Hawkins George: Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill — In Committee 
Hawkins George: Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:657;Page:6534] 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS (Labour—Manurewa) 
: 
 I will cover what was said by the previous speaker Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga about double-dipping. There is a difference between him and me: I was successful; he is not. I think that is very clear. I managed to keep my seat; he will not keep his seat. 
He should have talked about the poor—those people who will have to pay the bill for the super-city. We have pensioners and pensioner houses in Auckland. What happened with John Banks as mayor? He got rid of those houses. People fear that that will happen again. People fear that they will lose their houses. We see it with the National Government selling off State houses. It is not a very big step to the super-city doing the same thing with pensioner houses. 
Who will pay for the super-city? I brought up this issue before and it is very very important. I do not think enough consideration has been given to how all this will be funded. I tell that member that the last time we had a reorganisation of local government I was Mayor of Papakura. Papakura was the only one of the Auckland councils that did not put up its rates. I remember Waitakere rates under Assid Corban going up by I think 19.3 percent. Most places suffered huge increases in their costs. The reason for those increases was that people did not plan well and they thought that bigger would be cheaper and more efficient. Of course it was not. I am not saying that the Government should not do this reorganisation but it should tell people what the financial costs are. 
We are finding out what the democratic costs are and that people will have less say—we all know that. 
Nikki Kaye 
: That’s wrong. 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: It is absolutely right; of course it is. People will have less say. That member has not worked out yet that one mayor is fewer than seven mayors. She has not worked it out yet. That member can squawk as much as she likes but the fact is that people in Manukau love their mayor Len Brown. In Waitakere what did we see? People always love Bob Harvey. Good old Bob! In Papakura the mayor is Calum Penrose. People will lose their mayors. That is the democratic cost of the bill. 
The financial cost is something that people who are struggling at the moment in an economic downturn find hard to believe. How are we going to pay for it? It is all very well for the member Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga the temporary member for Maungakiekie. He should run for the super-council if he is as confident as that. He should give up Parliament and have a go. I would even tell people to vote for him if it meant he did not come back here. That is how willing I am to help the guy. 
Rodney Hide is driving the legislation and everyone knows where he stands on the bill. There is absolutely no doubt where he stands which is good. But he should tell people what it will mean for them each week and how much it will cost them. The Government cannot tell us how much the set-up of the super-city and the change-over will cost so how can it tell us what it will cost when the new super-city has been set up? I have not seen anything that is bigger newer and shinier but costs less. That is the reality. That is what people are scared about. It does not matter whether people are wrong in their thinking; it is their perception that matters. People actually believe that the super-city council will not be cheaper and will not be more in their faces; it will cost them more.