Hon RODNEY HIDE (Leader—ACT)
: I move,
That the Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill be now read a second time. This bill continues Parliament’s work of creating a new Auckland Council. It is the second of three bills that I have brought or am bringing before Parliament. Together, they will help to resolve the decades-old problems with Auckland’s local governance. The first bill I introduced is now the Local Government (Tamaki Makaurau Reorganisation) Act 2009. This second bill continues the process of moving the eight existing councils in the Auckland region into one Auckland Council. The third bill, which I will bring to the House later this year, will complete the legislative framework for ongoing arrangements in Auckland’s future governance, and will finalise the arrangements for moving from the old to the new Greater Auckland.
The report back by the Auckland Governance Legislation Committee on the Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill is a further step towards Auckland becoming a world-class city supported by effective local government, with one mayor, one council, and one plan. I acknowledge the select committee for all its work on the bill, especially its chair, the Hon John Carter. Under his leadership, substantial agreement was achieved on many major points such as the role of the mayor, election from wards, and the local boards. The committee was supported by Auckland citizens, ratepayers, and organisations, who made some 2,500 submissions. As well as thanking the committee for its fine work, I thank each person who made a submission. We said we would listen, and we have. The bill is much better as a result of that. I would also like to thank the Department of Internal Affairs for its support to the committee, and, indeed, for the Government through this process. I believe the amendments proposed by the select
committee will strengthen the bill and further the Government’s goal of creating a prosperous, world-class city.
I want to briefly outline the main amendments. They cover the roles, functions, and decision-making responsibilities of the councils and local boards; the roles and functions of the council’s governing body, made up of the mayor and 20 councillors; the voting system to be used for the first elections in October 2010; the powers and functions of the Local Government Commission in establishing the number of local boards; the boundaries of the city and the region; and the integration of water and wastewater services by Watercare Services Ltd.
The select committee received a number of submissions on the need to strengthen the role of local boards in the decision-making processes of the new council. The Government has produced, and is pleased to support, a set of excellent recommendations in this area. Under these recommendations, local boards will be responsible for developing a local board plan to reflect the priorities and preferences of their communities for council services and facilities. The boards will use these plans to establish agreements with the governing body. This will cover levels of service and local boards’ funding requirements. The mayor and councillors will be responsible for ensuring the agreement reached with each local board in respect of local services and the facilities is implemented. The boards will control the budgets they need to function appropriately and effectively in their communities. The amendments will provide that the mayor and the councillors, and the councils’ local boards, will work together and have distinct roles, rather than operate in a hierarchical relationship.
The Government supports the recommendations of the select committee on voting systems. The mayor will be elected by the electors of Auckland as a whole using the first-past-the-post voting system for the first election in 2010. All 20 councillors will be elected from single member or multi-member wards, also under first past the post, in the first election next year. No councillors will be elected at large. Aucklanders will be able to decide for themselves whether they want to switch to a single transferable vote or retain the first-past-the-post voting system in the following elections.
The select committee recommends that the mayor and councillors be responsible for making decisions on matters where an Auckland-wide approach will best promote the well-being of communities across Auckland and be most efficient for the administration of council business. This includes the administration and enforcement of the council’s statutory responsibilities for resource management, building code requirements, and public health and civil defence arrangements across the region. The mayor and councillors will also be responsible for financial and asset management and the staff and resources of the council, and maintaining the capacity of the council to provide services and the facilities across the region.
When preparing strategies, policies, plans, or by-laws, the governing body will be required to consult with local boards and to take into account the views expressed by each local board on behalf of its community. All other decision making on services and facilities is the responsibility of local boards. The local boards will have responsibility for decisions on local issues and will be able to reflect the particular character and preferences of their communities. Local boards will be able to propose by-laws specifically for their board areas, in order to reflect the particular needs of their communities.
