Carter John: Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill — Second Reading Procedure In Committee 
Carter John: Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill — Second Reading Procedure In Committee 
[Volume:657;Page:6390] 
Hon JOHN CARTER (Associate Minister of Local Government) 
: 
 I will respond to one or two points that have been made by Opposition members because again one or two issues have been raised that are wrong. I listened to Su’a William Sio for example say that the Minister in the chair the Hon Rodney Hide had so much influence over the Government that the Government had bowed to his every wish to his every direction and to everything that he wanted and that this bill was now before the Committee in the way that he recommended. I ask the Minister in the chair—perhaps he can nod and indicate—whether he supported having councils at large. My understanding is that the Minister did. Does this bill coming back from the select committee have a provision that there should be councils at large? No. Does that mean that the Minister got his way? I think not. I ask the Minister in the chair whether he supported the single transferable vote (STV). The Minister is nodding. Did the committee recommend that there be STV? I do not think so; we recommended there be first past the post. Does that mean that the Minister got his way? 
The point I am making is that the Opposition members need to understand that this is a coalition that works together. We win some and we lose some. We make good policy and we end up representing what the people want and that is what has happened in this bill. The Minister in the chair can be commended for the leadership he has shown in regard to responding to the wishes of the people of Auckland and in being part of a true coalition of people who are working together to make sure that this place is better for New Zealand. 
There is another irony. When we started out there was so much ranting raving and negative comments that the legislation would never work that what the Government had put before the House was dreadful that the bill before the House was shocking and that we sent it to the select committee but the select committee would not do anything. I thought I should draw to the Committee’s attention that one of the things recommended by the Government was that there should be no at-large councillors. The coalition Government said that all councillors would be elected from wards. You know that is what the Labour Party supports. They say that all councillors should be elected from wards. They said that so the Government thought that if we were going to have people elected from wards maybe we should have multi-member wards. Guess what! That is what the Labour Party said should happen: that members should be elected from multi-member wards. To be fair Labour said there should be only two members per multi-member ward but nevertheless— 
Phil Twyford 
: Under STV! 
Hon JOHN CARTER 
: I will come to that. 
The next thing that Labour members said was that Franklin and Rodney should have their own councillors. Guess what! The Government had said that Franklin and Rodney should get their own councillors. 
Phil Twyford 
: Where are you getting this from? 
Hon JOHN CARTER 
: It is actually from Mr Twyford’s script. The next thing they said was that the local boards should be able to fund community initiatives. Guess what! Bless my soul! Can members believe that that is what is going to happen? The Government is going to do that. Goodness gracious me! Do members know what else Labour members said? They said that local boards should make decisions about local decisions in place-shaping. Labour asked for that and do members know what is going to happen? That is what the Government said is going to happen. Do we agree on that as well? Goodness gracious me! The next thing Labour members said was that the mayoral office should have some resources. Do members know what is going to happen? The mayoral office is going to have some resources. Goodness gracious me! They also said that the mayor should lead development in draft plans and budgets. Do members know what is going to happen? The Government is going to make sure that the mayor can lead development in draft plans and budgets. 
There is another page of stuff here. Labour said that all of Rodney should be included in Auckland. As I said I got it wrong. The Government has decided that that is what should happen so that is what is going to happen. The next thing that happened of course was that Labour said that asset-protection provisions were required. We already know that they are in the Local Government Act so that is exactly what is going to happen. 
When I start going through the points that Labour members were worried about it is no wonder they got to the stage where it is really difficult for them to debate because a lot of the stuff that they said should happen was already going to happen or is happening. We picked those points up because the people of Auckland said we should. We listened and it is what the public wanted. It is silly for members opposite to say that someone got this the Minister did that and so on. The Minister wanted to make sure that we ended up with the best legislation to represent Auckland because if we get this legislation right and if we get Auckland right—and we will—that is good for New Zealand. 
I say one thing for Rodney Hide: he always wants what is best for this country. In the same way so do the Prime Minister and the National Party as does this National-led coalition Government. The one thing that the Opposition cannot understand is that we have a Minister of Local Government a Prime Minister and a coalition Government that care about this country and are looking to deliver for it. If we sometimes have ideas put ourselves out there say what we would like to happen and do not get our way that is the reason we do it. We make those decisions and we are prepared to have a bit of give and take in the interests of this country. Surely no one can criticise us for having that sort of attitude. 
You know I have said to the audiences at the many public meetings that I have attended in Auckland that I would love to stand there and tell those people that they can leave it to us and that we will get it 100 percent right. Then I have said to them that if I was a betting man I would bet that we will not. We will not get this 100 percent right because it is an ongoing process. 
John Hayes 
: Yes we will. 
Hon JOHN CARTER 
: Let me tell my colleague that funnily enough as this is an ongoing process we will continue improving it adding to it and making it work in the way that it needs to which is what Aucklanders want us to do. 
When members opposite say that the Government did not do this or it should have done that and that it did not get this right or it did not listen to that then I say that this is not just a 2-minute process. It is not something that we can click our fingers and get right in one shot. It is an ongoing process. When the Minister in the chair the Hon Rodney Hide embarked on this process when I was alongside him embarking on it and when the Government was there as part of this whole thing we knew that this process would be continuous. We knew that we would continually have to go out look listen and make sure that we had it right. This is a step in the process. I want the Opposition to understand that we have moved a long way from where we started and we will continue to move. As we listen as we learn and as we make progress we will continue to improve this legislation. 
Opposition members must remember that a third bill is in place. We have come a long way from where we started and we have done a lot in this bill but there is yet more to be done. Believe you me this Minister in the chair the Hon Rodney Hide; this Prime Minister John Key; and this coalition Government will be doing a lot to make sure that in the end we get this process as near right as we can. 
I will finish on this note: the one thing that the Labour Opposition is really cheesed off about is the fact that we at least are doing it. Labour members did not do it.