Woods MeganHon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram): Thank you Mr Speaker. I just want to add to my colleague the Hon Barbara Edmonds as a member of the Finance and Expenditure Committee. My colleague did a very good job of walking us backwards from that report-back date that the motion that we have before us is asking for 18 July. My concerns really fall into two broad categories. It's the layering of complexities and it is the lack of guardrails in terms of the motion that we have before us looking to have amendments that are out of scope. So for submitters there's not even certainty around the parameters of what they'll be submitting on. But added to that it's not about how hard we can work as a committee; it is actually about the work programme that is before that particular committee at the moment.One of those pieces of work is a multipartisan piece of work which I'm very happy—as are other members in other parties I'm sure—to be undertaking in terms of an inquiry into climate adaptation. Climate adaptation is largely about water infrastructure. It is largely about how it is that we have that conversation with local councils. This coincides with the time when that inquiry is open to the public. It is councils it is water engineers and it is people involved in the funding and financing of the infrastructure to deal with flood risk that we're asking to participate in a multipartisan study that is looking at a way that across this Parliament we can find enduring political solutions to the vexed issue of climate adaptation. We're asking them to give freely of their expertise. To then pile on—to those councils to Local Government New Zealand to those water engineers and to those involved in the funding and the financing of water infrastructure around our country—the need to submit on something that is fundamental to how it is that they need to govern their cities and their regions over the coming decades as well is simply not tenable. It is not fair for us as a Parliament to put that pressure on our councils and on a small pool of experts that exist in this country that can give advice to us as a Parliament on two critical issues and connected issues that we must deal with: that of how it is that we deal with the ageing and failing in many cases water infrastructure that we have around this country. There are very serious and big questions that have to be answered within that not least of all the funding and financing. And Local Government New Zealand and their constituent bodies and those that aren't constituent bodies of that organisation will need to be involved in answering those questions. But we at the same time are asking them to give their input and to work with that committee on an inquiry with consequence that are going to last for decades and decades and decades. The Minister has asked parties across this Parliament to work together to find solutions about who pays for climate adaptation how we fund it how we finance it—SPEAKER: I'll just remind the member that we're talking about whether or not the Parliament should agree to the earlier report-back date of 18 July. Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: Yes and I—SPEAKER: Now with all due respect I'm hearing a huge amount of repetition—skilfully put I might say but none the less repetition—by the member and we just need to come right back to the tight point: are we agreeing to the report-back date or not. You can give the same excuse 20 times. It doesn't mean that it's any more than one excuse. Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: No but Mr Speaker I do not think this is something we can give a once over lightly. SPEAKER: Well thank you for your opinion but I—Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: Mr Speaker if you'd like to take a call.SPEAKER: No don't talk over the top of me like that. All I'm saying is while of course that's your opinion because that's why you're speaking in this debate you are still constrained by the concept of talking to the motion that's in front of us.Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: Yes I am. The requirement of that committee—my colleague spent some time talking about counting back and sketching out the time frame that would be required by the committee in there. What I am doing in my contribution Mr Speaker is informing the House what the committee is doing and how these two pieces of work are not going to work together.SPEAKER: Well you might think that's valid—Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: Not because of the burden on the members—SPEAKER: I'm sorry you might think that's valid—Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: —but the burden on the submitters.SPEAKER: You're not helping the cause at all because while you might think that's valid it is not. Explaining what your colleague was on about is not your role. Talk to the motion.Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: I am talking to the motion Mr Speaker when I am saying that this Parliament if it passes this motion to have a report-back date of 18 July for this water services bill is putting undue pressure on the very people that we need to hear from because we're already asking those same individuals to that very same committee to submit on connected but different issues. This is not the way in which Parliament should be scrutinising a bill of this importance that we have in front of us or the level of scrutiny that it requires in terms of the questions that need to be answered. These are not issues that can be taken lightly and I think what we're seeing from the Government today is a lack of a genuine desire to actually test this legislation. We need to answer some very fundamental questions. My colleague the Hon Kieran McAnulty talked about some of the issues that we need to talk about—balance sheet separation for example. These are things that we need to consider in depth and the Finance and Expenditure Committee will be placing an undue burden on those that can give us answers to that if we agree to this report-back date of 18 July.