Calder Cam: Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill — In Committee 
Calder Cam: Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:663;Page:11538] 
Dr CAM CALDER (National) 
: 
 Talofa lava. The Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill is the third and final bill that will complete the legislative framework for the reform of Auckland governance. The reform of local government in Auckland is about enhancing the effectiveness of community participation in democracy and ensuring that the council has a strong effective regional decision-making policy so that it is able to plan strategically think regionally and act decisively. 
It was a great pleasure for me to be on the Auckland Governance Legislation Committee for a brief period. I note how hard the members of the committee from both sides of the House worked week in week out for a long period of time. They listened to a lot of submissions. There were almost 800 submissions from existing local authorities community boards mayors and members of the public. They expressed deep concern about aspects of the bill. People who appeared before the Auckland Governance Legalisation Committee were passionate. They were passionate about their city and passionate about having a voice in changing it. Aucklanders told the committee that they wanted to be in charge of their city and they did not want Wellington controlling Auckland. The select committee listened and changes that have been made to the bill reflect that. 
One of the things I heard during the two or three times I had the privilege of serving was concern about the council-controlled organisations or CCOs. The select committee having listened to submissions we find that the bill now states that the council-controlled organisations will be accountable to Aucklanders. The Auckland Council’s control over its substantive council-controlled organisations will be substantially greater than that of other councils in New Zealand. The Auckland Council will appoint a chair and a deputy chair of each council-controlled organisation. It has been made explicit that from day one the Auckland Council is in charge and can replace the directors if it considers it necessary. To ensure accountability the Auckland Council must have a stated and public council-controlled organisation accountability policy which clearly establishes that the council has control over its council-controlled organisations. 
I give credit to my colleague from Manurewa the Hon George Hawkins for his amendment to add a new section 76C. I fully endorse my colleague’s amendment which would increase the public accountability of all the council-controlled organisations of the Auckland Council. It would make the Auckland Council’s council-controlled organisations have two board meetings that are open to the public at which the public can speak directly to board members. The first meeting would be to consider the shareholders’ ownership and to comment on the statement of intent and the second public meeting at the end of the financial year would be part of the assessment of how the council-controlled organisation has done in achieving that statement of intent. I endorse what my colleague George Hawkins of Manurewa a community that we both work for has done and I commend his Supplementary Order Paper to the House for its consideration. Thank you.