Chadwick Steve: Franklin District Council (Contribution to Funding of Museums) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Chadwick Steve: Franklin District Council (Contribution to Funding of Museums) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:667;Page:14236] 
Hon STEVE CHADWICK (Labour) 
: 
 I am sure that the good member for Hunua Dr Paul Hutchison has represented his electorate very ably in the issue of the Franklin District Council (Contribution to Funding of Museums) Amendment Bill but this issue has simply been superseded. It has been superseded by the decisions made by Rodney Hide which were really about fast tracking Auckland governance. He left the great fight that the member Paul Hutchison was fighting for the good people of Hunua in the slipstream. 
Moana Mackey 
: Collateral damage. 
Hon STEVE CHADWICK 
: A bit of collateral damage; he fought the good fight well. 
When we began the process of looking at Auckland governance we began it very moderately. It began in 2006 and everybody agreed with a memorandum of the mayors of Auckland that it was a very good idea to start looking at regionalisation and the prospect of a super-city. Labour actually initiated that process. It moved along at a moderate pace with the royal commission report until the findings of the royal commission report when this Government came into office and gave the whole power to organise and reorganise the Auckland super-city to a Minister in another party. What a shambles has ensued from that time! 
I pick up on a couple of points that the member for Hunua raised. The good people of Hamilton Rodney and Franklin all enjoy the amenities of the Museum of Transport and Technology and the Auckland War Memorial Museum. When we are looking at regionalisation of iconic institutions like the Auckland War Memorial Museum we do not want to be quite so parochial about who contributes to the long-term future of the Auckland Museum and the Museum of Transport and Technology. 
It was Labour again that brought in the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Bill which we all supported; I was on the Local Government and Environment Committee. National supported the legislation only in the dying hours of the election campaign. Only then did it say that it was a great idea and it would be a vote loser if National did not support it so National decided that it was all in favour of it. It certainly was not in support of it right through the select committee process until the end. National decided that the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Bill was great and that it would keep afloat iconic institutions like the Auckland Art Gallery the Museum of Transport and Technology Coastguard Northern Region and some of the wonderful institutions of Auckland. What a great initiative that was too. For pure popular demand National decided that it would hop on board and support it. 
We are trying to encourage all regions of New Zealand to support these icons. There is a big anniversary coming up for the Auckland War Memorial Museum that I am sure all of New Zealand will enjoy. The 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Great War is not far away; the planning is all under way. 
The principle of this bill was about apportioning the amount of rates from Franklin that would have to be involved in the Auckland regional amenities legislation. It has simply been superseded and for that reason alone we are not passing this bill. 
It is interesting that I hear in the mayoralty campaigns in Wellington Mayor Kerry Prendergast saying that Wellington needs a regional amenities funding bill so we can work much more closely with all the outlying district councils. Those districts enjoy the benefits of some of the wonderful icons of Wellington like the International Festival of the Arts the opera and the Vector Wellington Orchestra which is under a great threat at the moment from Creative New Zealand’s reorganisation of funding lines. As a regional orchestra it is saying that it has no long-term certainty for funding at all. That is a Wellington issue. 
It is the same sort of issue that we heard in Auckland about the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra; I am sure the good member opposite has gone to enjoy the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. I am sure he does not see that it belongs only to the good people of Auckland; in fact people from the Bay of Plenty Rotorua Hamilton and Rodney all come into Auckland to enjoy these amenities and their benefits. A proportion of rates had to be fairly apportioned to the councils that came under that Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Bill. 
I think the process under the super-city restructure for the arts and for iconic institutions like the Auckland Museum has been really poorly managed by Rodney Hide in the Auckland super-city legislation. I have been to meet the staff of the Auckland War Memorial Museum and the Auckland Art Gallery and they are saying that they are not really sure where they fit. They feel like third-tier organisations in the Auckland super-city and that they will actually come under an Auckland events centre. They are really worried about that generic management of great institutions like the Auckland War Memorial Museum. 
Rodney Hide certainly has not got right the Auckland super-city restructuring in terms of arts and valued institutions. There will be problems. In fact there may need to be legislation when the Auckland super-city restructuring all shakes down. What impact will it really have on the Auckland Museum and on the Museum of Transport and Technology? There may need to be legislative changes that people have not even anticipated. It is definitely a shambles up in Auckland at the moment for the arts community. That is simply because of the speed with which this Government was determined with Rodney Hide in charge to get a tick in the book and get this all implemented tickety-boo by this election. 
We would have taken a much longer and more measured approach to looking at what would be the effect of this change instead of this rapid and rather hasty implementation without people having a say. I have met people in Auckland who do not even understand what district they are in in the super-city. They do not even know which ward to vote for because they have not participated or been made aware until the billboards went up which part of Auckland they belong to. The consultation with the good people of Auckland has been simply shabby. 
Labour will be opposing this bill because we agree with the Local Government and Environment Committee that it has been superseded. All the efforts in the past that caused such stress to the people of Waikato Franklin and Hunua about whether they were in or out have been superseded. They had to sit and wait then get on the streets and have a petition signed by 10 percent of the electors of each of the regions—140000 from Auckland 40000 from Waikato and 6000 from Franklin were unsure about the boundaries. These are good voters. These constituents were totally confused about the boundaries in the super-city. Now those people do not need to worry any longer apparently because this bill is not going to happen. Those people will not have to contribute to the Auckland regional amenities fund.