Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) - New Zealand Parliament

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