Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) - New Zealand Parliament

16 May 2009 Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill 3741
Rodney Hide has been very chipper since the dinner break. He has been very, very
chipper, bouncing up and interjecting and looking incredibly pleased with himself—and
why would he not? He has pulled off a coup—in fact, it is a coup d’état. He has justified
his being the Minister of Local Government. No doubt, the ACT Party will have
contributions rolling into its coffers from people who will be deeply grateful for what he
has done, and who will be rubbing their hands together as they envisage the $28 billion
worth of assets that will eventually be privatised in a year or two, and that they will be
able to get their hands on. Of course, the people of the Auckland Citizens and
Ratepayers Association are gearing themselves up all over Auckland even as we speak,
and are looking forward to the day next November when they hope they can take over
the council of the super-city of Auckland and unleash their agenda on the people of
Auckland. So a lot of people are very grateful to Rodney Hide—or, at least, a lot of
business people are. But I think that, once what has happened here sinks in,
Aucklanders will not be grateful at all. I think there will be a major backlash when they
realise what a coup d’état Rodney Hide has pulled off using the classic techniques of
Rogernomics.
National is now pretending that it will go out and consult, after pulling off the coup
d’état, after setting up the super-city, and after wiping out eight democratically elected
councils. The Government is now telling Aucklanders not to worry, because it will go
out and consult, it will set up a committee, and it will listen to the people of Auckland.
The only trouble is what is the Government going to listen to them talk about. What is
there left to consult about? The whole thing has been set in place. There is one aspect
left to consult about—the power of the local boards. The super-city is in place; it is
ready to be taken over by John Banks, who will be the next tsar of Auckland. We hope
he will not be, as David Cunliffe said, but that is the possibility that we need to face up
to. He will have unlimited mayoral powers that no other mayor in Auckland will have.
The only counterbalance to the power of the mayor, who will completely control the
super-city, will be the local boards.
Let us look at the legislation to see what the local boards are. The first thing that one
notices in the legislation is that it states that a local board is not a local authority. I will
repeat that: “A local board is not a local authority”. What is it, then? It is an
“unincorporated body”. That is what those local boards are, and they have no powers at
all in the legislation. The only powers they will have will be delegated by the supercouncil.
So the super-council may decide to delegate some piffling little powers, or it
may decide not to delegate anything. The bill then says that there will be four to nine
members on each of the boards. We were told in a briefing that the board members will
be paid $10,000 each. Those people will represent about 70,000 people. The people of
Manukau are going to find themselves with, instead of their city council—which, as far
as I know, most of the residents of Manukau are very, very satisfied with—two
councillors on the Auckland super-city council, and a piffling little board with four
members, which is an unincorporated body. They will not have even a local authority.
And what will these local boards do? They will have absolutely no resources and no
power. The local boards will not be able to hire staff. They will not be able to own
anything. They will not be able to levy rates, borrow money, make by-laws, or develop
plans. What will these boards do? They will do absolutely nothing. I say to Mr Hide that
this is not local democracy; this is a pathetic joke. The Government has also got rid of
the Māori seats, which were one of the best recommendations of the Royal Commission
on Auckland Governance. What an outrage that the Government would simply
obliterate the Māori seats.
I warn Aucklanders that the consultation that we are now going to embark on, having
set the whole thing up, will be—I am afraid to say—a completely pointless exercise. As