own local area now has passed to 20 Councillors in Queen Street who call all the shots.” He said: “There will certainly be a community backlash once local communities start approaching their new local boards for better services only to be told that the best they can do is ‘advocate’ their case to the Auckland Council or to try to ‘plead’ their case for inclusion in the next Auckland Council LTCCP or annual plan”. In other words he predicts that once they work out that the local boards really have no powers despite “all the government spin and double-speak” there will be a backlash in the community. I am sure that that is the case. 
The other issue I would like to raise concerns the benefits and costs of this huge restructuring. There has not been a regulatory impact statement of what the costs and benefits are to Aucklanders. That is odd because the Minister of Local Government Rodney Hide is also the Minister for Regulatory Reform. One of the things he goes on and on about is the need to be absolutely aware of the costs and benefits of proposed legislation. So what are the costs and what are the benefits? I notice that nobody is suggesting that one of the benefits will be lower rates because we know that there will be increased rates. We also know that all of the costs of restructuring will be borne by the Auckland ratepayers. They will be whacked with this huge bill once the Auckland Council is set up for a new council that most Aucklanders oppose. 
We need to understand the magnitude of what has happened. We had seven well-functioning autonomous democratically elected councils. They have been wiped out and replaced with this super-council which will represent 1.4 million people—I think about 800000 voters. It will probably be the largest council in the world. Then we have 20 to 30 rather tiny fragmented local boards which will be completely subservient to the council. What is the benefit of this huge restructuring?