Watts SimonSIMON WATTS (National—North Shore): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. I rise on behalf of the National Party and as the member of Parliament for North Shore and as the party spokesperson on local government in relation to the Local Government Electoral Legislation Bill first reading. Listening to the Associate Minister provide an overview of the bill of which it was very positive and very rising I must say the reality is when I visited a large number of councils across this country not one of them has raised the need or the requirement for legislation in this bill.Hon Mark Mitchell: Not one.SIMON WATTS: It's quite ironic—not one—when the Prime Minister quoted it was not even a week ago that It will not be the policy of any government I lead to embark on … substantial reform of local government or governance unless it is sought [or] unless there is broad[-based] consensus amongst local government … [that there is a] need for [or for] the direction of [that] change." Yet once again we have a Government that is trying to push through central government remit and rules and regulations on to local government—in effect mandating to local government the consideration around the need for Māori wards. That is completely unnecessary legislation. It will be no surprise probably from my brief introduction that National will be opposing this bill and will be opposing it throughout this process.I want to explain to you the reasons and the rationale for this. But what this is is that the Minister in the context of what are some elements of technical change within this bill has used the opportunity to slip in this change around making it mandatory for councils every six years to put consideration around the need for Māori wards. There is absolutely already legislation in place around that. Let's be clear: the National Party do not oppose the concept of Māori wards when they comply with the principles around democracy and when they are wanted by our communities. This is a democracy and people within our community democratically elect people to represent them at a local community level; they do not as part of our democracy need central government remit in order to ram through and force upon them this type of arrangement. That is a significant concern for us and that's one of the key reasons why we will be opposing this bill.I think the other aspect around this is that in regards to the original bill that was set up of which this is obviously a continuation on National were very clear in terms of the opposition around that because of the fact of the way it was pushed through under urgency. The Associate Minister is correct that these changes will not have any effect in regards to the 2022 local government elections. But as I said right from the outset not one council—not one council—that I've spoken to has said in terms of all of the issues and challenges and priorities in front of them today that this is the legislation they need; actually quite the opposite. Local Government New Zealand within only the last three to four weeks has articulated one of the single biggest issues for local government in this country is a significant degree of reform and change that is being pushed upon them by this Government right here—reform and change in many areas which is unnecessary ideological reform and local governments are struggling under the weight of a large degree of unnecessary reform; very very poor reform. I won't get into the detail in regards to three waters but that will just give you a sort of sampler of an example. But this on top of it continues to reinforce the fact that central government knows best—the ideology around the fact that actually we can't rely on or trust our local democratically elected individuals that represent us at local government to make decisions about their local communities. No central government needs to mandate "They must undertake these tasks". Well what other tasks does this Government—and I'd hate to think because they've probably got a long list of items in terms of what's coming down the pipe next—need to force upon local government to make sure that they are considering. It is completely unnecessary and it goes to the heart of a Government that does not trust the people that are democratically elected to take responsibility for their communities. The other aspects of this bill which were referred to were in regards to the change of the number of councillors at Auckland Council. Well I don't know but I come from the private sector. Having 20 people around the table is actually quite a hell of a lot of people to try and you know make a decision for an entity that while large in terms of complexity is not large and significant in the regards of other business operations. To try and get a degree of consensus from 20 in fairness is challenging. But the fact that they believe that we need potentially another nine councillors to be sitting around that table to have a bit of "Kumbaya" well I'm sorry but I don't buy that for a second. I don't buy it either because as a ratepayer who pays the bill for that bureaucracy right? That additional element around that. No one in Auckland Council has come up to me—and I'm looking across the House; there are a few other members from Auckland in this House. My colleague here the Hon Mark Mitchell—how many times have you been asked that actually "You know what Mark? The number one issue that I face in my electorate is we need some more councillors"? No I didn't think so. I didn't think so—no. Actually I generally hear that "You know what?"—and my mum used to say this—"Simon it's quality; not quantity". You know let's talk about quality not quantity. We don't need more. We need to make sure that the ones that are in there have the right support capability and competence and the right framework in which they operate—the right measurement and accountability frameworks—the right incentives and the right consequences to ensure they are delivering outcomes. We don't need nine more people just to make up more representation. So I don't buy that for a second from the Minister that this is something that everyone's been calling out for because they're not.I think in regards to the boundary lines and that I always start worrying when central government wants to start getting involved with changing of electoral boundaries—particularly this Government you know; they love doing a bit of that and it's generally for their own purposes. So we don't buy that. Again not an issue that's been raised by any of the local government people that I've spoken to and I've spoken to more than the Associate Minister has in his short amount of time that he's been in his seat. But the reality is this is not a priority. Again this is a Government trying to pump through centralised ideology in terms of this reform. I guess the element that we probably can agree on is in regards to the recount process. But looking at the times—you know this has happened three times since 2019 so again not the biggest fish to fry in regards to change. That element of technicality is small. But again in the context of this bill that's probably the only aspect that we think has any merit and on that basis really is inconsequential in terms of the scale of this bill. So we're going to obviously look and continue to see what feedback comes through the select committee because this Government's going to ram through this legislation. No matter what I say or what the Opposition say tonight they don't listen. This is a Government that continues to prove to Kiwis that they know best. They aren't listening to what Kiwis are saying and you can see that through other elements of consultation or feedback that's asked for. They're saying "We're going to listen but we're not going to change". That is just the way things are at the moment and that degree of arrogance that's coming through from this Government is reinforced again through what are relatively minor bills such as this. So we'll see where this goes. I can be pretty sure where it will go. It'll get rammed through. It'll be more red tape and complexity. In regards to the consideration around those Māori wards I think it really continues to go at the heart of central government and this Government in particular not trusting the people in order to manage and control their own local communities. For that reason we strongly oppose this bill."