Hawkins George: Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill — In Committee 
Hawkins George: Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:657;Page:6414] 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS (Labour—Manurewa) 
: 
 First of all I tell Nikki Kaye the member who has just resumed her seat that many people would prefer that the community boards had some real teeth and that they were not paupers having to go along to their super-council to get funding. This is one of the problems: they do not have any staff. Nikki Kaye wants to know where we stand on the issue. Well the Mayor of North Shore stated: “Hearings of the Auckland Council Bill promised the Auckland public their big chance to have a say yet the upshot is an all powerful super Auckland Council a super Mayor with even more than before 20 to 30 completely powerless local boards with no statutory powers or resources in their own right”. That is why we do not support those bodies at all. 
Nikki Kaye 
: That’s not in your minority report. 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: We had to deal with the legislation that was put before the Auckland Governance Legislation Committee and that person has not learnt. 
I will talk about the Maori situation. I wonder what actually happened when members were called to the Cabinet meeting. ACT’s Rodney Hide was there. Then of course there was Dr Sharples. What did they say? Why did John Key and the Auckland Cabinet Ministers tell them that Rodney Hide had won and Pita Sharples had lost? What was said? What is the basis for this decision? 
What was Nikki Kaye told in the caucus about that? She can sit there smiling; I bet she did not get up and challenge John Key one little bit. She would not have got up and had a go. The little parrot from Tauranga would not have said anything either. He would not have said a thing. 
At least Tau Henare is prepared to speak out. He was prepared to call people buffoons and that rang a real bell with all Aucklanders. You see Tau Henare is an interesting guy. The only people who do not like him are members of his own party. That is the truth. 
We have the situation where we have someone just recently out of high school who has not been around for a long time come into the Chamber and not tell people what went on to make Cabinet back Rodney Hide. Why did John Key back him? What does Rodney Hide have over John Key that Dr Pita Sharples does not? That is the real key. 
You see Maori people were badly served. Was this issue debated in the caucus? No National will not debate those sorts of things. Like little lambs its members go along to a caucus meeting and listen and they are told what to think. They are not allowed to think for themselves. I can remember going to Cabinet meetings and then going to Labour caucus meetings and sometimes the caucus was very very vocal. But that is not the case in respect of National. It has a system whereby when Cabinet makes up its mind and when John Key tells its members what to think then that is what they think. 
The Maori people of Auckland have been sold down the river because those members will not stand up for them. We have people like Nikki Kaye who have done the arithmetic and found that there are hardly any Maori on Waiheke Island. There is not a great percentage of Maori in the population there so is she worried about them? No not at all. All she wanted there was someone to make sure that the footpaths were not changed from white concrete to red concrete. That is what she was on about; those are the realities. 
When Nikki Kaye finds that the going gets tough she should not try to blame the Opposition for the decisions of a Government that is out of touch with ordinary Aucklanders. Ordinary Aucklanders will punish her and they will punish other members. If I was Paula Bennett with a majority of 635 I would be very worried.