Court SimonSIMON COURT (ACT): Thank you Madam Chair. Look I do appreciate the opportunity to explain to Dr Russell and to the member Tangi Utikere sponsoring this bill exactly what the relationships are between elected members officers and employees of councils and council-controlled organisations and why it's so important that in fact we understand the pecuniary interests of people spending ratepayer money on works and services entering into long-term agreements for contracts worth tens of millions of dollars where there is a risk that if the relationships are not understood as was the case at Auckland Transport for many many years over six years of individuals engaging in corrupt practices—the Serious Fraud Office took them to court. They said if there'd been a way to detect it earlier we could have saved ratepayers millions of dollars but we never knew what the interests were that these people held and that's why they got away with it. That's what my Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) 150 is designed to do. It's designed to make sure that people involved in procurement and making decisions about ratepayers' money are held to account. The member Tangi Utikere claims that the ACT Party was seeking to politicise the debate through my tabled amendment. The ACT Party is seeking to politicise the debate. So let me educate the members opposite where the word political" comes from: the Greek word which is the origin of "policy" public policy. And what we're advocating for is better public policy to actually restore confidence and trust that people should have in local government. But they've lost it and they've lost it because for decades and decades rather than local government focusing on the basics—rubbish rats roads—they've veered off into all kinds of cultural pursuits wasting money on things that ratepayers don't want them to spend money on and failing to deliver basic services. The other problem that's caused a loss of trust in confidence in local government is that many many organisations—dare I say large ones like Auckland Council—have council-controlled organisations that compete with the private sector whether it's in the events area hiring out venues and event spaces in competition with the private sector; whether it's councils like Christchurch which operate road maintenance and facilities management companies in direct competition with the private sector. All of these council-controlled organisations competing with the private sector undertaking business activities are far from the scrutiny of ratepayers far from the scrutiny of elected members making decisions which not just affect ratepayers and the way that their precious funds are used. And remember a lot of ratepayers are people on fixed and low incomes who actually depend on council delivering basic services making sure that the potholes are fixed making sure that the street lights are on at night so that they can walk safely around their communities. They depend on councils engaging in contracts for works and services for the basics like road maintenance collecting the rubbish making sure the lights stay on in their streets and not engaging in corrupt practices by awarding contracts to favourites and having council-appointed executives in senior management personally benefiting from contracting. That is what this amendment that I have tabled is designed to do.So yes ACT is politicising it because ACT believes that the current public policy settings are wrong and that they need to be improved. That is why we challenge the Government to put petty political differences aside and to support this amendment. This amendment is one of the few things brought to the committee this year that will actually make an improvement in the lives of people who live in towns and cities. This means transparency. This brings back confidence. That's the purpose of the bill according to the member Tangi Utikere. The ACT Party just wants to make it better and we think that we've found the way to do it. Now the member pointed out that in fact there is another clause of the Local Government Act 2002 the amendment 54C that members are to make a pecuniary interest return. And look it's correct that in my Supplementary Order Paper I talk about boards shares board members—[Time expired]"