Andersen GinnyGINNY ANDERSEN (Labour): Thank you very much Mr Assistant Speaker for the opportunity to speak on this excellent bill the Local Government Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill. It is surprising that we don't see the members opposite wanting to engage in debate on such a fascinating bill because it goes right to the heart of the purpose of democracy at local government level: people participating in their communities people being engaged with what's going on around them and people being represented in a way that reflects the diversity of New Zealand society. It is very surprising and quite alarming that we do not have members opposite prepared to contribute on a lively and interesting debate in this space. We have lots of issues at local government and what I find particularly interesting is that while the average person you speak to in the community really cares about local issues—it is the rubbish collection the speed humps those sorts of things that are happening in your backyard; dog control is another one this bill touches on that always really concerns the constituents I speak to regularly—there is something strange going on because the level of the care factor of local issues is high compared to national ones but the turnout in local government elections is low and that indicates that there is something wrong going on in this space in that we have 40 percent or even lower in some regions of people turning out to vote in their elections. So it is heartening to see that this bill provides specific responsibility to chief executive officers to encourage people to vote and to think about the strategy they will be developing within the area to make sure that they are reaching out and making people aware that there is a local government election going on and also—the point that the good member Jan Logie has already made—who the candidates are. It's very difficult to get information on who the candidates are. There is one booklet put out often and sometimes that information's not online. So I look forward to this bill encouraging those chief executive officers to be able to look at new ways of giving greater information about them. I think when there is greater information and greater participation we will see an increased level of diversity in our local government representation. No offence but the vast majority of local government representation is alarmingly pale male and stale and we need to move beyond that. We need to have representation that is reflective of our communities and in particular Māori Pasifika and youth are the three areas that we really need to concentrate on having greater representation. I am quite encouraged to see tomorrow—we've been notified and made clear—that there will be school students who are prepared to strike in terms of their concerns around climate change. While this Government is taking some very good actions in that space to make sure we are ahead of the pack what's important is that young people are thinking about how they can be more engaged in issues that affect their lives and this is good in the sense that we might see increased participation in areas that are so important to the future of New Zealand. What we also need to think about is how we can encourage community engagement. In my own area in Hutt South for example we've got a significant issue happening and we've had really low turnout in terms of that engagement. The Pētone library is proposed to be bulldozed or knocked down and redeveloped by putting the library in the bottom and on top 52 apartments. Some of those apartments are one bedroom with no windows and that doesn't seem to be the best possible model for the community. There are far greater models out there that I'm sure that they will be far more interested in looking at. But the problem is that the level of community turnout to the engagement meetings that have been facilitated by the Pētone Community Board have been quite low and it would be good to see more people getting engaged in that space because I've always believed that if we get more people interested in local issues and engaged in local issues then it increases the good opportunities within our communities and the facilities that people use. So I'm pleased to see that this bill really focuses on fostering that participation in local government elections. One of the other very good areas that this bill looks at is of course the Rates Rebate Act—and it has already been mentioned the excellent work that the Hon Ruth Dyson has covered in this space. What her work covered was ensuring those that were in residential homes were also able to access the rates rebate because previously that was not available. But what this legislation does is it makes sure that those who get the New Zealand superannuation and the veterans pension who get that winter energy payment put through by this coalition Government are able to have that taken into account when assessing the eligibility for a rates rebate. It would have meant that if that was taken into account some recipients would have had a rates rebate that would have been unfairly reduced. It was considered and agreed to that this was an unintended consequence and the recommended insertion into this piece of legislation is that it would exclude the winter energy payment from the definition of income when assessing that eligibility for a rates rebate under the Act. I personally have seen a good number of people coming into my office to personally say thank you for the additional money over that period of the wintertime. Those people are retired and so it's really heartening to see that that additional money won't come—and I had someone come in to me actually this week someone with a hearing disability and they own their own home they live in the Hutt but their rates have been going up and they really felt that they've been struggling to meet payments struggling to be able to afford the bills that they receive as rates have gone up. The one comment I did say was Well do you get your winter energy payment?" and they agreed that they would probably not have been able to meet a number of bills coming through without that additional money starting a month earlier this year over the winter period. So it is really good to see that this bill takes into account the difficult circumstances that some of the people who are on a fixed income have to deal with when there are increasing inflation costs associated with owning a home and being retired. To take that into account is fantastic.So the other area that I'd like to touch on before concluding is that it looks at really making sure that this Act lines up with the other key areas in other bills and we want to make sure that there is a balance right across all the Acts in terms of the terminology and the references. So one in particular that has been of concern that this bill rectifies is the definition of "working day" which occurs in section 5 of the Local Government Act. There have been some differences in what a working day would be and it's important that there is consistency across all those pieces of legislation to avoid confusion. So it is good to see that that is happening. The last area which is really good—and I know my learned colleague Jamie Strange gave an excellent speech that pointed out the importance of the Dog Control Act 1996 and this bill does some great work in that space to make sure that there's public notification of a lot of those notices that go on. There can be some real big concerns in communities in terms of incurring costs and in terms of having to have their dogs licensed and for ongoing issues in that space. This piece of legislation states that it must be publicly notified that a report has been prepared and adopted and also a copy must be given to the Secretary for Local Government. Local authorities have not been required in the past to make that publicly available so for those people that are concerned about the level of issues in relation to dog control that information now being made publicly available will be able to be of a benefit to those interested in that space. So I think that this bill is a fantastic bill. It brings together a whole lot of areas to make sure there's consistency across legislation it makes sure that there is an increased incentive for local government to be thinking about how they foster participation and it also does that great job of making available online public notices that were previously only available in newspapers which weren't as widely read. So I'm very pleased to be a member of the Governance and Administration Committee that got to consider all the good work in this space and without further ado I commend this bill to the House."