Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) - New Zealand Parliament

3742 Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill 16 May 2009
everyone knows, a select committee is completely pointless if the Government has
already made up its mind. Let us make no mistake: the Government has made up its
mind. I say to Aucklanders: “Do not be conned.” Nevertheless, I still urge all
Aucklanders who understand what is going on here to make their voices heard and to
protest at the select committee, because there will not be anything else to do at the
committee hearings, apart from perhaps talking about the powers of the pitiful,
toothless, impotent local boards. I encourage those people to turn up nevertheless,
because, as the Prime Minister said in this House, every Aucklander who wishes to be
heard by this select committee will be heard. I urge people, even though it is too late, to
get out there and make their voices heard.
I predict that this super-city is not going to bring about any savings at all, and I am
really worried about that. The international research that has been done shows that none
of these forced amalgamations—because that is what this is—none of these super-cities,
has ever delivered any savings. Most of them have come out and estimated savings; of
course, Rodney Hide has refused to tell this House whether there will be any savings at
all. Some super-cities promised 18 percent savings, and they eventually saved maybe 1
or 2 percent.
The super-city will disenfranchise whole Auckland communities. There will be a
backlash against it, and it will not solve any of the so-called problems of Auckland. The
problems of Auckland do not relate to its structure. This whole debate has been about
structure. The problems people have with local government are things like the phoney
consultation, and the lack of accountability and transparency. None of those problems
will be solved by this super-city.
The people of Auckland are going to wake up and find that they have this huge,
bloated, remote, inaccessible super-city, which will be a bit like a supertanker, and they
will not be able to access it or influence it. The super-city will have $28 billion of
assets, and it will be a huge mega-city—one of the biggest in the Western World. The
irony is that most places—for example, the United Kingdom—are going in exactly the
opposite direction. These places have worked out that big super-cities do not work.
They are not flexible. They are not able to deal with the problems of local democracy.
So they are going in exactly the opposite direction. They are setting up local councils
that are smaller and are genuinely close to the people.
I predict that New Zealand will have a big, bloated super-city for a few years, and
then we will work out that it has been a complete disaster and a huge waste of money,
and that, far from solving the problems and the alleged parochialism of Auckland, the
super-city has only unleashed resentment and disempowerment. In a few years’ time,
we will go back to what we had before.
HONE HARAWIRA (Māori Party—Te Tai Tokerau): Tēnā koe, Mr Speaker.
Kia ora tātou katoa e te Whare.
Hon Darren Hughes: It is all Labour’s fault.
HONE HARAWIRA: Not quite. The original submissions to the Royal Commission
on Auckland Governance included a plea for recognition of the Treaty of Waitangi in
local government, and recognition of rangatiratanga, kaitiakitanga, and the rights and
responsibilities of mana whenua. Sure, they acknowledged the limitations of
arrangements being implemented by councils around the Auckland region, but they
recognised at least the possibility of positive relationships under section 4 of Part 1 of
the Local Government Act 2002, which states: “In order to recognise and respect the
Crown’s responsibility to take appropriate account of the principles of the Treaty of
Waitangi and to maintain and improve opportunities for Maori to contribute to local
government decision-making processes, Parts 2 and 6 provide principles and