Henare Tau: Local Government (Tamaki Makaurau Reorganisation) Amendment Bill Local Government (Auckland Council) Amendment Bill Local Government (Auckland Transitional Provisions) Bill — Third Readings 
Henare Tau: Local Government (Tamaki Makaurau Reorganisation) Amendment Bill Local Government (Auckland Council) Amendment Bill Local Government (Auckland Transitional Provisions) Bill — Third Readings 
[Volume:663;Page:11622] 
Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
: 
 First of all I will thank a few people. I thank the Mayor of Waitakere City Bob Harvey for his diligent service over the last 8 years; Penny Hulse the Deputy Mayor of Waitakere City; Assid Corban the former Mayor of Waitakere City; Councillor Linda Cooper; Councillor Warren Flaunty from the Massey Community Board; and three people whom I think the whole of Te Atatu should applaud for their hard work in our community: Elizabeth Grimmer Leo Nobilo and Bob Stanic. I thank Andrew Williams and Len Brown for their sterling efforts in their own cities. I also thank members of the Auckland Governance Legislation Committee the staff of the committee and the departmental officials who I believe have done more than a sterling job in getting us to where we are now. 
We are limited only by our lack of unity and lack of vision. I stand in the Committee and say that I for one will vote for John Banks at the first election because he is a man of vision. He is not worried about pandering to something that he is not like some other mayors in the great city of Auckland. In fact I will hold a breakfast for John Banks and I tell members that there will be hundreds and hundreds of people in West Auckland lining up at the RSA in Te Atatu just to listen to “Banksie” because he has a vision. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: Is he coming to the breakfast? 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: What a silly question! The Hon David Cunliffe asks whether he is coming to the breakfast. I would have thought that a man who is after the top Labour job would have something better to say than that. So I now leave that job to somebody else. 
The thing I like about the new organisation of Auckland is that the local boards actually have to get together set out a plan put that plan and the budget together and send it off to the council. The councillors do not just say yes or no; the councillors and the mayor have to enter into a contract about the budget and the plan. I think that contract is very forward-thinking. In the past Auckland has not been able to get to grips with itself because there have been four little fiefdoms. South Aucklanders have been the poor cousins of everybody else in the city—the poor people living out in South Auckland. I was born and bred in Otara—in fact I was born in Onehunga and 6 months later we were shipped off to the new suburb of Otara. It was always the case that South Aucklanders got the rest while the others had the best. Out in west Auckland for the past 25 years we formed an identity so to speak. That will not go on 1 November; there will still be people living out in west Auckland. No one in Auckland will have an identity crisis. The North Shore will still be the North Shore over the Auckland Harbour Bridge. South Auckland will still be down Great South Road. What will change is that it will now be about economic growth for Auckland for the North Island and for New Zealand. I am reminded of Shakespeare when he wrote— 
Simon Bridges 
: That great Otara scholar! 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: That great Otara scholar when he said: “for Harry England and Saint George!”. 
Simon Bridges 
: What play? 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: I think it was  
Henry IV 
. I am not sure; I cannot remember. 
Hon Maryan Street 
: Part 1 or Part 2? 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: I am not sure—Part 1? I digress. As I have said many times in this House I only did fifth-form history. These changes are for Auckland the North Island and New Zealand. If any members in their right mind are thinking we are through the recession I say we are not. There is a long way to go and there are steps we must take to get this country back on track again. We did the first thing which was to get rid of that lot over there the previous Government. In Te Atatu 42 percent of the party vote went to National which is quite cool. It is about unity and vision. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: This is a random walk. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: It is a walk in the park of Auckland that great city which will lead the economic revival of this country. Decisions that should have been made 40 years ago were put on the back-burner. I heard George Hawkins talk about Barry Curtis. Let us go even further back to Mayor Robbie when the vision of light rail in Auckland never came to fruition because there were too many people in our scattered city who were worrying about their own backyards their own fiefdoms and their own little power struggles. At the end of the day if Mayor Robbie had been the mayor of one Auckland we would have had a decent public transport system. We would have had that. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: A great Labour mayor. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Regardless of whether the man was Labour National or whatever he would have been mayor of a united Auckland rather than what we have had for the past 150 years. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: Since the 1900s. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Whenever it was. This legislation is about getting rid of the old patch protection. It is about getting rid of the old fiefdoms. I think that 1 November 2010 will signal a day when Auckland’s potential will be released and New Zealand’s potential will be realised. I am certain that we cannot have national economic recovery without Auckland. Auckland is central to the nation’s path to economic revitalisation. 
I again thank all those councillors and mayors and the people who have served on our local community boards. Their time may be up but let us look at this as an opportunity to take Auckland the North Island and New Zealand ahead.