Lees-Galloway Iain: Local Government (Auckland Reorganisation) Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
Lees-Galloway Iain: Local Government (Auckland Reorganisation) Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
[Volume:654;Page:3271] 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North) 
: 
 I appreciate the opportunity to speak on— 
Hon Tau Henare 
: Who? 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY 
:—Iain Lees-Galloway—Part 1 of the Local Government (Auckland Reorganisation) Bill. I will speak on clause 3 “Background and purpose of Act” and in particular subclause (2). The reason that I will get down to that specific detail is that the Minister in the chair Rodney Hide invited the Opposition to speak on the amendments that have been proposed and as well the Hon John Carter invited us to speak to specific parts of the bill. We are very pleased to accept that invitation and I know that many of my colleagues intend to take up the invitation as well. 
Specifically this subclause states that “Over the next 100 years it is expected that the Auckland region will face enormous change brought about by global economic environmental and political forces. Local trends including high population growth add to the challenges and opportunities the region faces. To meet these challenges and opportunities Auckland requires local and regional governance of the highest standard”. That is a laudable aim. But if this measure is the model that we will be using for governance of the highest standard then Auckland is in deep trouble. We have seen arrogant behaviour from the Government this morning. We have seen utter disrespect for process. We have seen deliberate name-calling and the misuse of names of members of the Opposition. There will be no select committee process. We have had questioning from Government members as to why we are voting against this legislation without any effort whatsoever by them to listen to the arguments that the Opposition is putting forward. Is this how the Auckland super-city council will operate—with no interest whatsoever in any opposition to what it is doing? Will the council ram through its proposals and legislation in the same way as this Government is doing? Is that governance of the highest order? I do not think so. Is that governance of the highest standard? It certainly is not. 
My colleague the Hon David Cunliffe earlier on referred to the whittling down of the royal commission report from three volumes plus an executive summary to just a few small pages. He called that a stomach stapling of the legislation. What an apt and excellent description of this process! Stomach stapling is a very good metaphor for what we are getting because stomach stapling is the cheat’s way. It is the easy way out. If one wants to lose some weight the best way to go about it is to get some exercise maybe take up dancing lessons— 
The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy) 
: The member will come back to the question. 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY 
: I am talking about governance of the highest standard. We are seeing today a circumventing of the best way to go about governance. This is a skirting round just like stomach stapling is a way of skirting round getting some exercise taking some dancing lessons or doing whatever it takes to get one’s weight down. Another thing that often happens with stomach stapling is that the speed of the weight loss means that an additional operation is needed later on. That is what we will see with this bill because of the speed with which it is being passed through the House and the absolute ignorance of clause 3(2) which refers to “governance of the highest standard”. We will need to revisit this legislation later on. We will need another operation to deal with the mess that will be left because of the speed with which this legislation is being rammed through. 
We on this side of the Chamber are absolutely in support of the Auckland super-city—or whatever it will end up being called—getting a governance system that is in its best interest. That is exactly what clause 3 is about. It talks about meeting future challenges through governance of the very highest standard. However we cannot have faith in this Government that the structure it will create has governance of the highest standard because the model will be what we are seeing here today with the Opposition being shut out and shut down. The Minister asked us to address the bill clause by clause as did the members opposite yet the Government whips and members of the Government are trying to shut the debate down early without giving the Opposition the opportunity to go through the bill clause by clause.