Sue Kedgley: Speech in Parliament about Auckland Governance

Speech by Sue Kedgley in Urgent Debate in Parliament about Auckland Governance, Wednesday 8 April, 2009 The Green Party is gravely concerned that if the government and the Minister of Local Government continue to bulldoze ahead with these sweeping, far reaching proposals, Aucklanders will wake up in about two or three years' time and discover that they have been conned.   They will wake up to discover that democracy in the Auckland region has been significantly shrunk.  They will wake up to discover that they have inherited a huge, bloated, remote, inaccessible super-bureaucracy -a super council - a council run by a tiny inner cabal.  It will be run probably by two men - and I fear that it will be men--a Mayor with an incredible power, who will become a sort of Czar of Auckland, and a Chief Executive, again, with huge and sweeping powers.   All of this concentration of power will be counterbalanced only by 30 local boards that are little more than impotent talkfests.  I predict that if the government's super-city proposals go ahead unchanged, the people who are elected to those 30 local boards will find themselves utterly frustrated.  They will be wringing their hands in frustration, because they will have all of the expectations of their local communities and yet they will be utterly impotent, utterly powerless, to promote the interests of those local communities.   The question we must therefore ask is, why the unseemly haste?  Why the unseemly haste to rush through the implementation of the Royal Commission's proposals, which are sweeping, far-reaching proposals.  They will change the future shape of democracy in New Zealand, and indeed, all around New Zealand, because, let us make no mistake, the Government, having foisted this on Auckland, will do the same around the rest of New Zealand.  So the question is, why we are racing the reform through without even allowing local communities to be consulted first on these far-reaching changes.   So far there has been a complete lack of community consultation since the recommendations were announced.  Community boards all over Auckland are clamouring to be consulted and for the government to pause and allow time for communities to understand the commission's recommendations and how they will impact on the everyday lives of their communities.  They are pleading with the Government for a pause, so why the unseemly race?   The Green party wants to know why National is not doing what it promised solemnly to do before the election.  The National Party said it would consult with Aucklanders once the findings of the Royal Commission were known.  They did not say that they might consult. They did not say that it was a possibility - they made a solemn promise to Aucklanders, and indeed to New Zealanders, that they would consult with Aucklanders once the findings of the Commission were known.   So we call upon the National Government and the Minister of Local Government to make good on that promise and allow Aucklanders to be consulted on these far-reaching proposals.  The Green party is deeply concerned and alarmed at the extraordinary concentration of power in the offices of the Mayor and the Chief Executive.  The Mayor will propose the super-city budget, formulate all major policy, appoint the Deputy Mayor, and appoint all council chairpersons of committees.  I have been on a City Council, the Wellington City Council, for nine years and I can tell members that once the Mayor selects his inner cabal - and it looks, unfortunately, as though it will be a 'his' rather than a 'her' - and sets the budget, the city's strategic directions, and all of the long term plans, he will have virtually total concentrated power over the future direction of Auckland.  Aucklanders should not be duped or deceived on that point.  They should be aware of the unprecedented concentration of power that this move represents.   Other speakers have asked how councillors who are elected at large could be able to be accountable to 600,000 electors.  I do not believe that they will be able to be directly accountable to as many people as that.   That brings us to the issue of the local boards.  It is extraordinary that under the proposals the Government has completely wiped out six city councils in Auckland and all of the democracy they represent.  The Government is proposing to wipe out very effective local councils.  The Waitakere City Council is strongly supported by its community.  The Manakau City Council is strongly supported by that city.  These councils will be simply wiped out with one foul swoop and replaced instead with those 30 local boards.  They will number no more than the existing community boards, but they will be effectively devoid of powers.  What power will those local boards have?  They will have no budgets and no powers of implementation.  They will not be able to hire staff, raise their own revenue, or set rates.  They will not even be able to offer service delivery.  They will not have the ability to implement their own plans, although there is some mention that they may be allowed to develop policies over dog control, liquor licensing, and graffiti control.  We were also told in the briefing yesterday that the people - I do not even know whether they will be called councillors - who will be represented on these local boards will be paid about the same as members of local community boards.  That is the princely sum of about $10, 000 a year. I ask how local boards will be adequately represented by local board members, councillors, or whatever they will be called, who are paid $10-12,000 a year and who will be able to perhaps meet only every now and then and probably often at night.  What the government's move represents is a forced amalgamation.  Why are we doing all of this?  We are not doing it to save money.  No one is even pretending that this will save money, and we know that it will not.  We know that in all of the forced amalgamations around the world, virtually nothing has been saved, and we know that people always underestimate the costs of the implementation of the new council.   So why are we doing it?  Essentially we are doing it because we will have this super-council with one voice.  The Green Party agrees that Auckland needs one voice, and we agree that there needs to be one integrated transport plan. But we do not agree with the mechanism that the Government has come up with to implement this, which involves an incredible concentration of power - probably a greater concentration of power than could be found in any local council around the world.   We are also deeply concerned about the elimination of the three Maori seats that the Royal Commission had proposed.  The Government has given no good reason why it has wiped out those three Maori seats - no good reason at all.  In fact, the Government has given no good reason for much of what it has done.   In conclusion, the Green Party is calling on Aucklanders to be aware that they are being conned, and that they will wake up to find themselves with their democracy shrunk, an incredible concentration of power in the Mayor and impotent local boards.  Aucklanders must be aware of that.   The Green Party calls on Aucklanders to rise up and demand, as we are doing, that this process is slowed down, that there is what the Government promised - consultation with Aucklanders - so that Aucklanders can understand the far-reaching implications of these proposals so that the Government does not just ram and bulldoze these proposals through.  There should be no unseemly haste.  Finally, I say that in overseas countries - in England and America - they are going in exactly the opposite direction.  Those countries have worked out that the key to effective local government is in empowering grassroots local democracy, not creating large super cities or carrying out forced amalgamations.  The whole trend is toward local, empowered communities.  Sure there are 30 community boards but these boards are not empowered at all - they are impotent bodies which will not be able to effectively represent their local communities.