Bidois DanDAN BIDOIS (National—Northcote): It's a pleasure to rise in opposition to the Local Government (Community Well-being) Amendment Bill. I want to just touch on what the previous speaker Jamie Strange talked about before when he said that councils support this bill. I want to say to that speaker: of course they would support the bill. They support the bill because it gives them less accountability for delivering what they've promised to do. They support this bill just like a student who is having exams and doesn't want another exam would support that move because of course you'd rather have less accountability than more. So my issues with this bill are around holding councils accountable—holding councils accountable—for their fiscal discipline and the promises that they've made particularly the elected members for delivering on services in their constituencies.I want to go back to what is the function of councils. Of course they are charged with levying rates and then on the other side of the equation providing services. I think the core function of councils is pretty clear in terms of governance but also service delivery and providing a regulatory function. The results are pretty clear from this bill in my eyes: we will see more rate rises because there will be less accountability that results from this bill. I can go into in my own electorate misspending of council money on pet projects that can easily be classed as a cultural or a social benefit but that have not delivered any real tangible benefit to the public and that is why I do not support this bill.Let us get to the real issues in my electorate of Northcote in terms of well-being and what affects well-being for the people of Northcote: they're issues around transportation. When you are spending an extra hour in your car that's an hour less that you're spending with your family or less on productivity. So it goes without saying. The other is housing infrastructure. We have a huge amount of intensification going on in Auckland. What we need is a council that is going to deliver on the surrounding services around these housing developments and we're not seeing that in terms of this council—Auckland Council in particular.Last is around water quality which I know is a big issue in the area of Auckland but also around the country. We really need councils to deliver on their improvement in that and it's all very well to include the environmental indicators but what we need is to make sure that they're doing the investments that they are actually making the investments in the resource allocation requirements that are necessary in order for our waterways and our beaches to remain clean.So that's what affects well-being in my electorate of Northcote: congestion water quality and housing infrastructure. And I'll tell you what: you're not going to get many people in Northcote who will say that council is doing a good job on any of these matters. So they really need to focus on core business and that really is about levying the rates that are required but delivering as much as possible with the rates that they can and delivering as much value as they can with this.I do want to concur with my colleagues on this side of the House that I do think that this bill should be deferred. This Government is all about working groups so why not wait for the productivity working group to come out with their report at the end of this year on local government regulation? Let's see what they provide as advice because the taxpayers are paying these people to do research and I think that that is the best course of action in this circumstance. So it is my pleasure to oppose this bill and I urge the Government to consider deferring this bill to a later date.