Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) - New Zealand Parliament

More documents

Recommendations

Info

3736 Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill 16 May 2009 parking. They might be able to talk about liquor bans, although maybe the big council will not let them do that. It is really quite worrying. Hon Members: George, George! Hon GEORGE HAWKINS: Hello! Hon Member: Where’s Mr Prasad? I haven’t seen him for 3 days! Hon GEORGE HAWKINS: Well! I want to talk about the Government’s use of parliamentary funds to advertise in the newspaper I have here. I have been looking through it to see who is having meetings. Well, the Hon Dr Lockwood Smith is going to have a meeting. Yes, the Hon Paula Bennett is. She went weak at the knees the last time she had a meeting about this. Who is having the most meetings? It is Nikki Kaye; that is fine. One person I have a bit of admiration for, because she did not jump up in the earlier debates, is Jackie Blue, and I would be interested to hear what she actually thinks. And we have the member for Maungakiekie, who is going to be very busy because he feels a cold draught up his majority. Who is next? It is my friend Mr Bakshi again. He has a meeting, and I want to advertise this meeting. It is in Papatoetoe on 9 June at 7 p.m.; he is asking everyone to come along, and to bring a job offer as well. Hon Clayton Cosgrove: Will he say anything? Hon GEORGE HAWKINS: He has said nothing in 4 days. Then we have Paul Hutchison, who made a brilliant third reading speech. Someone else wrote it for him— probably the whips or the research unit. But what is actually happening here is that the Government is trying to con Aucklanders that they are going to have a say. Well, that will not happen at all, because the major part of this legislation—of these three bills—has already been passed. We have a situation where National members are going around trying to con people. Mr Peachey is not doing it. He is not having a meeting, because he knows that the people where he lives are not going to waste their time on going out to one. They know he is not worth listening to, so they are not going to go, and that is quite a worry. The other name I was looking for was Melissa Lee. They kept her in the dark last time, and it is not a good idea to keep her in the dark; it leads to trouble. In the end, we want to find out why National members are having these meetings. Why did they not have the meetings before and tell people about the big plan? They did not do it; they did not want to do it. Of course, Richard Worth is not having any meetings, and I thought he knew the Mayor of Auckland pretty well—but, obviously, not as well as the Mayor of New Delhi—so that is really quite a surprise to us all. Wayne Mapp is not having a meeting—and why not? Wayne Mapp is out on manoeuvres. But he gets there, and what a great MP and Minister of Defence he is. He does not get seasick; yes, he is a person without any feelings, at all. He does not feel for the people on the North Shore. What will happen is that people will go along and make submissions, but will they have a chance to make real submissions? No. The National Government does not have confidence in its membership on the Local Government and Environment Committee. The chairman is from West Coast - Tasman, and of course he has had a terrible job. He has had to cut people off when they have wanted to say something. He has been giving people 5 minutes—5 minutes—to talk about such important things, but National wants someone a bit stronger, who will give Aucklanders only 2 minutes. In the end, the Government is not really listening, at all. When it comes to deciding whether there will be 20 or 30 community boards, the Local Government Commission will be doing that. Hon Member: This is the most exciting night George has had in 50 years.
16 May 2009 Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill 3737 Hon GEORGE HAWKINS: There is “Baldrick” going on again, over there; I wish he would keep quiet. The people of Manukau will want to talk about their airport shares, and how the National Government stole their shares in the airport. At least I had the decency to sell the shares back to the Government when I was mayor. Let us have a look at the cost. How much will it cost? The Government is not worried about the cost, because it will not cost the Government; it will cost Aucklanders. It will cost the people who are losing their jobs, the people who are losing overtime. They are the ones who will pay for it. Do members think that the National Government cares? We have local mayors like Len Brown, who goes around schools and talks to kids, sings to kids, and provides leadership, but there will not be any of that from local boards. They will be chasing dogs, licensing brothels, etc. Calum Penrose is an excellent person, and he is the Mayor of Papakura. What is happening there? In Papakura, where there are some difficulties, the kids are asking “Aren’t we going to have a mayor?”. The kids realise it; the kids realise that leadership is important. They need someone to look up to. They do not need as their figurehead the janitor who looks after the local hall. In the end, I think that this Government has made a big mistake. The process of getting out and talking to people should have happened with the first bill and not the second, if the Government is sending only one to the select committee. The process should have happened with both of them, actually. But of course the rush is on. And the rush will be on to the polling booths to get rid of the Government that has stolen Auckland this May. The people will remember this time as the turn-round time. Hon JOHN CARTER (Associate Minister of Local Government): It is quite funny, is it not—I say this in response to what the Hon George Hawkins just said—but the last time I looked, Auckland was still there. So I do not know who stole it. It is ironic—and we often get some irony in this House—that for the last 3 days or more Opposition members have been saying to us that they actually support having one city in Auckland, but the reason they do not support the first bill is that we have not sent it to the select committee. Here we are now, with a bill that will go to the select committee, and Opposition members do not like it. They do not want people to have a say. I am pleased to support the Government and to support the Minister of Local Government, Rodney Hide, in the first reading of the Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill. It starts the process of consultation that we said we would give the people of Auckland. Most important, it allows the people of Auckland to tell us what they want. I know that it is unusual for the Labour Party to do this, but rather than our prescribing things and telling people about them afterwards or letting them have their say afterwards, we are going out there with an open book. We are saying: “Just inform us, and then we will see how we can accommodate that.” That is the very point. We hear rhetoric from those members all the time saying that we are doing it wrong, but I did not hear one speech that said: “Here is the alternative.”—not one speech. Opposition members did not tell us what they would have done if they had had the opportunity. It is a good thing that those members did not have the opportunity, because we would have got some more old granny State stuff instead of actually genuinely getting out there and listening to the people. That is what this bill will do. That is what this Government is about, what this Prime Minister is about, and what this Minister of Local Government is about. I am proud to support a Government that is doing those things. This is a great day for New Zealand. It
Page 1:
First Session, Forty-ninth Parliame
Page 5 and 6:
16 May 2009 Local Government (Auckl
Page 7 and 8:
Page 9 and 10:
Page 11 and 12:
Page 13 and 14:
Page 15 and 16:
Page 17 and 18:
Page 19 and 20:
Page 21 and 22:
Page 23 and 24:
Page 25 and 26:
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30:
Page 31 and 32:
Page 33 and 34:
Page 35 and 36:
Page 37 and 38:
Page 39 and 40:
Page 41 and 42:
Page 43 and 44:
Page 45 and 46:
Page 47 and 48:
Page 49 and 50:
Page 51 and 52:
Page 53 and 54:
Page 55 and 56:
Page 57 and 58:
Page 59 and 60:
Page 61 and 62:
Page 63 and 64:
Page 65 and 66:
Page 67 and 68:
Page 69 and 70: 16 May 2009 Local Government (Auckl
Page 103 and 104: 16 May 2009 Local Government (Tamak
Page 119: 16 May 2009 Local Government (Auckl
Page 143 and 144: Index to 13 May 2009 (continued on
Page 145 and 146: HIPKINS, CHRIS— Bills— Local Go
show all

Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) - New Zealand Parliament

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?