Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) - New Zealand Parliament

3712 Local Government (Auckland Reorganisation) Bill 16 May 2009
The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Rick Barker): It is unfortunate that the member has
interrupted the speech being made by a member of his own party. This is how I recall it,
as I heard it. The member speaking was making reference to the member who was
moving across the Chamber. The member who was moving across the Chamber heard
his name mentioned and felt that it had been mispronounced. The member decided to
try to correct the pronunciation of the member’s name. That is how I heard the
exchange. We could get picky about it and interrupt all members’ speeches, but I would
prefer not to. I thought that was the matter. The member is still speaking and making
her points, but I invite members when they are speaking to do their best to pronounce
people’s names properly.
CAROL BEAUMONT: Councillor Lotu-Iiga is missing in action, according to The
Aucklander in two articles now. We have not even had a chance to consider the fact that
this clause enables him to deal with the heat that he is under.
MICHAEL WOODHOUSE (National): I move, That the question be now put.
KEITH LOCKE (Green): I rise to support the amendment of my colleague Sue
Kedgley that states this bill should more appropriately be called the “Gutting of Local
Democracy Bill”. We have heard from Rodney Hide that the bill will take effect, for the
most part, on the day after it receives the Royal assent. I think many Aucklanders will
be very concerned that that will be the beginning of the stripping away of their local
democracy and their ability to participate properly in civic affairs. I think they will be
looking to another commencement date—the commencement date of the hīkoi in
Auckland. The hīkoi has been initiated by Māori and will be led by them, but no doubt
it will bring in a lot of Aucklanders who want to protest. People will be coming from
the south, the north, and the west, and from the Ōrākei Marae, into the centre of town
for a big march up Queen Street to Aotea Square. I think that will be a very important
commencement date.
One thing that worries me is that when this bill takes effect and the Minister appoints
the members of the transitional agency—
Sue Kedgley: The gang of four.
KEITH LOCKE: It is called the gang of four by my colleague. It is the gang of four
if we include Rodney Hide. The agency needs to have only three members—a chair and
two others. If we look at the schedules, which unfortunately we did not get time to
debate in some detail, we see they state that the quorum can be two members. If there
are three members—the chair and two others—and the chair is empowered under the
provision in the schedules to call meetings at times and in places that its chairman
appoints, he can call a meeting of just himself and one of the other members who turns
up. They can have a vote but if it is divided, then the chair has the casting vote, so we
have one person who can effectively direct everything in Auckland for that whole
transitional period. When we think that there are all those other provisions that any
agenda items can be interfered with and anything can be changed, basically that puts
huge power particularly in the hands of the chair of the board.
We can contrast that with the powers under the associated bill, where the local
community boards—20 or 30 of them—do not have any powers at all, other than what
is delegated by the larger Auckland Council. The larger Auckland Council might say
“We’re not going to delegate anything. Get stuffed.”, and that would be it, under this
legislation.
So members can see how the name “Gutting of Local Democracy Bill” is very
appropriate. Why could it not have gone to a select committee? I was on the Foreign
Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee for the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free
Trade Area Bill. We had less than a month to consider that bill. Perhaps we should have