Kedgley Sue: Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill — In Committee 
Kedgley Sue: Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:657;Page:6428] 
SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
: 
 I would like to talk to my amendments to clause 9 set out on Supplementary Order Paper 55 in my name which are to amend the powers of the mayor. Before I introduce them I will outline the additional powers of the mayor under the model proposed in the bill and why we should care about these additional powers. 
First of all the mayor gets to choose his own deputy and all the chairs of committees and indeed can appoint himself to be chair of any committee—and I use the words “his” and “himself” advisedly. In every other council that is not the case; the council votes on chairs and deputy mayors which means that more consultation is required. The committee chairs and the deputy mayor have to work with the whole council in order to get support which builds in a more consultative approach whereas under the model proposed in the bill the committee chairs and the deputy mayor will be completely beholden to the mayor who will choose them. Secondly once the mayor has appointed all of the chairs and the deputy mayor he will control the votes in the council. Once the mayor controls the votes in the council he will then be able to whip through any agenda that he wishes. Then on top of that the mayor has the extraordinary powers in the bill to decide whether and how the council will consult with Aucklanders. The bill states that the mayor will “establish processes and mechanisms for the Auckland Council to engage with the people of Auckland whether generally or particularly” and later states that the mayor “must not delegate any of his or her powers”. So the mayor alone will decide on the consultation process. 
If John Banks were to become mayor—and we learnt this morning on the radio that he has a campaign team of 600 people and huge amounts of funding; it will be interesting to find out how much funding—he will choose all of the key appointments all the committee chairs and they will all be beholden to him. He will control the whole inner cabal the votes and the agenda. He will be able to drive through his own agenda. If he decides for example that he wants to sell off a few assets—and we know that that is the underlying agenda of Rodney Hide and ACT; it is quite explicit in their local government policy—according to the principle in clause 9(3) of the bill he could choose not to bother to consult with Aucklanders. 
I do not think that people have quite understood the implications of the powers of the mayor and that is why I am so concerned about this issue. I have been a city councillor for 8 years and for some of those I had the pleasure of having Mark Blumsky as mayor. He managed to get a majority on the council and he rammed things through. Councillors who were outside the inner cabal were really impotent; there was nothing they could do. The executive had the power; it could drive through anything. Other councillors could jump up and down and protest but the votes would be rammed through. So I think Aucklanders need to be aware of the implications of this bill and particularly of the idea that the mayor is to decide on every mechanism for consultation with the people of Auckland. 
I ask—and maybe the Minister could reply to this question—whether this clause overrides the provisions of the Local Government Act that set out very clearly the consultation mechanisms local councils must follow when they do anything significant such as selling off an asset. Very clear powers are spelt out in the Local Government Act and they apply to every council in New Zealand. But I ask the Minister of Local Government Mr Hide whether or not they apply here. Could the Minister answer this question? Do they not apply to the Auckland Council? Does the provision in clause 9(3) override the provisions of the Local Government Act? It certainly appears to do that. It seems that absolutely unilateral powers are given to the mayor to decide on the processes and mechanisms that the council will use to engage with the people of Auckland. Obviously if the mayor decides that he does not want to consult with Aucklanders because he wants to sell off some assets or do something that he thinks might be unpopular he has unilateral powers under this bill. That is why I have moved these amendments.