Parker David:  
Parker David:  
[Volume:654;Page:80] 
Hon DAVID PARKER (Labour) 
: 
 At last we have the first response for a long time from the Minister of Local Government on this part of the bill which he is responsible for. Part 2 which consists of clause 9 disestablishes six or seven councils— 
Sue Kedgley 
: Eight. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: —eight councils including the Auckland Regional Council; seven councils plus the regional council—and forms the Auckland Council. In doing so it creates the greatest concentration of representation in New Zealand in my memory. The Auckland Council covers not only more people than the whole of the South Island but substantially more than that number; 1.4 million people will be covered by one council. That council is getting broader powers than any other council in New Zealand has at present. It is getting territorial authority rights plus regional council rights. 
On top of that the mayor of the council is getting extra power; executive powers are being conferred upon the mayor of the council. There were some checks and balances on the regional council’s powers through some of those powers being devolved down to some additional councils standing underneath the regional council but those councils have been abolished. Therefore there is a further concentration of power in the hands of this new mayor. That new mayor—and I am very surprised that provincial members of the National Party such as Amy Adams from Selwyn and Chris Tremain from Napier are not worried about this—will bring down Governments. He or she will have the power to come to central government and say “Do this or I do that.” I think those powers are a gross abuse of the rights of Parliament and a gross abuse of overall democracy in New Zealand. 
Further than that there is the danger that those powers will be politicised because of the alignment of the mayor with a political party here. I think it is inappropriate that people who have been Ministers of the Crown who have clear allegiance to one party or another in this place hold that office. If those members want evidence of the kind of abuse that can occur they need only look at the conduct of John Banks this year compared with that of mayors of yesteryear. What is he saying about the Waterview Connection? What he is saying is clearly not in the interests of his council of which Mount Albert and the Waterview Connection are part. He is saying virtually nothing. What did he do to the prior Government—a Labour Government which was not matey with him a former National Government Minister? He stood over Parliament and said that unless the Government bought social housing off the Auckland City Council it would flog it off or raise rents. Those are the sorts of excesses that can be carried out by inappropriate mayors with too many powers. Those risks are increased if those mayors have a political alignment to Parliament in Wellington and that alignment is most evident when the mayors have been Ministers in a Government. Their alignment is clear their allegiances are clear and they take those allegiances with them to the grave in most cases. We have seen it with Mr Banks. 
If the Hon Rodney Hide cannot see that that is a risk then he is blind. If the provincial members on the Government side cannot see that the power that is invested in a mayor of a council that has more people in it and more voting power than the whole of the South Island plus 50 percent is extreme then they are not wise people. It is obvious. We are creating a beast that will be able to whip Parliament and that is not appropriate. There is a real need for checks and balances especially as some of the checks and balances have been removed through the abolition of the layer of councils beneath the current regional council; they have been stripped away by the Government. It therefore is all the more important that we have limits on the powers of the mayor who is being created under this legislation. 
Further than that it is appropriate that we limit the number of terms that mayors can stand for. In the United States a President can stand for two terms only. We are creating a presidential-like figure here. We are creating a figure who has more power than anyone in any regional or territorial authority has now; 1.4 million people is an enormous voting block which can be whipped into a fervour against the current Government be it a National-led or a Labour-led Government in the future. They can be whipped into a fervour against the sitting Government.