Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) - New Zealand Parliament

16 May 2009 Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill 3747
this country. It is the key to the growth and prosperity of New Zealand. I commend this
bill to the House.
SU’A WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Māngere): Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for
the opportunity to speak tonight. If I sound emotional tonight, I make no apology for it.
In fact, for the past few days quite a lot of emotion has been released by all sides of the
House on this matter. It is a very significant matter, in terms of the people whom I
represent and the communities I represent in Māngere and Manukau City. I have been to
many funerals of friends and relatives—people whom I cherish and are dear to me. I am
using this point as a preface before I get on to the bill. Those funerals have all been very
sad occasions, but our debate over the establishment by this Government of a super-city
without it asking Aucklanders about it has deeply hurt me. I say to this House that that
hurt is a reflection of how the communities throughout Manukau City and Waitakere
feel about the actions of this Government. In fact, they feel that it is an outrage that they
have not been given the opportunity to have a say. It may be that they would agree to
the proposal.
That is the reason why I stand tonight to acknowledge and thank all of my Labour
colleagues and the other parties—the Greens and, to some extent, the Māori Party—for
holding this Government to account. That is what we have asked for—that it gives
Aucklanders the opportunity to have a say. Often in this debate there has been outrage
from the other side of the House, but the outrage that I feel, and that I suspect is felt by
many throughout Auckland, is that the action of this Government can be described as
criminal in many senses. We have had two senior members of the Government—Mr
Key, the honourable Prime Minister, and the honourable Minister of Local
Government—holding a gun to the head of the mayors and councillors and saying
“Click! Bang! We’ve got the numbers. That’s why we’re doing this.” That is a sign of
the sheer arrogance of this Government after only 6 months of being in power.
For those who are listening, I say that Labour has fought tooth and nail to hold this
Government to account. Labour has fought hard to ensure that the bills that this
Government is introducing in urgency are examined, because the National and ACT
Government’s undemocratic plans deserve to be given back to the people.
So we come to the bill. There are four parts and 24 clauses. The member for
Manurewa, George Hawkins, held up an advertisement earlier that had been paid for by
the Parliamentary Service—by taxpayers. It is advertising a series of meetings.
Hon Trevor Mallard: No.
SU’A WILLIAM SIO: Yes. It is an outrage. It is advertising a series of meetings
that are to be held in the next few months by the Government in the Auckland region.
Hon Trevor Mallard: After it’s gone through.
SU’A WILLIAM SIO: After it has been done, exactly—after the fact. Here is the
advertisement. It states “Have Your Say …”. This advertisement is deceptive, because
the main decision has already been made. But here is the other concern: eight meetings
are being held in the area of the current Auckland City Council, and the fear and
concern we have is that these meetings are campaign meetings for John Banks by this
Government. In Manukau and Waitakere, there is only one meeting. There is one
meeting for the 380,000 people living in Manukau, which is the third-largest city in
New Zealand—one meeting. I have to ask whether that is a sign of things to come, as a
result of this Government and the super-city.
I lament the loss of my city and of four mayors: the late Hugh Lambie; the late Sir
Lloyd Elsmore; Sir Barry Curtis, who served 24 years; and now Len Brown, the Mayor
of Manukau City. I lament the loss of the three councillors who represent Māngere. I
lament the loss of eight community boards, made up of local people who live in the
area. With the stroke of Mr Hide’s pen, those local government bodies exist in name