SpeechHon NANAIA MAHUTA (Minister of Local Government): Can I thank the deputy chair of the Governance and Administration Committee for opening the debate and acknowledge the select committee for its consideration of what is a very dynamic and changing space in the area of local government. It is important to note that because local government affects the day-to-day wellbeing of our communities the depth and range of issues that are confronted in local decision-making are significant rapidly changing and evolving to address not only the mainstay of what local government is about—which is democratic representation of community wellbeing across your social economic environmental and cultural domains—but increasingly when we look at the natural disasters that are being addressed in the moment local government also has to make a contribution in areas such as civil defence natural disaster management and indeed recovery in a way that they haven't experienced ever before. The point was made that yes we spent a lot of time discussing the three waters programme because it is a significant reform impacting on the sector but we also discussed other aspects that local government want to see further evolved and that is in the area of future for local government. So I look forward to discussing both those areas in depth. If I could point to the select committee report and their consideration of the Estimates we spent a lot of time discussing aspects of the three waters reform which I think should be further fleshed out in this debate. The better-off funding for example in our conversation around its intent which was foreshadowed at the local government conference in July last year—in order to ensure that councils would be able to better participate in the reform programme the better-off funding was intended to ensure that we could support local communities to transition to a sustainable and low emissions economy including by building resilience to climate change and natural hazards. The funding could be used to enable housing development and growth with a focus on brownfield and infill development opportunities where those are available and could support local place-making and improvements in community wellbeing. I want to make really clear that the process for councils to participate was an open one. There's no prescription on the way in which councils would be penalised—and I'll characterise the use of the term very liberally—because of their stance on three waters. I made it really clear at select committee that the process would enable all councils to be able to access the better-off funding package for those purposes as I've outlined in the debate.In so far as the focus on the ICT component of the three waters reform programme—again this is quite critical to the implementation of three waters reform. We discussed at length the business case that is currently being undertaken to set out what are the key components of a strategic shift in this area. And if I could just I guess make the point that where we have 67 councils currently delivering water services what will be absolutely key to the strategic shift of moving water services into a different space will be the ICT capability. What we heard and what I responded to at select committee is that data and digital capability and system records functionality will form the core architecture of the business case that is being undertaken. I'm happy to respond to questions in that area. But when we think about the business case and what it will cover—a system of records operational technology modelling and reporting corporate systems and systems of differentiation. If we look at models where there has been a system shift towards improved water service delivery—we might look north to Watercare and the components of that systems shift—you will find elements of that ICT functionality absolutely at the core of the service delivery improvement.I do want to say that a lot of time was spent on costing in this area and that is why it's so necessary to undertake the business case so that we can get better modelling around cost. But again I make the point that this is an area where I anticipate that we will need to invest in for the long term. And I do want to make the point that in the whole reform programme we didn't have a comprehensive data set of information from councils about the health of their water infrastructure network about a range of data that would be necessary to do a thorough analysis around cost existing costs ongoing maintenance requirements and new costs with a higher regime in place until we undertook this programme some four years ago. We did spend a bit of time also—and that's evidenced in the select committee report that there is uniform support for Taumata Arowai which is the drinking-water regulator that is responsible for setting drinking-water standards and has oversight for waste water and stormwater. I think the most important point to highlight here is the role of Taumata Arowai as the dedicated drinking-water regulator that further on down the track as higher drinking-water standards are being enforced unilaterally on the sector there will be compliance costs. And again a lot of reports and research and information have gone into that aspect of the reform. Can I now move briefly to the Review into the Future for Local Government. This is an exciting area again supported by the local government sector and it outlines a number of key pillars of expectation around what to expect in terms of the future fit aspect of local government continuing to contribute to our community. I just want to outline them as they've been highlighted in the report. The panel have identified five key pillars: strengthening local democracy which will be at the heart of ongoing system change for the sector; a stronger focus on wellbeing—and if I characterise how the sector talked about that it is not just about roads rates and rubbish; it is about people it's about place and it's about ensuring that place-making occurs in a way that helps to support regional growth and opportunity. It's about authentic relationships with hapū iwi and Māori. In this regard because Treaty settlements are now a growing reality of the fabric of our democracy how they contribute to the broader wellbeing of communities becomes a conversation point which is why local government central government and community alongside iwi talking about what the long-term investment into community wellbeing should look like is the conversation space we need to be in. Genuine partnerships between central and local government—and I take that feedback very seriously from the sector because it has been higgledy-piggledy in the past. What we know is that for an effective working relationship to occur so that local government can work effectively in the space that they are contributing to—that dynamic partnership between central and local government can continue to improve and that's what we've been working on. And then the big challenge for local government which is an equitable source of funding for them to undertake the role that they've been tasked to do. Again I'm really pleased that the Review into the Future for Local Government panel are looking into this space off the back of the Productivity Commission's recommendations and in terms of being in front of the issue hearing other views from the local government sector about where further revenue could come from to enable councils to undertake the task that they are there to achieve on behalf of ratepayers. Let me just briefly come to the issue of improving Māori representation in Government and actually acknowledge the work of Local Government New Zealand and the diversity strategy going into this next local body election. By the next local body elections this year we will have 35 councils in total who will have the creation of Māori wards. That will see an increase of Māori representation around the table and it will see a more dynamic representation and inclusion of issues that for a long time have been shut out of the local government space. I see this as an evolving area that will make a positive contribution to community wellbeing and ongoing investment as I say from Treaty settlements into the regional growth aspirations that exist across the whole of the country. Only good can come from that.