Chadwick Steve: Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill — In Committee 
Chadwick Steve: Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:657;Page:6557] 
Hon STEVE CHADWICK (Labour) 
: 
 I will get back to the substance of the Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill and move away from that rather bullying tirade from the Minister in the chair the Minister of Local Government. I will tell a little story. 
In one’s professional life in politics one meets a few people along the way who turn one round and make one think quite differently. I was called to the household of an old former Mayor of Rotorua and the first chair of the Bay of Plenty Regional Council John Keaney who is a very dear old friend. He asked me to get him the Shand report. It was lovely to go to his home and we talked for a long time. He was a very reasonable man. We talked about the Shand report and he said to me that we had an opportunity to get right the future shape and governance of Auckland city. I absolutely agreed with him. He was a very wise man. 
One of the things he said about the Shand report was that for goodness’ sake we should make sure that Maori representation is factored into any future shape or form of Auckland governance. He supported the Bay of Plenty Regional Council (Maori Constituency Empowering) Bill in 2001. John Keaney was a wonderful man; he stood out. He knew the Bay of Plenty he knew about the demographics of it and he knew about the power of representation of Maori who were disempowered and he knew about the difference they would make by participating at the top level—not on advisory boards. At that stage we had advisory boards. He spoke out in support of Judge Trapski another wise and learned man from the bay on Auckland’s governance. I never forgot that. His politics were not my politics but he was a man who always saw the big picture of doing the right thing for New Zealand. 
We have before us an amazingly good opportunity and we all want the same thing. I never thought I would agree with Allan Peachey in this House but I believe that we all want to get Auckland governance right because it is the powerhouse for New Zealand and it affects all of New Zealand. 
The thing that makes me really sad as I have been reflecting over the nearly 15 hours of debate in this Chamber is that the Maori MPs from National have not felt strong enough to come down to the Chamber not be muzzled by Rodney Hide and their leader John Key and speak out on Maori representation. We have had an open and free debate here. I was excited when Simon Bridges stood up. He is the MP for Tauranga; he was not elected because he is Maori at all. He did not speak out about Maori representation which was such a disappointment. I saw Paul Quinn and I told him to go down to the Chamber and to not let them hold him back. Maori MPs should speak up—kia kaha—for Maori representation in the bill because unless they can convince those colleagues on the other side who I know are sensitive to the issue that we must have Maori representation at the top level of governance at the table of the Auckland super-city then we will fail a large part of the demographic of Auckland. The bill will fail for that reason and I do not want that to happen. I thought Hekia Parata and Georgina te Heuheu would come down to the Chamber. They are both National Party list members. I thought that because of their strong representation on Maori issues they would come down and speak. As the debate nears its end we feel great disappointment that none of those members have come down to the Chamber and spoken out on this issue at all. 
Yet they have a leader in John Key who said his door is always open who said he is open to considering the issue as the bill comes before the House. This Government which said that it would be aspirational for the future of New Zealand has failed the people of Auckland—and in that respect has failed New Zealanders—in not taking this wonderful opportunity to have Maori representation in some form. Labour did not prescribe the number of seats; we thought two seats. We did not argue whether they should be held by mana whenua or tangata whenua which the Minister in the chair gave a wonderful diatribe about. We just said that that demographic of this huge super-city which we are all so proud of should be represented. 
I want to explain why Labour feels strongly about Maori representation. Most of the indicators of social well-being—