Hawkins George:  
Hawkins George:  
[Volume:654;Page:56] 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS (Labour—Manurewa) 
: 
 I will begin by saying that we should not necessarily be here now. If Gerry Brownlee had brought in urgency on Tuesday things may have progressed a bit more. But then again if the Hon Rodney Hide had been more democratic and given Aucklanders the chance to have a say on this we would not be here trying to delay matters. I think this is very important— 
Hon Rodney Hide 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. We have waited a long time for this debate and the requirement is that members address Part 3. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch) 
: We are on Part 3 the transition provisions. I ask the member to focus on those. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. I am now going to ask for some even-handedness. The first 2 minutes of Rodney Hide’s speech which he read were a first reading or possibly a second reading speech. It dealt with other bills that will be coming into the House. It dealt with other parts of this bill. This member is—well first of all I see that the clock has not stopped for the point of order. This member was about half a minute into his speech when he was interrupted. I think he should be allowed at least as much time as the Minister had before he got on to this part— 
The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch) 
: Thank you for those comments. Although some introductory remarks are OK it is important that we move back to the substance of the part we are on. I apologise to the member because while the points of order were being raised I did not stop the clock so I will ask the member to start again. 
Hon Rodney Hide 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. The difficulty is that the Hon Trevor Mallard did not raise a point of order; all that he did was contest a ruling that you had already given. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch) 
: I made a mistake in not turning the clock off and I apologise for that. I am inviting the Hon George Hawkins to start his speech again bearing in mind the points I have just made. We are on Part 3. 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: What I really want to say is that we should not be here at the moment. It is because the Government has mucked it up. The Hon Gerry Brownlee should have taken urgency on Tuesday. If he had then we would not be here but of course he did not. That means that we are now addressing Part 3 “Transitional arrangements” and of course we will not finish that for a long long time. 
The transitional arrangements are very very important. But did the Auckland local bodies get a say? No they did not. I say that they should have had a say. This morning I spoke to the Mayor of Papakura and I mentioned the transitional arrangements. Of course when one talks to people one finds that they are feeling quite angry. 
Let us have a look at clause 13 “Functions and duties of Transition Agency” and in particular at subclause (e) which states: “to provide information to the public of Auckland or any section of that public as it thinks fit in relation to the reorganisation:”. There is the demand that they have to say something to the people of Auckland and give them some information but what does this Government do? It completely ignores the people of Auckland and it has a different set of rules lined up in the bill. I have sat here and watched Sir Roger Douglas and I now know why he came back to Parliament—it is so that he can push things through without giving Aucklanders a chance to have a say. I think it is tragic that someone who has been such an important person over years gone by has to get up and say “Five against.” all the time. 
The next clause I want to talk about is clause 13(1)(f) which states: “to second employees from any existing local government organisation to the Transition Agency:”. What powers has it been given? You see what happens is that as soon as this bill is passed the councils of Auckland lose most of their powers. They have gone around and consulted their 10-year plans and talked to their communities. But all that has been for nought—absolutely nothing—because they lose all their powers and the Auckland Transition Agency has all the power it wants. 
Where are the protections for ordinary people in the Auckland area? Where are they? I do not see people getting up. I listened to Trevor Mallard yesterday saying that in another local body the burial records got lost—that is very important. We must be absolutely aware that hand-picked people are being given a huge amount of power which I think is very interesting for them to develop an organisational structure for the Auckland Council so that it can operate effectively and efficiently from 1 November 2010. We want to see something operating effectively. What we are saying is that the road that leads to it is not a smooth road. It is a road where so many people are put on the side—on the footpath—they cannot make progress because this transition agency has all the power. We have to ask why the Government is not prepared to let people have a say on this. Why is it not saying to the people that it wants their opinions on Part 3? Will it do that? No it will not. It will not give people the opportunity for a say. It has been a bad week for the Government a very bad week and it is getting worse.