Ardern Jacinda:  
Ardern Jacinda:  
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JACINDA ARDERN (Labour) 
: 
 I am pleased to follow on from the very short call taken by Shane Ardern my third cousin by marriage— distantly related. I am pleased to take a call on this bill. The Government will be pleased to hear that I will be speaking to Part 3 and specifically to clause 11. I am very happy to read out aspects of that clause given that Government members have not read it. However before I do so I want to reflect on the provocative speech made by the Deputy Prime Minister. All that I can take from it is that it was a classic transfer of anger towards the Opposition that should more rightly have been directed towards the Leader of the House. The last time I checked he was the one who could end this now. It is the Leader of the House who can decide that this bill should go to a select committee immediately in which case this would all be over. What we saw from Bill English was a classic transfer of anger. Labour members have already stated that we will be here until the bitter end. It is Gerry Brownlee’s call. All complaints should be directed to Gerry Brownlee. I can see Simon Bridges glaring in anger. He might be looking at us or he might be looking at the back of the Leader of the House. 
Clause 11 of Part 3 which I would like to address— 
Hon Rodney Hide 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. We are now having successive calls that do not address Part 3. Instead this speech is just an explanation for the Labour Party trying to back down. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch) 
: The member might like to start on Part 3 now. I have given some leeway to other speakers for the first minute or so but I ask her to now come to Part 3. Thank you. 
JACINDA ARDERN 
: Thank you for the lead-in to the substantive part of my speech. I would like to share with Government members aspects of the bill that I would like to refer to and our substantive amendments to clause 11 “Governing body of Transition Agency”. It states: “(1) The Transition Agency must have a governing body consisting of a chairperson and no fewer than 2 but no more than 4 other members appointed by the Minister.” If I am correct this is the most significant transition body that we have seen in the history of New Zealand law—or for some time at least. It will consist of four appointed members or as few as two. 
Let us be clear about the scale of what this transition body will be dealing with. It will be dealing with the replacement of eight democratically elected authorities 6300 staff $27.2 billion in assets and $2.3 billion in revenue. How many people are sufficient to deal with the transitional arrangements around those assets people and workers? Two people; two people appointed by the Minister of Local Government. 
I think it is only right that the Labour Opposition has put forward substantive amendments to this clause. We have set out that clause 11(1) should be amended by omitting “4” and substituting “20”. Surely for the budget we are talking about and for the number of assets we are talking about there should be an appointed body of at least 20—the size of Cabinet. Surely that would be reasonable. That is the proposition we have put forward. We have a number of other propositions. We have suggested that the Government could omit “4” and substitute “19”. We have gone all the way through to suggesting substituting “5”. Anything is better than having four members. I ask the Minister to rise and give a submission—or at least his view—on why four members are enough to deal with the massive substantial amendment we are seeing. Perhaps he might even like to suggest that we substitute “1” with “4” given that the Minister has even suggested that we do not need to have a select committee decide what we do in terms of this significant change. If the Minister thinks that one member of the governing body is sufficient I would like to hear that as well. 
What about the powers of the Auckland Transition Agency? What will these four eminent members be dealing with? If one reads clause 10 one sees that “(3) For the purpose of performing its functions and duties the Transition Agency has—(a) full capacity to carry on or undertake any activity do any act or enter into any transaction;”. 
Hon Member 
: Boring! 
JACINDA ARDERN 
: I believe that one of the members from across the other side of the Chamber just said “Boring!”. This is those members’ bill. This is the most significant change that Auckland and the Auckland region has seen and that member has called it boring. I do not think the people in Auckland or the 6300 workers who are about to lose their jobs as a consequence of National’s changes would call this bill boring.