Carter John: Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Carter John: Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:662;Page:10698] 
Hon JOHN CARTER (Associate Minister of Local Government) 
: 
 I quite like George Hawkins the member who has just resumed his seat—I think he is not a bad guy—but I say to him that that was a very sad disappointing speech. I expected at least something positive out of it but unfortunately it was not a great contribution. But of course we have come to expect that from this Opposition. 
I start by saying that I am delighted to stand here to support the Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill. When I was appointed as the Associate Minister of Local Government which I am very proud to be I thought it would be an interesting experience to work with Rodney Hide as the Minister of Local Government and I have to say that it has been. 
Hone Harawira 
: That’s not what you said to me last night John. 
Hon JOHN CARTER 
: I tell the member that I am going to say exactly the same words that I said last night but fortunately I was not talking to him last night. It has been fantastic working with Rodney Hide as the Minister of Local Government. He is a guy who will listen he is a guy who makes decisions and he is a guy who is prepared to take things on board. I congratulate the Minister on bringing this bill to the House. 
Hone Harawira 
: That’s enough John. 
Hon JOHN CARTER 
: No it needs to be said. It needs to be said and I want to say it because I am the guy who worked with Rodney Hide. I want to say that I really respect Rodney and I thank him for the work he has done on this bill. I thank him very much for making this contribution. 
I turn to the bill. George Hawkins said that there was anticipation that Rodney Hide and the Government would actually reduce rates. Well this bill is a start and it is where we can expect to take cost out of local government. In that regard it is exactly what local government and the ratepayers in this country have been asking about. I give members an example of one of the things the bill will do—the member who just resumed his seat actually spoke about this and was complimentary about it—and that is the pre-election report that is to be done by the chief executive for the council. 
The local body elections are coming up in Northland of course. A statement was made by one of the mayors that his rate increase would be less than the rate of inflation—about 3 percent. 
Hon Rodney Hide 
: Which mayor? 
Hon JOHN CARTER 
: That was the Mayor of the Far North District Council. It turned out that his statement was not the best of them. The Mayor of Whangarei District Council announced that he would be able to do better and that his ratepayers could expect an increase of about 2 percent. Not to be outdone the Mayor of the Kaipara District Council said that he would have a 0 percent increase. This is all well and good but the problem is of course that none of them have told their ratepayers about their infrastructure deficit. None of them have actually disclosed to their ratepayers what challenges are ahead. The likes of Whangarei particularly has some serious infrastructure issues to address. 
It is not about just the economics of the council; it is about the infrastructure and about what people can expect ahead of them. The pre-election report will contain a declaration about or an exposure of the infrastructure and will actually lay it on the table as to the status and the present position of the council and then ask candidates whether they be for mayors or councillors what they will do to address these issues. I have to say that that will be an amazing step forward for local government and ratepayers in this country. 
Hon Rodney Hide 
: And Labour opposed it. 
Hon JOHN CARTER 
: Well Labour actually complimented us on putting that in. It is the one thing that it actually got right. It is the only thing of course. 
The bill takes away a whole lot of the issues around consultation and the Minister has already spoken about some of the areas where we are making some improvements. But I say to the Minister and to the Local Government and Environment Committee that personally I do not think the bill goes far enough in that regard. I think we can improve on other areas in regard to the demands that we make of local government and what we ask them to go and consult their people on. I ask the select committee members that as they go through the submissions they pay particular attention to the issue of the cost of consultation and whether we can improve the bill further. It already makes some improvements and reduces cost in that regard. I think there is a great opportunity for us to make even more savings and to put fewer costs and difficulties on to ratepayers as we move forward through the select committee process. There are some great opportunities in this bill for the select committee to report back to Parliament on ways in which we can make the bill even stronger. 
I will finish by saying that the issue of core services was raised in regard to allowing private enterprise to be involved in supplying services to councils for a period of up to 35 years. I think that it was a bit rich of the previous speaker George Hawkins to criticise that because he did that in the local authority in which he was involved. He made huge improvements to his credit and to the credit of his council in that regard by introducing the private sector into the delivery of local government. I think nevertheless that it is a bit rich for him now to stand up and criticise. 
The second thing he complained about or criticised was the issue of core services. It seemed to me from the speech the member made that he had not actually read the bill. The bill states that local authorities and their residents are expected to decide what the core services are in their local authority. Those services may be different in the Far North from those in Invercargill but the local authority has to deliver those services first on behalf of the people. The services may be libraries they may be a whole host of things down in Invercargill or they could be something quite different in some other area. But the point that is made—and this is what the bill says—is we expect the leaders of the local authorities to focus first on the core services within their districts before they do things that may be demanded but that are not considered to be core. Again that allows democracy to prevail. It allows the local flavour of the ratepayers to be reflected. It also allows people to understand what costs will be imposed on them when those decisions are made. They will have an understanding of what those costs will be. All that will improve local government in this country. 
I support this bill entirely. As I say I think there is still room for us to make further improvements. I hope that as we go through the process the select committee will come back and report to the Minister and me and to Parliament that there are further opportunities we can take to make local government better in this country. Let it be said that it is a great step forward for local government and for the ratepayers of this country today to have this bill before this House. It means that at last we have a Government that is serious about local government. We have a Minister who is prepared to listen and to represent the views of local government which is to his credit and to the credit of this Government. Thank you very much.