The Government is pleased that the committee has recommended new provisions that specify and clarify the responsibilities of the mayor, the councillors, and the local boards. I believe those recommendations will ensure the local boards will be able to represent and advocate strongly for the needs and concerns of local communities and allow those communities to have a say in decisions affecting them. They will have real
local authority. The governing body of the mayor and councillors will be responsible for regionally important decisions and the local boards will make decisions for their local communities. There will be one council with two decision-making bodies working side by side, each with its own role and responsibilities.
This bill requires the Local Government Commission to determine the boundaries of Auckland, and its wards and local boards, by 1 March, 2010. The select committee has responded to the large number of submissions around the boundaries of Auckland and the concern that rural areas not be included in the urban Auckland area. The bill provides direction to the commission about the southern boundary of Auckland. The select committee recommended that similar direction be given over the northern boundary. The select committee recommended that the urban and partly urban areas of both the Rodney and Franklin districts should fall within the Auckland boundary. Because of the distance, nature, and interest of the areas of the Rodney and Franklin districts that will become part of Auckland, the committee also recommended that a single-member ward be created for each of the two areas to ensure local representation on the Auckland Council.
Changes to local government boundaries, like other boundary issues, are always contentious, and every proposal is likely to have vocal opponents. Although there were good reasons for the select committee recommendation to exclude the northern areas of the Rodney district, it is clear that there is strong opposition in the district to splitting its communities. The Government has listened to that concern and has responded by acting in the interests of both the local communities and wider regional governance. I will be introducing a Supplementary Order Paper to propose retaining the northern boundary as the current regional boundary.
Auckland has struggled with a governance system that did not meet its needs effectively for over 50 years. This bill will ensure that the new structures will be in place in time for the October 2010 local government elections, and will mean that the Auckland Council will be up and running on 1 November 2010. The Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill is a priority for the Government. It is important that the bill proceeds through its remaining stages as soon as possible so that the Local Government Commission has time to complete its work on boundary, ward, and local board issues by March next year. Timely passage of the bill will also give the Auckland Transition Agency the necessary direction to complete its work in time for the Auckland Council and its local boards to be up and running on 1 November 2010. This bill will enable the Auckland governance work to progress and is the next step towards an even greater Auckland. I commend this bill to the House.
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS (Labour—Manurewa)
: First of all, I want to thank the officials who worked on behalf of the Auckland Governance Legislation Committee. I also acknowledge the work of the chairman, the Hon John Carter. He was not my choice to be the chair—I thought it was disgraceful to have a member of the executive chairing the committee—but I will be fair; I think he did a good job.
It is very interesting that the Government says it was listening. It was not. It listened to what it wanted to hear, and it blocked its ears to what it did not want to hear. Of course, that was the case with the first bill, now the Local Government (Tamaki Makaurau Reorganisation) Act 2009. It was rushed through, without a select committee hearing, and that approach has continued. Māori and the vast number of the submitters thought there should be Māori seats, but the Government did not listen. We have heard since that it is not listening.
This bill tells us about a lack of democracy. When people come to a select committee in such numbers and so united in what they say, I do not think is very sensible to ignore them. It shows a lack of democracy by a Government that sends SAS troops to
Afghanistan to help with democracy but does not practice it at home. This bill is all about the madness of John Key. We have a Cabinet that is full up of people who come from the Auckland area, and they sat in the Cabinet room and were absolutely silent on the issue. Many of them know it was mad to select Rodney Hide as the Minister of Local Government. They picked a person who had an agenda, but it coincided with the agenda that the Government had. I think that was mad. What has Murray McCully, a Cabinet Minister, said about this bill? No one knows. What has Wayne Mapp, another Cabinet Minister, said about this bill? He has not said anything.
Tau Henare has said things. He said he believed there should be some Māori voices around the council table, but he got dumped on by his party—a party that used to say how good it was that one could cross the floor of the House and speak one’s mind. Paul Hutchison is another member who belatedly spoke out. I want him to tell me what he will tell the people who live in the Waikato area of Pukekohe why they have to travel down to Hamilton to get a resource consent. They will have to go all the way down to Hamilton instead of into Pukekohe. That does not make sense, and Paul Hutchison did not try hard enough to stand up for them. I challenge him to cross the floor when we vote on that matter, but will he?
