Dean Jacqui: Tasman District Council (Validation and Recovery of Certain Rates) Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDean Jacqui: Tasman District Council (Validation and Recovery of Certain Rates) Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 12 March 2014. Volume:697;Page:16620. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki):Having had a pretty good go at the preamble of the Tasman District Council (Validation and Recovery of Certain Rates) Bill—Maggie Barry: Oh only getting started.JACQUI DEAN: Well we are only getting started because the preamble has a good deal of the description of the bill but really this bill comes right back to council processes and decision-making processes within the council. I think that the Committee understands what has happened here that brings this bill to the House which is that back in 2003-04 rates were incorrectly set and now need to be put right because if they are not put right then in fact those rates would be deemed to be unlawful and the council would be open to challenge.I just want to take a moment to reflect on the decision-making responsibilities of any local authority in New Zealand and on how important it is that those requirements under the Local Government Act and the Local Government (Rating) Act are adhered to closely and carefully because if they are not then you are going to end up in the kind of state that the Tasman District Council and others—mercifully few—have found themselves in. So it is really incumbent on the chief executive of the local authority to make sure that the calculations and the information put in front of elected members are correct so that when members do go to vote on the rating declaration there are the maps attached that describe the rating boundaries for the purpose of targeted rates and that sort of thing.So although I am absolutely sure that the elected members of the Tasman District Council have taken quite a bit of heat over this how much liability do you place on them? You know as an elected member—and I was an elected local authority member—I ask how much is it your responsibility for making sure that the resolutions that are placed in front of you for voting on are correct and how much of that lies with the council officers. Well I have a view on that. I reckon that although councillors need to make good robust decisions they have got to be made based on good evidence and good information and clearly in this case those councillors made a decision a number of years ago that was not based on good information and good evidence.I think that that is exactly what underpins the purpose of the Better Local Government reforms brought in by this Government. This kind of example just absolutely underlines exactly why we need local authorities that are capable that are proficient and that are focused on what matters. Around rates-setting time what matters is putting good information in front of the elected members so that they can have a good debate about what they are about to vote on because the voting that takes place in every local authority has an impact on rates and is taking money out of ratepayers’ pockets to provide them with services.Part 1 of this bill which is the preliminary provisions describes in detail the purpose of this bill which is to “validate specified rates set and assessed by the Council and the penalties added to those rates;” and it is the penalties where things get quite tricky for the—Chris Hipkins: This is possibly the most boring speech I’ve ever heard.JACQUI DEAN: You see the member over the other side of the Chamber has just said that this is possibly the most boring speech he has ever heard in this Chamber and I think that that is really unfortunate because this matter is quite important to the people of Tasman District. I think that those ratepayers of the Tasman District—which electorate is it? Which electorate is the Tasman District in? It is in West Coast - Tasman and maybe a little bit of Nelson. So let those ratepayers listen to what just happened from the members of the Labour caucus. They are finding this debate which is about providing good governance on behalf of their local authority boring. So I do hope that those people who are listening and watching this on television clearly understand that if they are looking for any sympathy from the Labour caucus for local government then they need not look to Labour. Clearly the member from the other side of the Chamber who has no knowledge about local government and clearly no love for local government has just absolutely displayed to everyone here that those members have no sympathy they have no empathy and they have no liking for local government.I think that that is a shame because local government underpins our communities and the provision and the setting of rates if done correctly is absolutely critical for every single community. It does not matter whether it is Wellington or the West Coast - Tasman—it does not matter where it is. It does not matter how boring that little process is that the councillors have to sit down and make the resolutions on just as we do sometimes. It is about as dry as a chip occasionally. It does not matter how dry and boring it might seem to those Labour members; actually it matters. It matters to those ratepayers because it is their money that is being taken out of their pockets by their council to pay for services that they need.I reckon that Labour has just laid its intentions bare. Those members do not care. They think it is boring. Well I tell you what: the National Government does not think that it is boring. Through our Better Local Government reforms we are putting a huge amount of focus on providing good services in local government. You see over on this side of the Chamber we want to provide—it might be boring and it might be as dry as a chip—Maggie Barry: That’s democracy.JACQUI DEAN: —good service and as Maggie Barry says that is democracy. Sometimes it is a little bit dry and not that exciting sitting down and reading lots and lots of papers and I can understand why the Labour members would not like that—The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): Order! Now I would actually like to hear something about Part 1. We are actually on the parts of the bill now and the parts are quite limited. I am asking the member to talk about Part 1 of this bill.JACQUI DEAN: Thank you so much Mr Chairperson because this comes right back to the purpose of this bill which is to correct the deficiency with the Tasman District Council. I think it would be fair to say that correcting mistakes made in the past is exactly what this Government is focused on doing through its Better Local Government reforms. I acknowledge that members on the other side of the Chamber Labour members in particular find that a bit boring but I can assure the Committee that we do not.