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3726 Local Government (Tamaki Makaurau Reorganisation) Bill 16 May 2009 techniques. He has been giving advice as to how to sneak the measure through, how to slip in the little words “as it sees fit” so that people do not understand their implication. Rodney Hide will think it was well worth while his choosing the portfolio of Minister of Local Government, because he has pulled off what amounts to a coup d’état. He is setting up Auckland in such a way that at the next election not only will the eight democratically elected Auckland councils be expunged but we will have an Auckland Council with a mayor with the powers of a tsar. John Banks is the next likely mayor. Once he is in complete control of the Auckland Council, he will unleash stage two, which is to sell off the $28 billion of assets of the combined local councils. I sought to table a cartoon before, but I did not actually table it. I would like to table it now, because to me it is the only item in the media that has encapsulated what has happened over the last 3 days. Here is the maniacal, demonic vision of Rodney Hide in his yellow jacket with his proud little ACT motif, trampling on the councils of Waitakere, of Papakura, of Rodney, of North Shore, of Manukau, and of Franklin. It shows him stomping on them triumphantly. It is extraordinary that he has managed to do that in such a way that he has conned New Zealanders and, it seems, the media, too. He has got away with a coup d’état in a quite extraordinary and stunning way. I take my hat off to Rodney Hide. It is “Rogernomics Part 2”. He has done it with devastating audacity and devastating speed, and, seemingly, he has conned the media of New Zealand. TE URUROA FLAVELL (Māori Party—Waiariki): Tēnā koe, Mr Speaker. Kia ora rā. Thank you very much. Over the last 3 days of debate it has been hard to remember what the Local Government (Tamaki Makaurau) Bill is all about. It is not about the “Cousins and Aunts and Uncles of Maui Council”, the “Melissa Lee Memorial Council”, or the “Auckland Funsized Council”. The bill is the next step on from the Government’s decision on Auckland governance. Making Auckland Greater is said to be about greater communities, greater connections, and greater value. Perhaps it would have been more appropriately called Making Auckland Divided; it is about great shame, great waste, and great failure. The great shame is that after a robust consultation process and a comprehensive report from the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance, the Government has hastily rejected any suggestion to provide for specific Māori representation. The great waste is the Government’s apparent disregard for mana whenua interests in establishing the Auckland Transition Agency. The great failure is the almost certain probability, based on the current performance, that in a region that has, by far, the highest Māori population in the world, there will be limited representation of Māori—if any. The caption that Māori Television has applied to this key news item is the Superman shield. It is most appropriate to use this graphic to demonstrate the bill. The bill purports to be more powerful than any legislation seen before it. It is able to leap 50 years of controversy in a single bound. Based on a legislative process that will be faster than a speeding bullet, this bill will, indeed, set up “Supermayor”—a mayor of steel, who controls one super, overarching local authority for Auckland, sweeping out of its way three district councils, four city councils, seven mayors elected at large, and 96 territorial authority councillors. But as any comic book fan will tell you, the blue, red, and yellow cape of the superhero is eventually hung up, as Clark Kent resumes his real persona as the mild-mannered low-level employee of The Daily Planet. The real issue behind the widespread opposition to the super-city proposal is that Aucklanders want to be heard and they want their issues to be respected. They want the views they put forward in over 3,500 submissions to carry some weight. They do not want a sham deal or the façade of making Auckland greater, while all they can see
16 May 2009 Local Government (Tamaki Makaurau Reorganisation) Bill 3727 around them is the dismantling of arrangements to encourage participation in local authority decision-making. Our focus throughout this bill has honed in on the significant level of concern expressed throughout Tāmaki about the issue of Māori representation. In case there is confusion in this Committee, Māori living in Tāmaki-makau-rau do not need a supermayor, a super-council, or anything else to tell them how they could be represented; they know for themselves. On 29 October last year the Tāmaki Regional Mana Whenua Forum was established. It derived its mandate from the 13 mana whenua authorities within the Tāmaki region. When talk has been bandied about the traps about one or two seats for mana whenua, I think it is only fitting to remind the Committee of the iwi and the hapū who affiliate to the local authorities across this region. The mana whenua groups are Ngāi Tai, Ngāti Manuhiri, Ngāti Maru, Ngāti Pāoa, Ngāti Rehua, Ngāti Te Ata - Wai o Hua, Ngāti Tamaoho, Ngāti Tamaterā, Ngāti Whanaunga, Ngāti Whātua, Te Ahiwaru, Te Akitai, and Te Kawerau-a-Maki. One of the many names for the Tāmaki area is Tāmaki Herenga Waka—Tāmaki, the resting place of many canoes. This is part of the history of Tāmaki-makau-rau. Ancestors arriving from Hawaiki either berthed at Tāmaki and made it their home, or used it as a resting place before continuing on with their journey, as Tainui did at Kāwhia, and as my waka, Te Arawa, did before heading down the coast to the Maketū region in the Bay of Plenty. So in the tribal histories of many people—including Ngāti Awa, Haurakai-Waikato, and Ngāti Whātua—our tūpuna lived in Tāmaki at one time or another. Māori representation must take into account the rangatiratanga of the iwi and hapū who whakapapa back to this land. It was pleasing to hear earlier in the debate the Minister for Local Government, Rodney Hide, state categorically that it is clear that proper engagement with local iwi and the new Auckland Council will be crucial for the new council to succeed. Our contribution throughout the debate on this local government bill has been to spell out exactly what proper engagement might involve. My colleague Hone Harawira, himself of Ngāti Whātua, talked about partnership protection, participation, and pragmatism. Proper engagement will be seen in the maintenance of an organisational structure, environment, and leadership that promotes and enhances the recognition of Māori values. Proper engagement is about the protection of mana whenua, of wāhi tapu, and of taonga Māori. Proper engagement is demonstrated by meaningful and mutually beneficial participation of Māori in the council. Proper engagement will be seen in the practical means of maintaining and resourcing a consultative mechanism, and a mechanism for tangata whenua and the council to contribute to a decision-making process. Partnership protection, participation, and pragmatism do not have to be too hard. During the second reading the Associate Minister of Local Government, John Carter, rose to his feet and said: “this Government is about consulting.” We ask the Minister and his associate how rushing this bill through under urgency enables a robust consultation process to occur. I want to read a letter from Michelle Wilson of the Tāmaki Regional Mana Whenua Forum. She said: “The forum strongly disagrees with the Government’s failure to appropriately act upon the recommendations of the royal commission and the lack of consultation with mana whenua in order to provide for appropriate Māori representation. As a result, there is a lack of provision from the Crown’s agent, the Government, to their Treaty partner. This is a clear breach of the intent and principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.” This sort of statement was reiterated in the strongest terms by the Ngāti Whātua o Ōrākei chairperson, Grant Hawke, on the day the Government’s announcement for
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