Chadwick Steve: Local Government (Auckland Reorganisation) Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Chadwick Steve: Local Government (Auckland Reorganisation) Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:654;Page:3639] 
Hon STEVE CHADWICK (Labour) 
: 
 I am delighted to take a call. I was invited earlier by the Chair to take a call when I raised a very serious point of order but the debate on new Part 10 of the Local Government (Auckland Reorganisation) Bill put forward by my colleague Carol Beaumont is the perfect debate for me to put my issue into context. 
I inform the Committee that I was invited by the Chair to speak to the Minister in the chair about our very real concern which was raised by the people of Auckland early this morning that their right to paid parental leave might have been expunged by an amendment last night from the Minister of Local Government. This is a very serious issue. I went to the Minister as I was invited by the Chair to do and the Minister said—and members should listen to this because the Auckland Transition Agency reports to that one Minister with nobody else providing any checks or balances over his powers and authorities—“You had your turn last night; you didn’t take it.” We were voting on amendments last night. We were voting yes or no to amendments; we could not debate or discuss amendments in the Chamber last night. When I took up the offer of the Chair the Minister said: “It is finished. You had your turn last night.” Is that the sort of attitude he is going to take when the transition agency raises issues? It will report to Mr Hide only as the Minister. Are those the sorts of powers and authorities that he will extend over the rights of the 6500 workers whose current terms and conditions might have been amended very badly last night with an impact on their lives? 
Those members opposite were not in the House when we voted on paid parental leave—which women members in the previous Opposition voted against—but I am sure that the new women members do care about women’s rights and paid parental leave as do many many men. The amendment last night may have been an unintended consequence. In the point of order that I reasonably raised I asked whether it could be looked at and whether the Minister could clarify it for the Committee. If that is the sort of attitude the Minister is going to have as the one person with power and authority over the transition agency it is deeply worrying. 
In this new Part 10 that we have put forward we suggest that we establish a code of practice for employees—for those full-time employees who have worked for over a year for the current authorities that will go by next year. Clause 108(2)(k) states: “there shall be no overall reduction in working conditions for any employee;”. These are serious amendments that we have put up. We had no opportunity to look at this bill before we got it to debate in the House and the relevant part of it was pushed through last night in urgency. We are using the one democratic tool that we have got to try to make this bill better and the response from the Government benches has been that we are wasting the Committee’s time. 
I tell the members of the Government that people have been phoning us all night. My daughter phoned and asked: “What is this bill that is going through the House?” and I said: “We are in urgency to fight about the bill to establish the Auckland Council.” She said: “What is the bill all about?” and I said: “Tough! You will not have a chance to debate this bill. You will not have a chance at all.” Calls came through all night long from people in Auckland and we are receiving calls this morning. They are taking it seriously. They are anxious and they are worried. They are hugely concerned about their rights. They are hugely concerned about the unintended consequences of this bill. 
This is when a Government gets things wrong: when it rams things through the House and does not involve community voices. That has happened and that is why we are here and I am pleased that we are here. We are going to fight this fight. It is absolutely critical to consider our code of practice for workers their rights and their conditions. It is not just about structural changes to the transition agency. The Government sees it as simplistically as that—that it is just about structural amendments.