Sage EugenieHon EUGENIE SAGE (Green): Tēnā koe Madam Deputy Speaker thank you. The Green Party is pleased to support the Gore District Council (Otama Rural Water Supply) Bill and as the Hon Jacqui Dean noted this is modelled on the South Taranaki District Council (Cold Creek Rural Water Supply) Bill because a similar situation prevailed there where the community was seeking to have the management of the water supply transferred to them. This scheme like that one exceeds the number of households that will enable it to be classified as a small water supply scheme and then would enable the transfer to happen without breaching the requirements in the Local Government Act 2002 which under the last Labour Government imposed those quite explicit provisions which restricted councils from divesting themselves of water supply schemes because of the importance of maintaining those schemes in public ownership.I acknowledge the comments made by other members particularly Mark Patterson and those who know the area much better about the strong community engagement in constructing the scheme with the assistance of a subsidy from the central government and also I understand a loan from the district council. When you've got a community of less than 300 households being responsible for its scheme I think it is of a scale where people are committed at that practical level to maintaining it to going out in all weathers if there's a blockage in the pipes for example. But it also requires the Southland Regional Council Environment Southland to do its work on controlling land uses to protect water quality because I understand that the bore for the scheme is close to the Mataura River and we have seen—obviously with the tragedy in Havelock North; with 5000 people getting very severe gastroenteritis and health issues and three people dying because of sheep faeces contaminating the bore—the critical need to ensure that the bore and the catchment around it is protected so that the residents who are drawing from it can get a healthy supply.I was pleased that the community has committed to developing a water safety plan for the scheme and has also committed to implementing chlorination to reduce those risks of any health effects. I think it's probably quite impressive that the chlorination equipment can be installed as I understand it without requiring any additional funds from the users of the scheme. Obviously those involved in constructing managing and maintaining it and the way in which costs have been assessed over recent years ensured that they built up an adequate reserve that there is not now a need for additional expenditure despite the fact that there's going to be new chlorination equipment installed.With the Coldwater Creek scheme—that community wanted to take ownership because they were concerned that the council might divest itself and privatise the scheme. I don't think from the information I've read that there's anything similar proposed here. I will be interested in submissions that go to the select committee and that are then available in the select committee's report on just whether there are any ways in which the bill can be improved—recognising that it is modelled on that earlier bill. But the Green Party supports the bill and encourages people to make submissions. Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker.