Andersen GinnyVIRGINIA ANDERSEN (Labour): Thank you for the opportunity to speak on the Local Government (Community Well-being) Amendment Bill. First and foremost I would like to acknowledge my colleagues Nanaia Mahuta and Paul Eagle for bringing this piece of legislation this far and what a good bill it is. It's a good bill because it acknowledges the importance of local and central government working together and that is long overdue in New Zealand. If you ask any person when you are out on the streets—DEPUTY SPEAKER: I don't want to ask.VIRGINIA ANDERSEN: —about the issues that concern them it is the issues that are affecting people on a day-to-day basis. It's about having a home that's warm and dry about having transport that's affordable and accessible and it's about having things like parks for children to play in—preferably those that have a public toilet and even ones where mums and dads can get a coffee. Those are the types of things that people want in their home communities.This piece of legislation restores the social economic environmental and cultural well-being of our communities and it acknowledges the fact that it is people not just things and roads and buildings that connect us. It is those communities that we want local bodies to be taking control of when they wish to do so. I have some very good examples of how that operates where I come from in Hutt South. It empowers councils to be able to work with their communities and give them those things that are required. It reduces compliance exercises of councils having to identify how a particular activity meets the constrained statutory purpose that's in the current legislation. A good example that has already been mentioned tonight is the living wage. The Hutt City Council expressed a clear desire to pay its staff the living wage: 232 staff earned less than $20.20 an hour. That came to an annual cost of $560000 a year. When the local living wage group lobbied and worked with councillors to make that change the view that was taken was that special legal advice was sought and once that legal advice was provided it was put forward that only the most cost-effective option could be taken. As a result of that legal advice the living wage was not able to be paid to those 232 people—those people who did some of the hardest jobs and were paid the least amount of people on a daily basis; not earning $20 an hour.I'm proud to see a piece of legislation put through from this House that will change the lives of people where I come from and give a basic wage in an area that is long overdue. In that process I would like to acknowledge local councillors who have lobbied hard for this change to take place: Campbell Barry Josh Briggs and local advocates such as Muriel Tūnoho who have worked hard to represent those who don't have a voice. I'm proud to see a piece of legislation where central and local government will be working together to give our communities the basics they need to get by.The second area I would like to touch on is housing. We've got some exciting developments happening in Hutt South particularly in Ēpuni where we will have Housing New Zealand properties of social housing and KiwiBuild. Those areas are fantastic opportunities for our local council to be providing services to those people who need assistance. There is a strong appetite from our Hutt City Council to be able to do that. It's great to see a piece of legislation that empowers local councils to be involved with new developments that central government is developing and to be able to give people those services to make lives better to give people the care and support they need to get on get a job pay their rent and have a happy well-balanced life. That is what this Government is about and I am proud to see a piece of legislation that works from top down to the bottom to give everyone in New Zealand a fair go. Thank you.