Kedgley Sue: Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill — First Reading 
Kedgley Sue: Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:659;Page:8551] 
SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
: 
 Not surprisingly the Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill is a terrible bill. It is a Machiavellian bill that strips away layers of democracy in Auckland and siphons off most of the key functions of the Auckland Council into council-owned companies which will meet in secret and will be staffed by unaccountable unelected political appointees handpicked by the Minister of Local Government himself. Can members believe it? This bill gives the Minister of Local Government Rodney Hide the power to select virtually all of the members—apart from two—of the council-controlled organisations that will run most of the Auckland Council. Effectively the bill will undermine the power of the democratically elected Auckland councillors who will find themselves with very little to do. All of the key powers will have been siphoned off into these so-called council-controlled organisations. 
The bill sets a new precedent in political interference in local government. The Minister not the people of Auckland will decide how many council-controlled organisations the Auckland Council will have. The Minister not the people of Auckland will decide what their objectives will be and all of the details concerning the structure and operation of these council-controlled organisations. The Minister will have the power to appoint the directors of these companies. He will have the power to decide for example who will be on the all-powerful Auckland transport council-controlled organisation and the Watercare council-controlled organisation. Rodney Hide will be able to select—and he probably will—Dr Brash and others of his political cronies for these critical council-controlled organisations which will run the day-to-day activities of the council. 
If members look at the powers these council-controlled organisations have they will see they are unparalleled. If members look at the Auckland transport council-controlled organisation they will see that it will run every aspect of Auckland’s transport. It will run the electrification of the Auckland rail network and integrated ticketing. The only aspect left for the Auckland Council to manage is the off-street parking facilities owned by the council. The Auckland Transport Agency will have the powers and functions of a local authority. It is to act as if it were a regional council. It can make by-laws it is a requiring authority it can seize property and with all of these functions it will be run by unelected and unaccountable directors. 
One of the most critical aspects of this bill is the clause that states that councillors are prohibited from exercising any powers or functions that the Minister has conferred on to the council-controlled organisations. So under this bill councillors will be prohibited from exercising any powers or functions that are being undertaken by for example the Auckland transport council-controlled organisation. We have mayors running around Auckland saying they want to be elected as mayor in order to fix Auckland’s transport problems. The only trouble is they will have virtually no powers to do anything to influence Auckland’s transport. All they will be able to do is bang the table in frustration because they will not have the powers to make the changes they want. If they want to get involved in the debate on the electrification of rail or on integrated ticketing which are some of the most important issues facing Auckland all they will be able to do is sit around banging the table in frustration and impotence because the Crown-owned companies will have all of the authority to implement policy in every aspect of water transport and other issues. 
The question that has to be asked is what the democratically elected councillors will be left to do once these nine Crown-owned companies have been established and given these extensive and unprecedented powers. In every other council in New Zealand it is the council that decides whether to set up a council-controlled organisation and the council decides who will be on it. I have been on the Wellington City Council. I have been on the equivalent of a council-controlled organisation and I know how they work. I know that they meet in secret behind closed doors and the democratically elected councillors will have no influence whatsoever. 
This is a very clever move by Rodney Hide to undermine the democracy of the Auckland Council and get the council ready to sell off the $28 billion worth of assets. He will get it ready to sell by putting everything into these companies so they are ready to sell. He has made it easier for example to sell the port shares because we will not even have to have a referendum. Great move Rodney! I worry that Aucklanders will realise all of this too late. 
Then another clever little Machiavellian move is to increase the spending limits for the mayor to $580000. Guess who will be able to afford that? Only Rodney Hide’s rich cronies in the ACT Party will be able to. This will make sure ordinary Aucklanders will not be able to stand for mayor. They will not be able to afford to contest the mayoralty and even running for the Auckland Council will be prohibitively expensive for most Aucklanders. 
Then there are these impotent pathetic local boards. On the one hand we have the Auckland Council with most of its functions siphoned off into these at-length boards that meet in secret and on the other hand we have these local boards with no set powers whatsoever. The council will be able to decide whether any function will be delegated to a local board or will be taken back from the local board. There is wording in this legislation that states if the council thinks that a local function might need to be integrated with the rest of Auckland the Auckland Council can decide to take that function back. So it is a Draconian level of Government interference into a local council and I fear it is a precedent for what will happen around the rest of New Zealand. 
I predicted that Rodney Hide had chosen this portfolio to implement “Rogernomics Part 2”. This bill shows exactly how he will do it. He is setting up the council so that it will be able to sell off the council’s assets in 3 years’ time or possibly before. The council will be able to sell those port shares and get its hands on the Auckland Airport shares. I fear that Aucklanders will realise too late what the Minister has managed to do here. 
Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. 
SUE KEDGLEY 
: As I was saying before the dinner break this is an extremely clever bill that siphons all the critical functions of the Auckland Council into arm’s-length boards called council-controlled organisations which will be peopled by unelected and unaccountable directors who will be appointed by none other than the Minister of Local Government Rodney Hide. So Rodney Hide has his hands all over the super-city. He gets to choose how many companies will be set up in the Auckland Council who will be on it and what their functions will be. 
Something that I do not think people understand is that none of the democratically elected councillors will be able to exercise any power over any functions that have been siphoned off or delegated into those companies. The problem is that most of the functions of Auckland Council have been siphoned off into these council-owned companies. Actually we might more accurately call them Crown-owned companies because by the time the Minister has appointed the directors to these boards and has decided how many there will be and what their functions will be they will be effectively Crown-owned companies. 
The other issues of significance for mana whenua include the fact that the board that is supposed to promote their interests will have no power resources or authority beyond the dubious right to be consulted. The local boards will have no power authority budget resources or clear functions. The members who are elected to the local boards will find themselves just like the councillors on the Auckland Council with little to do other than thump the table in frustration. Thank you.