Whaitiri Meka: Annual Review Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWhaitiri Meka: Annual Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 14 April 2016. Volume:713;Page:10642. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MEKA WHAITIRI (Labour—Ikaroa-Rāwhiti): It is a privilege to make a contribution in the debate on this Appropriation (2014/15 Confirmation and Validation) Bill and to participate in this annual review debate focusing on the Finance and Government Administration Sector. Can I just make a comment around what the Minister the Hon Michael Woodhouse said—and it is great that the Minister supports his tax officials and ensures that he endorses and follows the advice that they give him. It seems to me that if the Minister has that commitment I wish other members on that side—the Government benches and particularly Minister Brownlee—would also take on some of the advice that officials give. You cannot have it both ways. But that is for another time.I want to focus on the Department of Internal Affairs particularly around local government. But before I get there it is important that we do look at and I guess challenge this Government’s perception of being very good fiscal managers. Fiscal management is not only about what you do with the money but what results you gain from the money. If I may I would like to do a bit of a stocktake on the status of this Government when it comes to their being prudent financial managers. I note that Government borrowing is forecast to be not $50 billion not $100 billion but $116 billion—the highest that we have ever seen. According to the Crown’s own accounts we are looking at having core Crown debt at $1.7 billion higher than forecast for February this year. And I also note that $51 billion of our debt is now held overseas which is obviously creating a very strategic risk to our economy; this has increased by more than $30 billion since National came into power. So I challenge the Government—whose members have got up and talked about how well it is doing and how proud they are of this Government—with that debt hanging over us. The fact that half of it is overseas does I think expose this country to major risk.The second part of the perception was around what has been achieved and let us have a look at what has been achieved. There has been—and I will give credit to the Government—a surplus up until February this year but we have to ask whether that has been achieved through underspends in education justice transport and of course the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority. Our regions are struggling and as the proud member for Ikaroa-Rāwhiti I see it every day when I am out and about in my electorate. In fact when I came into Parliament in 2013 the Minister for Economic Development’s plan for raising regional prosperity in Ikaroa-Rāwhiti was two things: one was to go and explore for oil and the other one was cycle trails. Our economy is much more diverse than that and we do need Government attention if we are going to realise opportunities for people throughout Ikaroa-Rāwhiti. We still have families and children in poverty and there is definitely a shortage of decent housing for all families throughout my electorate.But actually as I said in the opening of my speech I want to turn in the time I have got to local government. When I look at the statement of intent of the Department of Internal Affairs it talks about “Improving the efficiency of the local government system through completion of the Better Local Government Reform programme”. Specifically I want to highlight two of those services that talk about how this is going to be achieved. One is council-led reorganisations and we have got a classic example happening right now with a body in my electorate—the Hawke’s Bay Regional Investment Company which shows all the bad sides of what a council-controlled organisation is capable of. Removed from the owners Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and defiant in the face of ratepayers it invested $6 million into a scheme that has not measured up in terms of the Ruataniwha Dam. And all I say to the Minister when we are talking about doing more council-controlled organisations is that I encourage him to look at the performance of the Hawke’s Bay Regional Investment Company and at what has happened in Kaipara with the waste water. There are many examples Minister for us to ensure that we do not go down the track that some of these council-controlled organisations are presently experiencing.The other one was the note of the Local Government Commission. I again implore the Minister to ensure that when we are giving more powers to an unelected body it is adding value to the local government sector. I am not sure whether the Minister has that quite down pat.