McLellan Tracey; Brown SimeonDr TRACEY McLELLAN (Labour): Thank you Madam Chair. I do have an Amendment Paper on clause 1 so I would have felt quite aggrieved if I wasn't able to speak to that. But old Eager" Meager has attempted to—Hon Members: "Eager" Meager—"Eager" Meager!Dr TRACEY McLELLAN: My apologies it's James Meager and I should use your full name. But that's all right.Cameron Brewer: James "Eager" Meager.Dr TRACEY McLELLAN: James "Eager" Meager. But in all seriousness—Hon Rachel Brooking: Is that going to be the name of the bill?Dr TRACEY McLELLAN: I have got a suggestion for a retitle of this bill but no that is not the name of the bill. I suspect he would like that a little bit too much. But with all due respect to my colleague the Hon Dr Duncan Webb who has also got an Amendment Paper—I know he made a suggestion and I know at the time when I heard it I thought that was perfectly reasonable. To be perfectly fair it's gone in one ear and out the other because I think I've got a better title.Now also with respect to my colleague Ingrid Leary I thought she made a couple of good points which I hadn't quite thought of. I've made a couple of notes here because I particularly underlined the word "collection". I have tabled an amendment but if I had heard your comment beforehand I may have thought about that twice because I do believe that "collection" is an active word it is a doing word and I'm not entirely sure that I necessarily would have chosen that but it's still a much better option than what the name is before us now.So the other part that I think I'd like to make mention of is this concept of making money. So the amendment that I have before me is to replace clause 1 with "This Act is the Public Finance Making Money Off Debt Collection Amendment Act." And when I say "making money" I think as has been mentioned in previous contributions during the various stages—which I know always feel like they're lumped in together when we go through urgency because they are all lumped in together and we don't get a chance to let that settle a bit and to have a little bit more thought as we go through this process. But such is the nature of urgency and it's always a bit of a conundrum isn't it when we talk about "urgency" because it makes it seem like it's something that's actually quite urgent and important but this bill obviously isn't in line with that. But making money is in line with this because this is what it's about. So I think that I disagree with the Minister when he says that what's written on the tin is what it does. I think this "making money" part that I'm suggesting needs to have a more prominent position in the title of this bill. Now when we talk about making money obviously if we look through the various documents that were imparted to support this bill there was a table that said I think that it was $446000 in its first year which you know—$446000 is a little bit of money in terms of the Government's Budgets. It's not a huge amount of money in the scheme of things. It's certainly not up there with the $2.9 billion in tax cuts for landlords for instance. But nevertheless it is some money and I think because of that in the title it should say something along the lines of as I've suggested "This Act is the Public Finance Making Money Off Debt Collection".Now the other thing that I would like us to think about when we think of what would be an appropriate title when we think of clause 1 is the fact that the existing 10 percent along with the filing fee of $30 from memory—and remembering some of the things that are being raised are being raised by as much as like 83 percent. So the "making money" part here shouldn't be understated. But that already makes the Government's position as a debt collector so to speak—or the Government's position as using the judicial system as a means by which to collect debt—a little bit uncompetitive as it is. So I think the addition of "making money off debt collection" just specifies that a little bit more correctly that the Government is still in that business. So I wonder if the Minister would consider that. I think it suits the bill a lot more and I'd be interested in hearing any other contributions from colleagues who may have other similar ideas.Hon SIMEON BROWN (Minister of Local Government): Thank you Madam Chair. I just want to respond to the member the list MP from Banks Peninsula. The tabled amendment was that the Act is the "Public Finance Making Money Off Debt Collection Amendment Act" which could not be anything but what this bill is doing. It's simply about cost recovery and about making sure that the system is able to actually pay the bills. And actually that means ensuring that there's enough funding. As it says in the general policy statement on the bill which I assume the member hasn't read yet the increase is to ensure that fines "from amounts of fines recovered for offences" can be actually just covering the cost. I mean that is ultimately what this bill is doing. So I'm not sure what the last Government did for the last six years but clearly they borrowed spent taxed but actually this is simply about making sure that the service—Chlöe Swarbrick: What about localism guys?Hon SIMEON BROWN: I'm not sure who that is screaming across the House but I did hear the question—Chlöe Swarbrick: Oh big boy Simeon.Hon SIMEON BROWN: —and the answer to the interjection—CHAIRPERSON (Maureen Pugh): Order! Refrain from getting personal with the remarks please.Hon SIMEON BROWN: Thank you Madam Chair. The answer to that question is that the Crown is providing a service for local government. It costs more money to run that service than it used to because of the inflation left behind by the last Government and so we're ensuring cost recovery."