Carter John: Local Government Law Reform Bill — First Reading 
Carter John: Local Government Law Reform Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:630;Page:2513] 
JOHN CARTER (National—Northland) 
: 
 The problem with the Minister’s speech is that he condemned himself with his own words by saying that this bill is insignificant. The problem is that the Minister takes that attitude to local government when it has never been more the case than it is right now that we need some action in local government. The tragedy is that the Minister will do little about the issues that concern local governments and ratepayers. 
I want to go back to the motion that led to the introduction of this bill. I remind the House that that motion displayed again the arrogance of the Government the Prime Minister and the Minister in not consulting other parties about this legislation. The upshot was that before the bill even came before the House as it has today changes were made to it because not enough consultation had taken place. Had proper consultation taken place this bill would have included the ability to make sure that a database could be established. The problem with the microchipping of dogs as the legislation stands is that the Government is really stuck as to how it will get a national database. I will be very interested to see what sort of answer the Minister comes up with in that regard. I remind the House that the Government had planned that this legislation would give the Department of Internal Affairs the authority to establish a database on microchipping. 
It is interesting that a member of another party spoke about that party’s intention to put forward an amendment to this bill but the only member who has actually put an amendment on the table is the Hon David Carter. Instead of going on about what might happen David Carter has actually done that. The National Party with David’s leadership has put forward an amendment to make sure that farm dogs are exempt from microchipping. I know that David Carter will want to talk more about that. 
The other speakers on this bill from our side will be the Hon Maurice Williamson and Eric Roy. Both of them but particularly Maurice will want to talk about issues relating to the transport section of the bill. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Maurice Williamson. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: The Hon Maurice Williamson. 
JOHN CARTER 
: The Hon Maurice Williamson will want to remind the House that the last thing we need is Transit New Zealand staff becoming policemen. The last thing we need is Transit staff out there trying to be cops. They cannot even get their roads right let alone police them. But I will leave Maurice and Eric to expand on that. 
While the Minister is in the House I want to take up another point regarding the broader aspect of this bill: the issue of civil defence. I know he is Minister of Local Government but he referred to a statement I had made about civil defence. I would have loved it if he had come with me today to see the trouble civil defence is in. While it has improved—things are happening—what this Government has not done in respect of civil defence is quite honestly an absolute disgrace. There is great need. We will be in real trouble if some problem arises in this nation in the next little while. 
The Minister can put out as many statements as he likes about me having my head in the clouds when it comes to civil defence but the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. When some calamity occurs the Government will be unable to respond to the needs of the people. It will be an absolute disaster and the Government will bear the biggest responsibility for the consequences. 
I want to talk about what is happening in local government and why I am absolutely embarrassed and ashamed that the Minister says the bill we are debating today is just a small piece of legislation. In local government we are seeing what has been classified as “incremental creep”. [ 
Interruption 
] That is not a new nickname for the Minister. We are seeing the compliance costs borne by local government continuing to become more and more of a burden on ratepayers. This year we will see significant rates increases across the country from both regional and district councils. The significant majority of the costs underlying those rates increases can be laid right at the feet of the Labour Government. I will give a couple of instances. Microchipping of dogs is a classic example. The Government says it will impose microchipping of dogs right across the nation. A Treasury report has advised the Government not to do so. Treasury is absolutely opposed to the measure because of the significant cost of setting it up—$1.4 million—and ongoing costs of $400000 a year just to maintain the database. Who will pay for that? The Government will not—not on your Nelly! It will ask the ratepayers the dog owners to meet those costs. That is part of the incremental creep we see happening across the nation. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: That’ll be half the Working for Families package gone. 
JOHN CARTER 
: Well exactly! Those who have dogs will suddenly find that instead of being able to spend the bit the Government has paid out on the extra things that are talked about they will be putting it into the control of dogs. Even worse is the fact that microchipping of dogs when it comes in—and it will come in shortly— 
Hon David Carter 
: We’ll beat it! 
JOHN CARTER 
: We will defeat it absolutely! 
Hon David Carter 
: Common sense will prevail. 
JOHN CARTER 
: We hope that is right—let us hope so. Microchipping of dogs will be seen as a deterrent and fewer dogs will be registered and microchipped than currently are. It will not work. It will be a failure and that failure will rest at the feet of the Government and of the Minister himself. 
We need to look at other areas in local government that are a real worry—costs that the Government has imposed on local government for things like food safety standards. Somebody—some bureaucrat in Wellington—came up with the theory that we should have the system right across New Zealand. Well that is fine but who has the Government said should meet the cost of making sure that it is monitored applied and certified? Who does that? It is the local authorities. Where do the local authorities get the costs from? Who will pay for that? It will not be this Government. The Government expects local government to pick up those things. Water quality is the same thing. Here we go again. The Government has come up with a standard across the nation. Many local authorities struggle to bring their water supplies up to the standard. I ask the Minister to tell me how many people have died from drinking water from a water supply. I have not heard of any. There may be some but there has not been a raft of them to my knowledge. Yet here we go again. This Government is saying to local government that it has to meet the costs. The ratepayers of this country will meet the costs of laws that are imposed on them by the Labour Government on to local government. 
Quite honestly the ratepayers of this country—the people of this country—need to understand that the reason why they are having increased rates demands this year falls fairly and squarely at the feet of the Labour Government. It continues to impose additional costs on to local government. The consequence of that is that local government has no alternative but to put those costs out to the ratepayers. So when people sit there and think that the Government is giving them more money in some sort of benefit they must remember that that same Government is taking it with the other hand because of the costs it is imposing on local government. 
I say to the House that the National Party is working with local government. The local government team in the National Party supported by other members of the caucus is going around the country and visiting local authorities. We want local authorities to know that at last there is a party that will listen to them that will work with them that understands the problems and that will be making sure we do not have a Government that merely hands out responsibilities without understanding the impact. The National Party is the one party that will be making sure that local government gets the support and the backing it needs. Members should remember that this bill will do nothing for local authorities. It does not help the ratepayers of this country and it certainly will not stop the cost escalation that this Labour Government has put on ratepayers in this country.