21 May 2009
Media release

Government sidelines Rodney Hide on Super City

Associate Local Government Minister John Carter has today confirmed Labour’s view that the Government believes Rodney Hide has mishandled the Super City reforms, says Labour’s Auckland Issues spokesperson Phil Twyford.

“Mr Carter said on Radio NZ this morning that he was now the ‘face’ of the Government’s proposed reforms.

“Mr Carter made the comments while attempting to defend the Government’s decision to appoint him as the chair of the select committee being set up to examine the Bill reforming local government in Auckland. Labour believes Mr Carter’s ministerial role means this is a conflict of interest,” Phil Twyford says.

“Mr Carter said he was fronting a raft of public meetings in Auckland on the issue and one of the reasons he’d been asked to chair the select committee was ‘because I am the face now at the, ah, grassroots level of what the Government's doing and so it is important that I get fully informed.’

“This is yet another embarrassing turn of events for Local Government Minister Rodney Hide whose mishandling of the issue to date has sparked public frustration and anger and is evidently now worrying the Government.

“The Cabinet kneecapped Mr Hide over his plans to announce appointments to the Transition Agency overseeing the reforms earlier this week, with senior National Party sources telling the Herald there were conflict of interest concerns over Mr Hide’s proposed appointees.

“Now we have Mr Carter describing himself as the face of the reforms and the public consultation process. What has happened to Mr Hide? It seems that yet again John Key’s willingness to give inexperienced ministers a very long leash has backfired,” Phil Twyford says.

“Paula Bennett is another of those ministers and she failed to inspire any confidence that the Government would listen to the views of Aucklanders with the facile and arrogant comments she made about opponents at last night's meeting in Waitakere.

"Right from the start she is labelling those who disagree with the Government's plans as being anti-Government. That isn't a promising sign. If Aucklanders who want something different are automatically dismissed as anti-Government, that hardly indicates a genuine desire on behalf of the Government to listen to what Aucklanders are saying."

ENDS

© Scoop Media