Fenton Darien: Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill — In Committee 
Fenton Darien: Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:663;Page:11457] 
DARIEN FENTON (Labour) 
: 
 Talofa lava. I come to my first call in the long Committee stage ahead of us on the Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill the third super-city bill as an Aucklander who has lived in Auckland for many many years—for more than 20 years. I am someone who lives in Waitakere works on the North Shore in Northcote and has been involved in Rodney. I have been to many meetings on this issue with both community groups and ordinary people and I have listened. I have discussed it with my neighbours talked to the people of the North Shore and talked to many groups about their concerns about this bill. 
We can understand their concerns because this is the biggest change in local government in New Zealand’s history. It is a huge change. There has never been an amalgamation of this size. The new Auckland Council will have greater assets than Fonterra and Telecom combined. It will be enormous. It is unimaginable. It will employ thousands of staff and represent 1.4 million people which is one-third of our nation. Is it any wonder that Aucklanders are concerned about this bill? Is it any wonder that there have been meetings in all parts of Auckland? This is a major constitutional change from local government to regional government. I do not wonder that the polls we have been hearing about today—and no doubt we will hear more about them—show that Aucklanders think that the process has not been sufficient and that their voices have not been heard and still have deep concerns. 
This bill got off to a very bad start. I know that the process has been very long but it got off to a very bad start. We had had two other bills. One did not even have a select committee process and the second was driven through the House under urgency. All people could do was listen powerlessly to what was happening here. One would think that with this third bill the Government might have learnt something but submissions on this third bill were called for around Christmas Eve last year. People were given the summer holidays until the middle of February to get their submissions in. When people were getting back from their leave if they had any when they were getting back from the beach they had to be thinking about their city and the enormity of the huge change to Auckland that this bill is the culmination of. 
I want to put on record my congratulations to the people of Auckland the thousands of Aucklanders who made submissions who made the effort who had the passion to put their submissions in and turn up at the Auckland Governance Legislation Committee even though I heard in some instances people had 5 minutes to have their say which I thought was pretty deficient. I also want to put on record my congratulations to the select committee. At least there was a process on this bill and at least it went on for a bit longer than that of the other bills. 
What really concerns me about these bills is that National made an election promise to consult Aucklanders on the findings of the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance. National has broken that promise. When John Key was in Opposition he put up a member’s bill promoting a referendum. What happened to that idea? How quickly the Prime Minister has forgotten! The Government has bypassed the provisions of the Local Government Act which require a referendum on amalgamation. That has never happened before for any other community anywhere in New Zealand. 
As my colleagues have said Labour supports the reform of Auckland’s governance structures but we oppose this bill. The process has been deficient. I am really disappointed that we have gone through a year and a half of this and the Government is still saying “No” to the things that Aucklanders most want to help fix their broken super-city and to shift control back into their hands. The Government has broken its promise to give power to the local boards. We do not know what those powers are. How can people contemplate standing for a local board when they do not know what their responsibilities would be? They do not even know what they would be paid. Aucklanders have clearly called for the powers of the local boards to be spelt out in legislation and the Government said all along that that would happen.