SpeechHon DAVID BENNETT (National): Thank you Madam Speaker. In the Waikato the event of Māori representation on council has been probably quite late compared with what you probably expect in an area that is so dominated by Tainui in many ways and it has actually proven to be quite an effective role that has been taken by Māori on boards and on councils. For many people that may have had a lot of apprehension prior to that it has been proven that there was no need for such apprehension. In fact some of the Māori members of our councils show a lot more economic nous than some of the greener members of our councils that take quite a different philosophy on growth. The long-term ambitions of our Māori communities is something that councils as the Government need to take as well—however we don't need to dictate that to councils and that's what this bill does. Councils are quite willing to get to that point themselves. The actual point we should be going for is that we don't actually need to dictate anything. A true partnership or relationship under the Treaty wouldn't need dictation from this House. It would evolve and it will evolve to that point in our lifetime—I'm pretty sure of that. We don't need legislation like this to actually get to that point. That's the fundamental issue I guess many of us have. You know we don't actually have any opposition to Māori council positions; we actually see that they're quite valuable and quite effective in many cases like in our local communities. However we don't need that community to be dictated to by this House on how it should determine its representation.You know in the Waikato it may be that more than two seats might be actually appropriate but in the end that's up to the council the community to decide; it's not up for this House to decide. I can see the day when in the Waikato we won't need any seats—and that day isn't far away—because the representation is organic. We're getting to a stage now where councils are getting into that long-term vision. You have to look at the Waikato Regional Council—we were there yesterday. What you see there about their long-term vision around water and other issues is very consistent with Māori views of the world and where we want to go and it's consistent with the wider community's views of the world and where we want to go. I don't think that is an inconsistency that this Parliament needs to then you know dictate how that will be.In the end the end goal of local government should be to represent and do the best for their community and to work with central government—and central government's role is to work with local government as well. To achieve that does not require dictation from here. What it requires is an understanding of the long-term goals that we all want to achieve.So we oppose this bill but we see value in much Māori representation in our area for example. But it's the necessary representation that has come through things like Treaty settlements and that; it doesn't need to be dictated through legislation. It's been organic it has happened and the next stage of that will actually be to take that away. The next stage of organic growth will be to remove that and actually have councils that have long-term visions that represent everybody in their community. That is the long-term view that Government and council should have. It's probably something that's beyond this bill but you know the reality is we take a very three-year cycle or as the last speaker said a six-year cycle she felt she was under—and that is part of the problem. You know we need to take a longer-term vision in this House and in local government to achieve the goals the communities want.