Hipkins Chris: Local Government (Auckland Reorganisation) Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Hipkins Chris: Local Government (Auckland Reorganisation) Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:654;Page:3709] 
CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka) 
: 
 We are 5 minutes into the debate—maybe 10—and National members are already trying to shut it down. We should call this bill the “Rodney Hide (Total Control of Auckland) Bill” because this bill gives Rodney Hide ultimate and total control of Auckland. It establishes a transition agency whose members he can hand-pick. The bill says that that transition agency has to have all of its expenditure approved by the Minister and it gives that transition agency the ultimate control over all the decision making of all the democratically elected existing authorities in Auckland. It hands ultimate and total control to the ACT Party and to people like Rodney Hide and Roger Douglas. Rodney Hide can now appoint whomever he likes to this transition agency. That is why we should call this the “Rodney Hide (Total Control of Auckland) Bill”. He could appoint if he so chose Roger Douglas and Richard Prebble to this agency because even though Roger Douglas is a member of the House we know that National members do not have any problem with double-dipping. They do not have any problem with double-dipping; they do not have any problem with anyone being involved in local government politics at the same time as being in this House. 
We should call this the “Local Government Reorganisation Part 1 Bill” because we know this is the first step in the plans of National and the ACT Party to merge all local authorities into super-councils up and down the country. I took an interest in this particular issue because I know that Paul Quinn and his mate John Terris have been going around the Hutt Valley saying they are in favour of merging Wellington local authorities. 
Paul Quinn 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. I put to you that we are getting repetition. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Rick Barker) 
: I call Chris Hipkins to continue. 
CHRIS HIPKINS 
: I asked Rodney Hide whether he had received any advice on the merging of the Upper Hutt and the Lower Hutt city councils and he has. He has already received advice on the potential merger of the Upper Hutt and Lower Hutt city councils. He answered that in parliamentary written question No. 05571 where he confirmed that he had received advice on the merging of the Upper Hutt and Lower Hutt city councils on 24 April 2009. 
I invite the Minister in the chair to take a call and give the people of the Hutt Valley an absolute reassurance that they are not going to lose their local governance as well as part 2 of this reorganisation that National and the ACT Party are pushing. We know that Hutt Valley people cannot be certain that they would even get a say in that reorganisation because National and the ACT Party would ram through more legislation in this House. That is why we should call this bill the “Local Government Reorganisation Part 1 Bill”—because we know that there is more to come. 
We should call this the “National Party Knows Best Bill” because we heard from members opposite that the people had their say on 8 November last year. It is all over from then on in; National has 3 years when it can do whatever it likes under parliamentary urgency and it does not have to go back and consult the people. It does not even have to send legislation to a select committee. It can do just whatever it likes. That is why we should call this bill the “National Party Knows Best Bill”. 
We should call it the “Gerry Brownlee Has Finally Read the Standing Orders Bill” because after 3 days of debating amendments Gerry Brownlee finally worked out how to get them ruled out of order—not on his own; in fact he probably had quite a bit of help from Rodney Hide to do that. Gerry Brownlee sat through 3 days of voting on amendments before he thought it might be a good idea to pick up the Standing Orders and maybe have a bit of a read. The Leader of the House has finally read the Standing Orders! That is a cause for celebration. So we should call this bill the “Gerry Brownlee Has Finally Read the Standing Orders Bill”. 
We could call it the “Where is Melissa Lee Bill” because despite wanting to be the next MP for Mt Albert she has not taken one single call on this debate. She wants to be the next member of Parliament for a seat in the centre of Auckland yet she has absolutely nothing to say on the reorganisation of Auckland’s local governance. 
We could call this the “Privatisation is Back on the Agenda Bill”. National members may have gone around the country saying they would not sell State-owned enterprises like Kiwibank but they have suddenly discovered there are a whole lot of State assets in local government that they can get their hands on and hock off. They voted against the amendment put forward by Labour that would have saved that.