Andersen GinnyGINNY ANDERSEN (Labour): Thank you very much Madam Chair. I'd like to commend the Hon Nanaia Mahuta the Minister responsible for a most excellent Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) 323 that puts into some place some really good changes to the initial piece of legislation. It's encouraging to see that: how important it is to consider the wellbeings that have been reintroduced into how local government operates. And I think a lot of these changes quite accurately reflect an increased focus on not just doing business in local government but also considering those wider concerns of people their health their wellbeing and their general happiness and that's good to see. I'm particularly interested in the point that this bill and the SOP cover around the role of council-controlled organisations (CCOs) and CCOs have been an area where there has been most definitely some interesting debate around how they are actually operating and whether they are serving the people of New Zealand accurately and well enough or not.So the provision within the SOP is to improve the transparency of CCOs and how they're currently operating and also to make them a bit more responsive. When we look at some of those issues that this SOP's trying to address it's been very interesting to note that since the enactment of the primarily legislation—the Local Government Act 2002—the use of CCOs has changed quite a lot. My question to the Minister in the chair the Hon Nanaia Mahuta is whether there's adequate flexibility going forward. So we've already seen a great level of change and I'm interested to get any feedback possible from the Minister to give a sense of reassurance: if we've seen such a great level of change in terms of how CCOs are operating will the current legislation provide sufficient flexibility for change going forward in future? I do note—I can't remember where I read it but I do know that there's further review going on for how CCOs are operated later this year. So interesting to see whether that work in itself being undertaken would cover off that issue being raised. So some of the issues that have been raised in terms of how much CCOs have changed in terms of their arrangements—this has actually caused some of the issues which this Supplementary Order Paper is addressing. So it's noted that the current framework gives local authorities little formal power to control their CCOs. So when you're looking at things like water or really key amenities for the public of New Zealand it's important that those lines of accountability through those ratepayers are maintained. I see that there has been some concern that there's been far too high a degree of separation in that space.The other issue that has been raised is that it didn't provide for alignment between local authority and CCO planning processes. Whether it's in small areas or even far more complicated and intensely developed urban areas it's crucially important that we have an alignment between what the local authority is planning to go forward and also what the CCO is doing on a day-to-day basis and in terms of their board and their priorities. So I really hope to see—and maybe the Minister can help give some reassurance in that space—that with these changes we'll see an increased ability for alignment between the local authority and the CCO planning processes.The other issue that has been brought up as well is that it's not kept up enough with responsiveness to iwi and Māori and that's a real concern given our obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi. So there's been an evolution in terms of CCOs and quite simply they haven't been able to demonstrate in some cases around New Zealand how they are adequately consulting and engaging with iwi in terms of some of the decisions they're making. This is particularly important when you're dealing directly with natural resources. So the real issues that are being addressed through some of these are there seems to be a lack of long-term planning instruments from CCOs. It will be really important to see that we've got an ability through these changes to adapt and give the public of New Zealand a reassurance that what's happening in the CCO area lines up with what should be happening in an overall strategic plan for the area. Thank you very much Madam Chair.