MPs are looking at a marathon select committee session to complete the last of the legislation setting up the new Auckland super council.The select committee is planning on three weeks of meetings in Auckland sitting some days from 9am to 9pm and on some
MPs are looking at a marathon select committee session to complete the last of the legislation setting up the new Auckland super council.
The select committee is planning on three weeks of meetings in Auckland sitting some days from 9am to 9pm and on some Saturdays to hear submissions on third Auckland council bill.
The bill fills in much of the detail on how the new council will operate, as Labour continued to attack the Government over its design and how it would operate.
Labour MP Phil Twyford today again criticised the role of former National Party president Michelle Boag in the recruitment process for the Auckland council's chief executive.
On Sunday, Mr Twyford said he feared Ms Boag would politicise the process as she was involved in Auckland City Council Mayor John Banks' mayoralty bid for the new council.
Both Mr Banks and Ms Boag played down her role in the campaign.
Ms Boag said she had not been involved in Momentum's bid to the Auckland Transitional Authority (ATA) to secure the recruitment contract.
Mr Twyford today said Ms Boag was named as the consultant who would hire the new council's press secretary and it also failed to declare any potential conflict of interest she might have.
"Local Government Minister Rodney Hide now has no option but to intervene and insist she is removed from the recruitment process. I will be writing to the auditor general to ask for an investigation," Mr Twyford said.
Mr Hide said in Parliament he had no concerns, pointing out that the head of the ATA's human resources was Laila Harre -- a former leader of the Alliance and a minister in the Labour/Alliance Government in 1999.
