Williams Andrew: Local Government (Council-Controlled Organisations) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Williams Andrew: Local Government (Council-Controlled Organisations) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 19 September 2012. Volume:684;Page:5434. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
ANDREW WILLIAMS (NZ First) 
: 
 Is it not revealing that this National Government plays its endless tune to the populace of New Zealand about openness about transparency and about accountable government? And is it not interesting that this House has been subject to a disgraceful example—[ 
Interruption 
] 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! I have a member on my left and a member on my right who are interjecting when they do not have the floor. If they want to make a speech they can do so next time. 
ANDREW WILLIAMS 
: This House has been subject to an example of disgraceful contempt for democracy in this country tonight. People who are out there listening to this should wake up and watch what is happening under a National Government in this country when there is a genuine attempt here to get openness transparency and accountability of one of the biggest sections of our economy the ports of this country back into the public domain. 
Currently there are 27 ports in this country many of which are controlled by councils under council-controlled organisations where basically those major organisations can operate literally under the radar with smoke and mirrors and have very little accountability apart from back to their parent body through confidential documentation. So much of the business and so much of our export and import livelihoods are dependent on these ports but the very companies that use these ports the very operators through the ports and the industries across New Zealand that are dependent on the ports have very little knowledge as to what is actually happening within those ports. 
It is understandable that this National Government would want this because it is now building up a long history of this anti-democratic situation in New Zealand. It is very much a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde situation. In this case— 
Phil Twyford 
: Dr Smith and Mr Hide. 
ANDREW WILLIAMS 
: It a “Dr Jekyll Smith”—I was about to say that—“and Mr Rodney Hide” situation here because between the two of them they helped orchestrate this with the assistance of the puppeteer Mr John Key. Of course that puppeteer back in 2005-06 when he was an Opposition MP a backbench MP in this House was probably sitting up in the backbenches there. He had a member’s bill in the House—he was Mr John Key MP in those days—to create a super-city in Auckland to create one super-city. But he thought he might not get away with the one super-city all in one so he put up two options in his member’s bill. The other option was for there to be three cities: a north city a central city and a south city. That was an option but he was hoping for one super-city. 
However that member’s bill unlike Darien Fenton’s bill the Local Government (Council-Controlled Organisations) Amendment Bill which we are debating tonight did not get pulled from the ballot in 2005-06 much to his dismay. So he had to think about how else he could get control of Auckland how else he could get control of the ports and how else he could get control of the water the sewerage the transport the waterfront much of the facilities and the buildings. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Find a fall guy. 
ANDREW WILLIAMS 
: Yes find a fall guy. So he found Mr Rodney Hide the guy in the yellow jacket. He sent him out on a mission. Mr Hide came to see all the mayors of Auckland and said that he did not actually know what he was doing. He sat in a mayoral meeting with six or seven mayors and said to us “I don’t really know what I’m doing. I’m relying on you the mayors to tell me what I’m doing in Auckland. But we are going to put this together into one city. Please cooperate with me. We are working our way through it. We are finding things out as we go and we are going to create this.” So they created the one city and part of that one city was to put some of the entities of the city—not some of them; the majority of the entities—under council-controlled operations one of which is the Ports of Auckland. As a result that entity can operate basically without public scrutiny. 
The councils of Auckland—the seven entities before plus the Auckland Regional Council—were accountable. We had open transparency. We had to give out the information. The information was subject to the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act and was constantly sought by the public constantly sought by the media and constantly sought by all sorts of stakeholders and it was provided. It was provided in most cases unless the information was so sensitive that it would perhaps compromise a commercial deal going through. But most times the information was provided. However under this situation basically most of the business of the port is kept behind closed doors and is not obtainable. That is not acceptable. That does not provide well for a competitive economy. It does not ensure that it is in fact as efficient as it should be. 
New Zealand First will be supporting this bill because we are after open accountable governance not smoke and mirrors.