Dr Paul Hutchison: No way!
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS: No, he probably will not.
I think of other Cabinet Ministers like Dr Jonathan Coleman. He did not say anything; he ran away like a scalded cat. I think of Paula Bennett, who has a majority of about 635; she will be gone from this House in the next election. When the issue first came up she opened her mouth, but it was absolutely slammed shut. I think of Pansy Wong. She does not seem to speak in the House, not even on this bill—not on anything. She is the most silent member of Parliament. I think of Maurice Williamson. Everyone thought he would be a bit of a rebel and stick up for his local people, but he has not. Then I think of Judith Collins. She did not even turn up to a meeting where her constituents wanted to see her in Papakura last night. Why not? She probably had a dinner date. She was probably at some flash Wellington restaurant, drinking right-wing chardonnay and rattling the glasses. She would be swigging it back and eating caviar while the people in Papakura suffered.
These changes in boundaries included talk about the change in Rodney, and I welcome that change because that is what people want. But in the Franklin area, the Government is giving away Auckland’s Hunua area to the Waikato. It is the playground for people in South Auckland, and, indeed, most of Auckland. Mike Lee, chairman of the Auckland Regional Council, pleaded with the Minister of Local Government. Federated Farmers put it like this: “It’s like condemning Auckland and Franklin to King Solomon-type solutions, without the wisdom.” I think that is a very good summary of it all. I hope Paul Hutchison takes that on board and goes and talks to Federated Farmers and to Colin Bull and they give him a load of it, because in the end he has to make sure that he sticks up for his area. We know that his colleague right next to him from Papakura will not stick up for her constituents, at all.
Some members should have turned up to the select committee a bit more than they did. Hone Harawira all of a sudden found out that there was not going to be enough work done to get Māori seats. He should have been there all the time. He should not have missed a single meeting, but he did. That demonstrates that if one is there all the time, if one is speaking to people after the meetings and is listening to people, one starts to see patterns emerging. That is what happened with the wards. First of all, the Government was going to have eight people elected at large. Then it changed its mind because a number of people said those all should be elected by wards. But I say that we should not be tricked by the National Government. How big will those wards be? Will
there be three or four, five or six, or 20 or maybe just 10 wards? People still do not know the answers.
The National Government wants people to take it on trust. Well, I can tell them they can never ever take a Tory on trust. I have been in the House for 19 years and have never found National members to be the most honest people around. I am quite surprised by them. I think one of the things that people will be doing is paying more in rates. The Government has not told us how much all this reorganisation will cost. One thing is for certain: the rates will go up and they will go up 3 months before the next election. I think this Government ought to be wise to that. It is very interesting.
I say to Dr Paul Hutchinson that he should go and talk to his colleague Nikki Kaye. She got what she wanted for Waiheke, so why did that member not get what the people of Franklin wanted? She got that because she is better than him, even though he has been in the House longer. I see that Nikki Kaye is embarrassed, but she should not be. I know that she secretly believes how good she is. But Government members are disorganised. Tau Henare and Paul Hutchinson have spoken out against the bill. Where is Georgina te Heuheu—
Dr Paul Hutchison: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. Time and time again we have heard this member pronounce names incorrectly. In my case, it is “Hutchison”; the Hutchinsons were a branch of the family that invented the thumbscrew.
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy): Members should take as much care as they can with pronunciation. I also caution the member that he referred to the absence of a member in asking where somebody is, and he must not do that.
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS: I apologise to the member opposite. I did not know that his relatives were inventing thumbscrews, but I will take his word for it. It is a pity they did not put one on him until he squealed loud enough to make changes to the bill.
Hon Trevor Mallard: Sounds like they did.
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS: That is right!
This bill will be the first nail in the coffin of the National Government. It is very interesting that Rodney Hide is the person who is preparing the hearse, ready to take the National Party into the next election with legislation that will annoy and burn away at Aucklanders for a long, long time.
