Smith Nick: South Taranaki District Council (Cold Creek Rural Water Supply) Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Smith Nick: South Taranaki District Council (Cold Creek Rural Water Supply) Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 05 December 2012. Volume:686;Page:7174. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) 
: 
 I am delighted to be making a contribution on the South Taranaki District Council (Cold Creek Rural Water Supply) Bill and I want to begin by complimenting the work of Chester Borrows the member for Whanganui who has not just championed this bill but been such an effective advocate for a very large electorate. 
Andrew Williams 
: This is the self-admiration club again. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Well he is such an effective member. I would love to compare how many votes Chester Borrows got in Whanganui with how many votes Andrew Williams got. Could Maggie Barry remind me? 
Maggie Barry 
: He was the fifth-lowest polling candidate. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: He was the fifth-lowest polling candidate in North Shore as compared with the sponsor of this bill who I am not surprised got not just 1000 votes more than Andrew Williams got not 10000 votes— 
Andrew Williams 
: What’s that got to do with it? 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: The member interjects with “What’s that got to do with it?”. Well it has actually got quite a lot to do with it. It is to do with your mandate to speak for your communities. Chester Borrows has a very strong mandate to talk for his Whanganui electorate because not only is he a damned good Minister he is actually an excellent advocate for that very large electorate. What this bill shows is that Chester Borrows is not just being an effective advocate for the city of Wanganui but actually goes the hard yards for those smaller rural communities that are part of his electorate and the community that is going to benefit from this bill. You see this bill oozes common sense—oozes common sense—and I think every member of this House would know that if there is a member who champions common sense it is Chester Borrows and what is in this bill. 
What this bill enables is 162 members of the Cold Creek community water supply scheme to be able to run their water scheme as a cooperative. Who in this House would oppose a bunch of 162 property owners who want to get on and run their own water supply? In my own electorate I have got lots of these water supply schemes and they are run very effectively because— 
Andrew Little 
: Because more than half of it was paid for by the taxpayer. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Andrew Little who has interjected a number of times is ideologically opposed to New Zealanders doing stuff for themselves. He hates it. He wants people to be dependent. He cannot stand the idea that people might be able to do things for themselves and have a water scheme that provides their community with a good supply of water that is run by their own community. 
What is interesting is that on this bill and on so many other things there is an ideological split within the Labour Party. You see you have Annette King who made a very sensible contribution. She said in a very pragmatic common-sense way that if the people of this community want to run their own water scheme that is a good thing and providing there are proper checks in the bill she is prepared to support it. On the other hand you have got Andrew Little representing the hard left of the Labour Party which hates people doing things for themselves. He indicates by his interjections that he is opposed to this bill and all members on this side of the House say “Here we go again. The Labour Party is all over the place as it has been all this year not able to resolve the ideological rifts within the Labour Party and we have no idea where it stands.” 
What we do have though is concerning opposition from the Green Party to this bill and I am not surprised by that. You see the Green Party is opposed to any bill that represents pragmatic common sense. It will always find a reason to get in the way of New Zealanders being able to do their own things. It is interesting in respect of what I call the ideological ratchet which the Labour Party and the Green Party members so often operate. If a council wants to buy a water scheme they say that is good and it should be allowed to do that. But if ever a council wants to divest a water scheme they say you cannot do that. 
Hon Chris Tremain 
: Asset sales. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: That is right. My colleague from Napier says that you then get into an ideological rant around asset sales. Well actually this is. This is one where a community has said “Hey we have got a water scheme.” The people who run it and use it on daily basis would like to run it for themselves. The local council says it thinks that is a good idea. We have even put a protection in Chester Borrows’ bill that requires there to be a referendum amongst the local people—the only people who are affected by this bill—to have their say. And now Andrew Little and Eugenie Sage say they are going to stop and oppose communities making that decision for themselves. The arrogance of those members! And do you know what it really illustrates? It illustrates the huge risk to common sense if this country ever faces a Labour-Green Government because every member on this side of the House knows that the ideological hard left idealism of the Labour Party is always going to trump and is going to get in the way of communities like Cold Creek being able to get on and run their own water scheme. That is what is going to happen and this little bill actually exposes the risk to common sense that there would be in the event that Labour and the Greens were to form a Government. It is extraordinary. 
I want to just follow through Eugenie’s argument. It goes this way. Because the Government provided a subsidy many years ago to provide good quality water in this community as it did all over New Zealand then the referendum on the future of this Cold Creek rural scheme should be over all the people who contributed. Well let us just test that at a practical level. That means you have got to have a referendum over 4.5 million New Zealanders as to whether the Cold Creek community water supply of 162 people are able to get on and run their own scheme. Well it would actually cost about $3 million to have a referendum over a scheme that is not worth that much. But that is the sort of ideological nonsense that you get from the Green Party. That is when people are not allowed to have the common sense that Chester Borrows advocates overall. The co-leader of the Green Party Metiria Turei is questioning that. That is exactly the ideological view we got at the Local Government and Environment Committee from the Green Party that everybody who contributed which is the taxpayer to this scheme should get a say in the future of it. Who in their right mind would spend over 3 million bucks on a referendum about which most New Zealanders would say “Look if the local people want to get on and do this why would Parliament get in their way? Why would we object to the local people running their local water scheme as a cooperative?” 
Andrew Williams 
: Can we quote you on that when you become the local government Minister? 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: I ask Mr Andrew Williams who is interjecting what he has got against the people of South Taranaki—162 people. All they are asking Parliament to do is to let them run their own local water supply? They are not asking for a single dollar of subsidy from the local ratepayers in running the scheme. 
Andrew Little 
: That’s because they’ve already got it. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: The member Andrew Williams interjects and says they have already got it. Well actually throughout New Zealand the Government provided subsidies for setting up water schemes. That was part of actually improving the clean water supply for communities and I think that is a good thing. We are a practical party of environmentalists over here. We are providing subsidies right now as a Government for cleaning up lakes. We are actually spending more money than any Government— 
Andrew Williams 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I was waiting for you to pick up the Hon Nick Smith but he referred to another member and referred to that member as being me and it was quite incorrect. He said it was Andrew Williams when it was actually Andrew Little and I do not like to have my name used in that manner incorrectly. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: I am sure that was a genuine mistake but the member will be alerted. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: I want to assure you it was not in any way a mistake. The Andrews—both Williams and Little—have interjected during my speech indicating their opposition to this bill and I am challenging both of them and asking why they are opposed to common sense. Why are they opposed to the people of South Taranaki being able to run their little water scheme as occurs in so many parts of rural New Zealand on an efficient local basis? The truth is that they are members for bureaucracy they are members for extra cost and they are members who actually have no regard for New Zealanders being able to get on and run their own little water supply for their communities. Members on this side of the House say that is sensible and we say it occurs all over New Zealand. We should give that opportunity to the people of South Taranaki who use the Cold Creek community water supply scheme. We support them. We support them doing that— 
Andrew Williams 
: You’re going to hang yourself at this rate when you’re local government Minister. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: The member Andrew Williams interjects and I say to him that if there are members in other communities who would like to get on and run their local water scheme in a cooperative way such as this that is something that members on this side of the House would be happy to support.