Tonight, during the Auckland Governance debate Bill English came down to the House and gave an angry speech bemoaning that he could not be in his electorate today so he could sympathise with workers laid off at the Bright Wood Sawmill. He blamed the Labour Party for this and suggested that we did not care about job losses. We do care, and our sympathies are with the Bright Wood workers.
But I have a message for Mr English- the reason you are still in Wellington is because your party is seeking to by-pass the democratic process, and push through the most fundamental changes to governance in our largest city under urgency. This means no opportunity for Aucklanders to have their say. Labour (assisted by the Greens, and from time to time the Maori Party) are the last line of defence for debate on this major piece of legislation. We have made the offer to National that the we will let the legislation go through , if they will send the bill to a select committee. But they have refused.
For Mr English, I have a suggestion. If he wants to talk to people who have lost their jobs- he can do that in Wellington. There are hundreds of public servants here who have lost their jobs in this town, at his hand. Or do those people losing their jobs not count Mr English?
Grant – in the lead up to the election you and I had a discussion abour the EFA. You dismissed the EFA as a non-issue and said to me that no one was making it an issue.
It is unbelievable that the Labour Party is now the one moaning about democratic processes with the sorid history that your party displayed to democracy during their nine years in Government.
How many times have Labour used urgency during their nine years of government to avoid sending a bill back through the Select committee process.
And 7000 amendments? You guys are a joke. National will fight this to the end and they have the numbers (thank God) to win. Enjoy your weekend.
well said, grant. i’ve been watching the debate this evening and the team is doing a brilliant job on this.
This bill is simply about putting the transition board into place as recommended by the Royal Commission. You don’t need a select committee process for that. Is Labour against that Royal Commission recommendations? Or just the ones they can’t implement?
I would have liked a select committee process for the bill passed under urgency by Labour validating, retrospectively, unlawful election spending at 2005 election. You spent $800K of our money then, unlawfully, and your wasting $700K of our money daily on this filibustering.
My disgust of Labour knows no bound at the moment.