Watts SimonSIMON WATTS (National—North Shore): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. I wish to acknowledge Tangi Utikere for his opening address in regards to the third reading of the Local Government (Pecuniary Interests Register) Amendment Bill. As has been noted by the previous member the National Party supports this bill and we are pleased to see that its passage is progressed through this House and as we heard before in 10 months which is actually in contrast to the bill before that a reasonably short amount of time in the context of this House but an important passage all the same. Because as the local government spokesperson for National I have been on the road over the past number of months visiting multiple district councils and aspects of local government across this country and I have been very impressed by the competency and quality and enthusiasm of members of our local government community those elected officials that play such an integral role in terms of supporting action and change within their local communities. They often do so as has been reflected wearing multiple hats in terms of the roles they play across what are often small communities but ones with significant energy and aspiration. So I want to reflect on those individuals. Why this is important in terms of this third reading is that this bill at its heart will take us a small way in terms of improving the transparency in local government. That's really important from a trust and confidence perspective for our communities in terms of those democratically elected officials. As I said in a number of our communities the gap between our community members and those officials is reasonably small. Obviously when you move to our much larger cities such as Auckland that gap broadens quite considerably and I think that acknowledges some of the challenges that we have around connectivity in local government. But this bill will improve the transparency in regards to registration of potential interests that may give rise to conflict and I think this is a very standard procedure in the private sector. As we've heard before from the prior member Tangi Utikere it is also an aspect that a number of councils have already taken on board or have done in advance of this but this will ensure that that application is consistent. I want to lastly just recognise that building a culture of transparency of which this bill will support in local government is very important. It's very important because I think as a number of speakers who have experience in different roles within local government have acknowledged local government plays a crucial role in this country in terms of the delivery of both infrastructure social services and economic outcomes. So having an element of—or increasing the culture of—transparency within local government is something that we should in this House support. I hope that it encourages other people within our communities who have skills experience and background that would bring value to our local communities to consider standing for the local government elections which are happening later this year. We need a significant number of strong individuals to put their hand up for those roles and I am hopeful that what we are doing here this evening as we've heard is not going to place any barrier in terms of that process and actually enhance that and make it in a small way in terms of the culture a more attractive place to be.So that is where I will leave it. I am happy on behalf of the National Party to commend this bill to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ian McKelvie): I call another member with close association to a former Deputy Mayor of Palmerston North—Rachel Boyack. Ha ha!