Twyford Phil: Local Government (Protection of Auckland Assets) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Twyford Phil: Local Government (Protection of Auckland Assets) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:656;Page:5725] 
PHIL TWYFORD (Labour) 
: 
 There was not much of substance to reply to in the speeches from members on the other side of the House but I observe just how bizarre the contribution from the Minister of Local Government Rodney Hide was to this debate on the Local Government (Protection of Auckland Assets) Amendment Bill. He delivered a vacuous response to an issue that Aucklanders feel deeply about. But I watched an item on  
3 News 
 during the dinner break and the Minister’s conduct in this House this evening makes sense when one looks at it in the context of that item. He had other things on his mind. 
My colleague read out some of an email from a senior member of the National caucus. That leaked email went on to state: “Consequently I believe the issue is too far-reaching and too important for a party sitting at 1 percent at the polls to decide alone.”—1 percent in the polls. It is interesting to wonder who wrote that email; I will tell members who I think it is. When I look around the National benches today and I look at the tone of that email I reckon that it came from Steven Joyce. He is the head kicker. He is the guy who is starting to call the shots. He is the guy who is enraged by the fact that Mr Key’s carefully crafted Crosby/Textor strategy is being derailed by a party with 1 percent of the vote. 
Mr Hide failed to address any of the substantive issues in my bill and my opening speech just like the way last night on TV3 he dodged and weaved to avoid addressing the real question. Does the Government support an agenda of the privatisation of Auckland assets? Is it prepared to reassure Aucklanders and give them a say in deciding the future of their assets? Mr Hide cannot answer that question because as he told  
Q+A 
 he loves privatisation and as he told  
Campbell Live  
last night he wants to privatise Ports of Auckland. This is the man who is leading the Government’s strategy on the super-city. Just days after the royal commission presented its report—800 pages a year and a half in the making—Mr Hide delivered a pamphlet of his own. It had hasty ill-conceived and arrogant proposals that were a slap in the face for Aucklanders. How the Prime Minister must be regretting that haste now! How the National Government must be regretting allowing Rodney Hide to lead this important piece of work! Mr Hide’s local boards—or toothless talk shops as they have come to be affectionately known by Aucklanders—have been universally derided. His proposal for at-large councillors immediately set alarm bells ringing for Aucklanders who smelt a stitch-up. 
Rodney Hide’s next mana-enhancing gift to the National-ACT Government was an insistence that the royal commission’s sensible recommendations on Maori representation be tossed overboard. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: I was just wondering how one smells a stitch-up. 
PHIL TWYFORD 
: I say to Mr Henare that we now know that Rodney Hide has threatened to throw his toys out of the cot if the Government listens to the royal commission’s recommendations on Maori representation. 
On three counts the Government has offended the democratic values of Aucklanders. It is no surprise that John Key wheeled in John Carter—the man who should have been the Minister of Local Government and the kindlier gentler face of reform. It is not just what the Government is trying to do to Aucklanders; it is the arrogance in the way that it has gone about it. It is the arrogance of the Government breaking its manifesto promise to consult Aucklanders on the findings of the royal commission the arrogance of ramming the first super-city bill through the House under urgency and the arrogance of taking away Aucklanders’ right to a referendum under the Local Government Act. Is it any wonder that Rodney Hide was so distrusted and so disliked by Aucklanders that John Carter was brought off the bench to try to restore some calm? It raises the question of what kind of role Mr Hide plays in John Key’s political management strategy: attack dog or court jester? Mr Hide gets to fly all the kites to test public opinion and whenever this particular Minister crosses the line the nice Mr Key can laugh it off and say that it is just Rodney. 
Why do the people of Auckland so distrust Rodney Hide? Has his association with the super-city and his mishandling of the process cast a shadow over what should have been a bright new day for local government in Auckland? Can anyone blame Aucklanders for fearing for our publicly owned assets when Rodney Hide is the leader of a party that advocates the forced privatisation of council assets?