Aucklanders listening to that speech will be asking themselves whether they can trust this Government with the people of Auckland. They will be asking themselves whether they can trust this Government with New Zealand’s economy, when 150,000 people are unemployed and the Government is sitting on its hands, doing nothing. They will be asking themselves whether they can trust this Government, when tax cuts went to business and to high-income earners and there was nothing for ordinary hard-working Aucklanders. They will be asking themselves whether they can trust this Government with protecting our communities, when it manufactures a case to break up the accident compensation scheme, to sell it off, and to raise levies for motorcyclists. They will be asking themselves whether we can trust this Government with the governance of Auckland, with its people, with its region, and with its assets.

Mary Gush of the Ōtara Community Board was one of many people who submitted during the hasty and rushed select committee hearings on the second Government bill, the Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill. Like many Aucklanders, Mary slammed the Government’s process of the Auckland super-city legislation as undemocratic and shambolic. Later she said to me that what this Government was doing could best be described as rape and pillage of the Auckland region, its assets, and its people. She shook her head in disbelief at this Government, and especially at the Minister of Local Government who is behaving like a medieval warlord, except that of course he now wears a suit and tie and has gone to get advice on power lifting from the Governor of California.

The Minister rammed the first bill, the Local Government (Tamaki Makaurau Reorganisation) Bill, through under urgency, without public consultation, and established the Auckland Transition Agency with powers, authorities, and privileges to oversee the Auckland region, thereby removing the rights of democratically elected mayors, councillors, and community board members in the Auckland region. In the second bill, the Government attempted to make out that it was listening, and rushed people through a very compressed select committee process. Before the Auckland Governance Legislation Committee had completed its report and released its final recommendations on the second bill, the Minister of Local Government and the Prime Minister released their decisions on the boundaries, which favoured their electorates, and they said there would be no Māori seats. This was all before the select committee had completed its work, despite over 80 percent of Auckland submitters supporting Māori seats, and despite about 10,000 people marching down Queen Street, calling for this Government to hear their voices on democracy in the Auckland region.

The Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill is the third and final bill implementing the Government’s decision on the Auckland super-city. In the first bill, the Minister of Local Government asked the head of Watercare Services to lead the Auckland Transition Agency and to lay the foundation for a new Auckland governance structure. We now see in this third bill that in addition to the Auckland Council comprised of one mayor—one super-mayor—and 20 councillors we will now have two other very powerful entities working side by side, supposedly: Watercare, which is going to control Auckland’s water resources and control the charges for people’s drinking water and sewerage; and the Auckland Transport Agency, which will control Auckland’s transportation contracts that are worth, I would estimate, millions and millions of dollars. It seems to me that these powerful structures will be working at arm’s length from the Auckland Council.

The question that people are now asking on the street is how on earth will local boards ever have influence on these business entities, if they are so far removed from local communities? How will the local Māngere board, for example, be able to get speed bumps on one of its local streets or fix up sunken or broken footpaths if it is so far removed from these very powerful business entities? Aucklanders were promised by the Minister of Local Government and his Associate Minister that this bill would crystallise the powers of local boards. This bill does not do that. Initially, we saw that the super-mayor and the 20 councillors would have the full power and control of the budget for the region, the rates of expenditure, and of the buildings, parks, lands, housing for the elderly, activities for our young people, and art. But now we will have the very powerful Watercare and Auckland Transport Agency business entities.

Even the operational structure for the super-city that was released a few weeks ago relegates local boards at a lower, third-tier level. I put it to this House that that suggests if it is out of sight, it is out of mind. That also emphasises the point that they are talking about democracy, but all the time they are removing democratic rights from the people of Auckland. These structures are not democratic structures; these are business entities. These are structures designed to keep ordinary hard-working Aucklanders on the treadmill of paying higher and higher rates.

I want to ask the Minister a question about the council workforce. I have read media reports that suggest that all staff would be transferred, under the super-city Auckland Council structure, and retain the same terms and conditions of employment. However, I raise a concern that sections 35C(2)(b) and 35C(4)(c)(iii), inserted by clause 24, allow for the chief executive to inform an employee of new terms of employment, without negotiation. This is in conflict with clause 57, it is in conflict with the transitional authority discussion document, and it is in conflict with assurances that I understand have been given to the unions representing the workers concerned.

I have been given to understand that this matter has been raised with the Minister, and assurances have been given that these are drafting mistakes that will be corrected during the select committee process. I ask the Minister whether he will confirm that that is correct—that these are simply drafting mistakes that will be corrected. I hope he will respond. He needs to confirm whether all staff will retain the same terms and conditions of employment when they are transferred to the new Auckland Council.

I will talk a little bit about the council structure. We in Labour strongly advocated that there would be single-member wards throughout the Auckland region. In my part of the electorate, for example, at present there is Māngere, Ōtara, and Papatoetoe, with a combined population of about 125,000. We currently have two councillors in Ōtara, two councillors in Papatoetoe, and three councillors in Māngere. But we have now been forced, under the new structure, to elect only two councillors for those three wards. I will give an example to the House that shows the unfairness of that particular structure. Let us compare it with Gisborne, which has a unitary authority and a population of 45,000. It has a mayor and 14 councillors. I ask this House and this Government: where is the fairness in this? We on this side of the House recognise the diversity of the Auckland region, in terms of the Pacific and Asian communities, and want it to have Pacific and Māori boards. This Government has come back and said yes, we will have that advisory board. But what it is doing is giving it with the left hand but with the right hand it is taking away these advisory boards in 2013. In Samoan we have a phrase for that: E togi le moa, ae u’u le afa. It is bait; it is deceptive. It is giving with one hand, but taking away with the other.

I come back to the question that Aucklanders are now asking. Can we trust this Government? I would say no. More and more of the Government’s supporters, its voters, are now saying they cannot trust this Government. Merry Christmas, Aucklanders. This is your Christmas present from the National-ACT Government.