Twyford Phil: Local Government (Auckland Council) Amendment Bill(No 2) — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTwyford Phil: Local Government (Auckland Council) Amendment Bill(No 2) — In Committee[Sitting date: 24 September 2013. Volume:693;Page:13663. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—TeAtatū): The theme that underlies this whole debate on the Local Government (Auckland Council) Amendment Bill (No 2) is democracy and a number of colleagues have referred to the debates that took place during the passage of the super-city legislation. We debated long and hard the pros and cons of the royal commission model and the model that was then proposed and adopted by the National Government and Rodney Hide as Minister of Local Government.Jacinda Ardern spoke very eloquently about the local board structure in the Auckland super-city and about how there is little real power virtually no regulatory power whatsoever and limited budgets and she spoke about how many of the local boards have eked out a role for themselves. I think it is fair to say that the model that was adopted essentially sees the local boards as an advocacy platform. They are a kind of public engagement mechanism if you like for the super-city. There is not much in the way of control of resources and assets. There is not much in the way of rule orregulation making. I think that has always been the Achilles heel of the structure—that it centralises so much power in the governing body of Auckland Council.The flip side to that is that the governing body and the mayor have a powerful mandate clear accountability and a great deal of ability to lead and provide leadership. We have seen that in the debate about Auckland’s transport agenda where Len Brown has led very very strongly on building a world-class transport system for Auckland. We have seen successive Ministers of Transport—Steven Joyce Gerry Brownlee—stand as human roadblocks in the way of the aspirations of the people of Auckland for a modern public transport system.The local boards have no mandate and no power to articulate those aspirations and it is really left to the governing body and the mayor to do so. I think it is all credit to Len Brown that he has successfully rolled over Gerry Brownlee and Steven Joyce—Grant Robertson: That is quite something.PHIL TWYFORD: —on the issue of the City Rail Link. He has rolled them over on the question of the City Rail Link and has won that battle. So Steven Joyce and Gerry Brownlee were just the latest of the generals sent by Wellington to subdue the natives.The last issue on this general theme of democracy around the local boards is that I think it is fair to say that both of the council organisations—the governing body and the local boards—have stood up for their communities. They have stood up and articulated the aspirations for their communities. I think that is a triumph for the democratic spirit.The last of the generals sent from Wellington to quell the Aucklanders was Maurice Williamson who thought that he could—in the flush from his celebrity status in the gay marriage debate and from his non-appearance on theEllenDeGeneres Show—try his luck in Auckland. It was up to David Farrar to tell him that he was 25 points behind in the opinion polls. It was only a few days later that Maurice Williamson withdrew with his tail between his legs.So along with the story of these local boards I think it is really a victory for the democratic spirit and the ability of good people in their communities to make the best of a heavily centralised governance model to make these local boards work to stand up for their communities to use the boards as a platform to make proposals to engage with the local alcohol plans and the liquor licensing units that Jacinda Ardern talked about and to participate in the debate around the Auckland Unitary Plan as they have done. I think all these things are a credit to the people who put themselves up for election to serve their communities through these local boards. And in spite of the efforts of a roll-call of National Ministers who have set out to constrain Auckland democracy one after the other they have been sent packing.I think it is true that Aucklanders have made the super-city work in spite of the best efforts of many Government Ministers and mayoral candidates. I think that is something we should be very grateful for. It is appropriate to remember this at the time of the local government elections.