Nash StuartSTUART NASH (Labour—Napier): Mr Bayly stated in his speech that this bill allows councils to better coordinate services. Well this already happens and let me give you an example. In Hawke's Bay for example there are 30 shared services agreements between Napier City Council and Hastings District Council. This is about councillors sitting down together and deciding for themselves what works and what does not work. It is a fantastic model of councils working together. There does not need to be legislation that forces this to happen.Mr Bayly also outlined the fact that these new council-controlled organisations (CCOs) have the right to pass by-laws and to raise revenue—but this is undemocratic because the CCOs are not responsible to ratepayers. I actually think this bill is amalgamation by stealth.Along with my good colleague Meka Whaitiri I met with Local Government New Zealand including the chair a chap called Lawrence Yule who is a National Party candidate and if anyone knows anything about local government it is Lawrence Yule. He told Meka and me that he was against the bill. He outlined very clearly the reasons why the organisation that he represents Local Government New Zealand did not want this bill.If this was going to add value to councils or if this was going to drive growth in the community in any way shape or form then we would be supporting it—there is no doubt about that—but it just does not do that. The thing is that this is not just me or Megan Woods or Meka Whaitiri saying this; this is the mayors and the councillors themselves who are elected by the communities that make up the diverse fabric that is New Zealand.I ran a campaign in Napier and it was based around the No to amalgamation" slogan. There was wide and varied debate. The people who wanted to amalgamate spent literally a couple of hundred thousand dollars on this. There were town hall meetings there was a lot of advertising material and this was probably the only topic of discussion around the dinner tables of Hawke's Bay for about a year I would say. So this was widely canvassed and widely discussed and the arguments to and fro were well laid out.The thing is that those four councils—Hastings Napier Wairoa and Central Hawke's Bay—all voted against it. They all voted in the majority against amalgamation. And the irony is that Lawrence Yule who at that point was supporting amalgamation could not even get it across the line in Hastings his own area and he was surprised. What he said after that was: "I misjudged the sentiment. I didn't understand what the people wanted."I looked at the first reading speech of the former Minister of Local Government Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga. It was delivered over a year ago and he said: "The current legislation focuses on amalgamation to gain scale for shared services." Well the thing is that our communities do not want amalgamation. Where there are synergies that can be gained from shared services then they happen. In fact as Meka Whaitiri outlined I actually think that this shows an arrogance at its worst and that is that central government knows best. But in fact it does not and where democracy—Hon Members: National Party.STUART NASH: Sorry what have I said? Meka Whaitiri: You said "central government".STUART NASH: Well yes central government but the National Government in this case. But what we see in our communities is that the local people say: "What does central government know about what my community wants?". That is why we have elected councils. That is why local government works really well because communities have a say in their own future. They can determine the vision that is provided and do you know what? If they do not like it then they vote the mayor out and they vote the councils out. If they do like the way the councils are providing they put 'em in. Keep away central government. Keep away National Government.This is not about democracy. In fact I would argue that it is an erosion of democracy. That is why the Labour Party simply cannot support this local government bill. But it is not that we do not want greater efficiency in local councils. Absolutely we do. In fact if we had our way I think we would probably empower local government in a way that drives efficiency and progress and a vision for the way we want our communities governed. This is not the legislation to do it. I think that the former Minister of Local Government actually should have listened to Local Government New Zealand and he should have listened to the mayors and the councils that he went around the country to consult because they also said no. Thank you."