Kedgley Sue: Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill — In Committee 
Kedgley Sue: Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:663;Page:11537] 
SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
: 
 I would like to pick up on the theme I was discussing yesterday which was that what we are overseeing with this bill today is not local government in Auckland it is State government. We are seeing the elimination of local government and the formation of a State government. The Minister in the chair the Minister of Local Government is responding to various questions so he might like to respond to this: how can he call it local government when there are 1.3 million people—a third of the population of New Zealand—represented in this local council by 20 councillors? I just got the Parliamentary Library to check this and there are 38 members of Parliament representing Auckland which has one-third of the New Zealand population but only 20 councillors will represent Auckland. They will have constituencies that are larger than the constituencies of members of Parliament. They will have 70000 to 80000 or more people to represent. There cannot be any pretence that this is local grassroots democracy and that this is a local council—it simply is not. It is a form of State government. 
The Government has been very successful. It has got rid of the regional council it has got rid of seven councils and it has replaced it all by this form of State government. It then came up with these community boards as a fig leaf to the idea that there is some sort of local input. Contrary to what the Minister said which is that they are incorporated in statute they are not actually incorporated in statute. It specifically states in the Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill that they are not local bodies they are unincorporated societies. Nor do they have any clear delegated powers despite all the talk etc. and they have memberships of four to seven people. They are pitiful little—and as someone said they are like knitting groups or like residents’ associations. They are pretending to be local democracy in action. What a joke! 
It is good that the Minister has accepted the amendment of new section 76C in clause 45 on the Supplementary Order Paper by George Hawkins that two meetings of a council-controlled organisation would be open per year. But do you know what? That is all that will be open to the public each year. It will become de facto that all of the meetings will be in secret except for two that will be open each year. These boards will always be able to use something commercial in confidence to exclude the public and twice a year the people of Auckland will come in they will have a little bit of a say and then these unelected unaccountable directors appointed by the Minister of Local Government appointed by central government will go back to deliberating in secret behind closed doors. It is tokenistic to have the board meetings open a couple of times a year. 
The other thing that I think is still extraordinary is that this Minister for Regulatory Reform goes on about spending our money wisely yet we still have never been told what the estimated costs are and what the estimated savings are of this huge reorganisation. We are starting to work out rather slowly that it will be well in excess of $200 million. But we want to know what the costs are that are borne also by the councils of Auckland not just the direct cost borne by the Government. And what are the projected savings? The Minister has been very very silent about the projected savings. 
One thing he has been very clever about is that all of the money that will be picked up by Auckland ratepayers—but wait it will not be till after the next national election. It will not be until November of next year so ratepayers will not be saddled with the huge expensive bill to pay for the costs of this extraordinary reorganisation that Aucklanders do not want. The nasty bill that they will be picking up will—carefully—not be until next year after the local body elections. But when the bill comes I can tell members that Aucklanders will be very sour. 
Since the Minister is responding to questions the other thing I would like answered is whether he can guarantee that there will be no disruption in services once the Auckland Council is set up next year.