Andersen GinnyGINNY ANDERSEN (Labour): Thanks very much Madam Speaker for the opportunity to speak on this great bill that really restores the ability for local government to take some control in their space and have the confidence to make good decisions for their communities. I'm most proud of the fact that it works so well with other legislation that has restored the four wellbeings and is focusing on what makes communities happy healthy and function well. This is a really good area in a way because there's three main points that I'd like to touch on in terms of what this bill does. The reorganising factor—that's the threat of amalgamation that no longer hangs over the heads of so many local governments and has caused friction so much. Auckland was not alone in that one. The second one I'd like to talk about is the role of council-controlled organisations (CCOs) and how those have been made more transparent—in particular in the areas of those vital services like water provision and transport to make sure there's increased transparency. Thirdly I'd like to look at how we're working better to have partnership and that's the one I'll pick up on now. It's been really interesting how we've heard this criticism around removing those powers of the Local Government Commission and how that's going to be such a big problem but what happens when you give local councils that ability to take control and to be able to work with their communities more fluidly? It demonstrates our partnership approach in terms of working with local government and it's that partnership approach that really epitomises this Government and what it represents. When we look back to other areas where the National Government has tried to micro-manage things like national standards and tried to performance-manage teachers—well that went down really well didn't it? So what this Government demonstrates is being able to work in partnership to get best outcomes for our people and best outcomes for the communities and that's exactly what these changes in local government demonstrate. By having increased transparency increased partnership and the ability to work collaboratively we believe that that's the way that benefits the wellbeing of our community far more. I would like to pause for one moment as other members have and congratulate some of those candidates who were successful in the recent local government elections. In particular I would like to take a look at Hutt South very briefly and congratulate the new Mayor of Hutt City who happens to be not just a Labour mayor by coincidence but also the youngest mayor in New Zealand which is Campbell Barry who is 28 years old. I'm incredibly proud to see the good work that will be done on transport housing water and all those important issues and how we're working so well in the Hutt. It's a big Labour team all round out that way and I'm very proud to be part of it. So looking forward to how we'll be working in terms of some of the key parts of this let's take a look in particular at reorganisation and what that approach really means and what it means by removing that threat of amalgamation that's hung over the head of local authorities for far too long. As Ms Swarbrick has already mentioned we're reversing the previous Government's changes which enabled anyone to request an investigation and that's really good because it gives local government a bit more confidence in terms of where the future lies—a bit more certainty. Local authorities will be able to request a reorganisation themselves so they can do that in their own right through the Local Government Commission. So that ability is still there but it's more on the side of working collaboratively. They can undertake it themselves through that new reorganisation process. Reorganisation proposals made by members of the public will need to demonstrate that there's significant community support and that's done by introducing on Supplementary Order Paper 323 a requirement for a petition of 10 percent or more of the local people affected. So that right is still there but there's a requirement for a 10 percent threshold in order to make sure that there's a little bit more autonomy based in those local government organisations. Additionally once the bill is enacted all reorganisation requests except for those already accepted by the Local Government Commission will need to meet the new requirements for significant community support. So it's still keeping in mind that you need to work with communities but it's giving a threshold there at the same time. The previous Government's bill enhanced powers of the Local Government Commission and increased its accountability to central government. But our bill removed these measures because they would not achieve better outcomes for the system of local government and that gets back to my main point of partnership and working in collaboration to make sure we get the best outcomes for our communities. This legislation represents the start of a programme to look at how central government and local government can work together well enough to increase the wellbeing of our communities. So these interim measures are being introduced to constrain large-scale reorganisations and also to alleviate the local government sector's concerns about that threat of amalgamation. Having that constant fear on your shoulder can really impede the ability for local government members to be able to work within their communities and feel like there's a level of certainty going forward. It is also to provide breathing space while new arrangements are being developed. Let's take a look at CCOs. I'm always interested in CCOs. We've got a couple out in the Hutt City and I've always been interested about how they have operated and from my experience they haven't been that transparent. I've attended a few annual general meetings that would have taken place in the blink of an eye with minutes that lasted about four words so no one actually knows what's happening behind those scenes. It's also interesting to see how much some of those boards and chairs get paid. I'm always interested in those sums as well to see where that benefit is going. The bill makes amendments to council-controlled organisational provisions to make a greater level of transparency and it's important that if these are used by local government—if these are facets of what ratepayers are contributing to—it's important that those people who are living within an area whether they be ratepayers or not have an understanding of what those functions are and how that money is being spent. So when there's multiple ownership or when there's work going on with transport or with fundamental services like water provision it's incredibly important that people know what's happening and have the ability to have access to that information. The Local Government Commission will not be able to transfer a council's services to CCOs. The next change is that proposals to create an elaborate system of CCOs to deliver water transport and other services are withdrawn and we've seen that in some of the bigger centres in New Zealand. Provisions to enhance the transparency and accountability of council-controlled organisations to councils and communities are added. That's really important—that those elected members sitting around the council table have a good handle on what's going on—and that is one area that I think could be really improved in this space. The original bill made extensive provisions to force CCOs—especially council-controlled CCOs—jointly owned by a number of authorities and this includes CCOs with water and transport functions. So local authorities deeply opposed this approach but this amendment—this SOP—makes those changes by removing that material from the original bill and I think that's a real improvement. If we've got increased accountability and increased transparency in terms of how those CCOs are operating that's got to be an improvement on the previous bill. Additionally the bill also retains the existing provisions to improve planning and reporting arrangements for CCOs and further strengthens accountability mechanisms. As I've said before some of the ability to report back to the public whether it's an AGM or making minutes available—those can be really difficult to get hold of for the average member of the public. So having some bottom lines in terms of what's happening and how that money is being spent how those services are being delivered and how they can reassure communities that they're getting access to the services that they're essentially funding is quite important. To finish off I would like to say that it is important that there are areas that the bill demonstrates the Government's partnership approach in working with the local government sector and fundamental to that is trust. It is working together and having a level of trust that we work with each other and to have a country where our local government is empowered to help people. That might be through additional funding through areas that we haven't seen before and I look forward to seeing developments in that space. Housing is one of those abilities that we can work closely with local government to make sure that there's a range of housing options. Whether they be rent to buy or a cheaper rent if there's council-owned property and if there's Government initiatives to work together those are some of those areas that could really increase community wellbeing and having this strong partnership in this space is a strong platform for those future developments to happen. I'm proud of this bill. It's a good piece of work and I commend it to the House.