Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) - New Zealand Parliament

3624 Local Government (Auckland Reorganisation) Bill 16 May 2009
Here is where the plot gets thicker. The agency will not report through an
independent governance process to the Cabinet of the New Zealand Government, which
would be, of course, the normal process for any State-owned enterprise or Crown entity.
No—this agency reports to one Minister, the Minister in the chair, Rodney Hide. Why
on earth would that be? It is certainly not good governance practice, which is why in
new Part 11 we are introducing the Auckland Transition Agency Review Commission
with additional juridical oversight.
Members opposite have obviously been lobbied hard by Ports of Auckland. Ports of
Auckland says that this legislation will not do. It is a private company trading in open
markets, it has its own board, and it wants to be a special case. Let us admit that there
are grounds for that special case, but why for Ports of Auckland? Why not Watercare
Services? If the National Business Review and Trans Tasman are to be believed, the
Minister in charge of this bill is going to appoint the chief executive of the water
company to be the chair of the transition agency. How will they deal with that conflict
of interest? I would not want to be that person. I have great respect for Mark Ford, and I
think he is a very able man, but I would not want to be in his shoes. I hope he gets firstclass
legal advice about his liabilities and his risks, because I think he is exposed.
I think the Minister, in his rush to railroad this legislation through the House and to
create a very clean reporting line that allows him to bulldoze his way through normal
legal convention, is exposing one of the more able executives in the Auckland business
community. I hope for Mr Mark Ford’s sake that he thinks very carefully not only about
whether to accept that appointment but also about the conditions upon which he accepts
it. I am sure that Mr Mark Ford would appreciate what the Opposition is doing to try to
provide better independent cover, oversight, liability, and risk management through this
important part that is being very seriously introduced this morning. I hope the
Government members who are sitting here, and who will be getting used to sitting here,
will give this new part their earnest consideration.
GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central): It is a pleasure to take a
call on new Part 11, which establishes the Auckland Transition Agency Review
Commission. The Leader of the House, in relation to the first speech given on this part
by the Hon George Hawkins, said it was bureaucracy gone mad.
Hon Darren Hughes: He’d know!
GRANT ROBERTSON: He would know about that, I say to Mr Hughes, because
since being in office the National Government has established 36 review committees.
Most of them have been set up by Mr Brownlee, who is trying to review what he knows
about the energy sector. Unfortunately, he does not know a lot, so he has had to
establish 36 review committees.
This particular review commission has been established for a very, very good reason:
National has pushed this bill through Parliament under urgency, denying Aucklanders
the right to have a proper democratic process. In the light of that and of the fact that last
night we sat in this Chamber and established, without a select committee process, an
agency that would be responsible for $28 billion of assets and for 6,000 people’s jobs,
we need a review commission. This is a serious amendment and a serious new part,
because this Government has decided that Aucklanders should not have a say about the
transition to a super-city. It has tried to push that through without any input at this
important stage in the process. A review commission, as established under Part 11,
would be able to let Aucklanders have a say.
We see very clearly, when we look at this part, that the review commission will be
established on a far fairer basis than that of the transition agency it will seek to review.
If we note the membership of the Auckland Transition Agency Review Commission, we
realise it will consist of the chair of the commission and five commissioners. We noted