Williams Andrew: Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Williams Andrew: Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 27 November 2012. Volume:686;Page:6815. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
ANDREW WILLIAMS (NZ First) 
: 
 I take a call on Part 2 of the Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill. This afternoon in this Parliament we had the visit to New Zealand of Crown Prince Philippe of Belgium. It is ironic that on the same afternoon that His Royal Highness visited this Parliament where we have the names of Passchendaele Messines and other great battles fought for democracy and for the rights of people to live in freedom and when the Prince of Belgium came to this Parliament to reciprocate the great and lengthy relationship that New Zealand has had with Western Europe to fight for democracy this Government rams through the Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill on a slim 61 to 60 vote that is hanging in the wings with the Hon Peter Dunne who as we have heard before double-crosses the bridges when he comes to them. In this case he has obviously given his party deputy and others around the country one message but then does not turn up to this Parliament and gives his vote to the National Government to allow this bill to go through by 61 votes to 60. 
It is most interesting therefore that in this country—which has always stood as a democracy; it was the first country in the world to give women the vote and it sought to be a country that stood by democracy and sought to make sure that the democratic principles were upheld and that we stood for those—this Government would ram through a bill that basically kneecaps and reduces the democratic level of our second tier of government our local government in New Zealand. It is very much the case that as a result of this bill our second tier of government—and we do not have more tiers of government unlike many other countries and unlike Australia which has several more tiers of government than we do; the United States and many other democracies have several more tiers than we do. We have only central government and local government. What this National central government is doing supported by the ACT Party and by United Future is basically kneecapping and pulling the rug from underneath local government. 
I think that what is most disturbing here is that in Part 2 which discusses the transitional arrangements again it has been shown that this Government has had the arrogance to not properly consult with the likes of Local Government New Zealand—the body that represents the 78 councils in this country that has as its president Mayor Lawrence Yule the Mayor of Hastings that has many mayors and chairs of regional councils around New Zealand sitting on its board that has senior executives who have extensive experience in local government and that is the mouthpiece on behalf of local government in New Zealand. Yet throughout this Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill the Government has shown a complete disregard really of the need to sit down with the very body that represents that sector and say: “Is this right is this workable and is this really going to work for local government in New Zealand?”. 
Can you imagine if this was a bill that was affecting Federated Farmers if this was a bill affecting Business New Zealand or if this was a bill affecting the chambers of commerce in New Zealand? National members would be out there seeing their mates in Federated Farmers such as Conor English the brother of Bill English. They would be seeing Phil—whatever his name is—at Business New Zealand. What is his name? Phil— 
Sue Moroney 
: O’Reilly. 
ANDREW WILLIAMS 
: —O’Reilly. They would be seeing Phil they would be seeing Conor they would be seeing all their mates and they would be sitting down and saying: “How does it work for your sector? How does it work for your sector is this right for your sector and is it going to have the right outcomes that we need to help your sector succeed and do better?”. 
But did this Government do that? No it did not. It did not sit down and properly consult with Local Government New Zealand. It did not sit down and properly consult with the many councils of New Zealand with the many mayors and councillors some of whom have got two three or four decades of experience in this field. They did not sit down and consult with them. Many of them are National Party mayors and regional chairs and National does not even understand the fact that its own party members its own mayors in some of these areas are saying to it that they are National Party mayors or councillors—or they were—and they do not agree with their own Government and their own party. What does that say to you? What does it say to you about the arrogance of this Government that it even ignores senior local government people who have had responsibility for the infrastructure of this country the communities of this country and building up the communities of this country over many decades? This Government will not even sit down and consult with them. 
Then when the councils went to the Local Government New Zealand conference this year back in July all 78 councils passed a vote unanimously saying that they did not support this bill. I have never seen that ever—a situation like that where 78 councils would unanimously vote that the Government has got it wrong in this respect. That is incredible as is the fact that probably the majority of those mayors were National Party mayors and councillors. Is it not extraordinary that they cannot even support their National Government on this? It is very very disappointing. 
In terms of many of these transitions we saw the problems in the Auckland transition. There were many and they were huge. This National Government rammed the Auckland Council through it rammed the amalgamation in Auckland through and now—only now a couple of years later—we are seeing the outcomes of that. There are some big problems there and there are some huge cost blowouts. There are some massive costs in terms of the merging of the computer systems and the merging of the staff systems and all sorts of other systems. What we were promised from this Government was a reduction in rates in Auckland. We were promised more efficiency in Auckland. We were promised all sorts of things from this Government. 
Remember this was John Key’s idea back in 2005-06 when he was a backbench MP sitting back up in the gods. As a backbench MP he said he wanted to form a super-city in Auckland and he would get it. He became Prime Minister and then handed it over to Rodney Hide to do his dirty work for him. So people of New Zealand just remember that it was not just Rodney Hide. It was John Key backbench MP who had a member’s bill that never got picked from the ballot. Do not look at me like that Nicky Wagner. Look back there in the records. John Key had a member’s bill to create a super-city in Auckland. It never got picked from the ballot. So always remember New Zealand that John Key created the super-city in Auckland but he got Rodney Hide to do his dirty work. 
Now look at what we have got in Auckland. We have got a shambles there. We have got 75 percent of Auckland’s business being controlled by council-controlled organisations unelected people people whom nobody knows—all mates of the National Party all hand-picked by Rodney Hide all put on these boards. They will not even provide the minutes of their meetings to the elected councillors of Auckland. They will not even provide the minutes of their meetings to the elected council of Auckland. It is shocking. That is what this National Government has set up in this country. It is setting up for the rich the well-to-do those who have got influence and those who can basically get into the ears of John Key Steven Joyce Bill English and the likes of them. It is very poor. Now they have got the ear of Nick Smith who is going to be the future—well he was the past local government Minister. He will be back in that seat by Christmas when Lockwood goes to Britain and when David Carter takes over the Chair as Speaker. Nick Smith will be back in there and you can bet your bottom dollar that all these Draconian things in this bill will come to haunt everyone in New Zealand. The communities of New Zealand will be absolutely devastated when they see the effects on their communities around New Zealand. 
In closing I will just say that everyone agrees that efficiencies can be found and savings can be found but this is not the way to find savings in New Zealand through our local government. This is not the way. Local government in New Zealand responded to the Government’s call to increase infrastructure in New Zealand. John Key in 2008 as the Leader of the Opposition said: “We have a $60 billion shortfall in infrastructure in this country and $30 billion has got to come from local government or this country will go backwards economically and economic development is dependent on local government playing its part in this.” Local government responded to the then Leader of the Opposition John Key and it said it would step up to the mark. It has increased expenditure from $2 billion to $8 billion to provide that infrastructure at the same time as the National Government has taken its deficit from something like $16 billion to $55 billion and it is heading to a $72 billion deficit. 
So do not Dr Nick Smith lecture us on going from $2 billion to $8 billion in local government when your Government in 4 short years—4 short years—has gone from $16 billion to $55 billion deficit. Local government responded to your leader John Key and his speeches to Local Government New Zealand. I have the speeches in my box here. The speeches are here. They responded to him. He said: “We have infrastructure deficit in this country.”