Ngaro Alfred: Local Electoral Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeNgaro Alfred: Local Electoral Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Reading[Sitting date: 25 June 2013. Volume:691;Page:11202. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ALFRED NGARO (National):Kia orana Mr Assistant Speaker. Meitaki maata Mr Assistant Speaker. I rise and take a call on this third reading of the Local Electoral Amendment Bill (No 2). First I want to acknowledge the Minister of Local Government the Hon Chris Tremain for his fine work and his leadership and also I want to acknowledge the two chairs of the Justice and Electoral Committee the honourable member Tim Macindoe who handed over the baton to the honourable member Scott Simpson. It is great that we have had great leadership. I think just as the honourable member Denis O’Rourke said it was a good working party and a select committee that worked well together—hence the reason why we have got overwhelming support for the bill bar the Greens who we know will not be supporting it. But overwhelmingly there is support for this bill.This Government bill is improving transparency of local electoral donations and bringing the local electoral law closer in line with the Electoral Act. It is improving transparency and will help build public trust. We know that it is important that constituents out there are keen to ensure that they can trust both the process and also the people whom they would like to elect into those leadership roles. The local electoral reforms are in tandem with National’s Better Local Government reforms and we are modernising how local government is run and how it is elected.The purpose of this bill is threefold. It improves the provisions for the conduct of local elections increases transparency and accountability in relation to candidate donations and particularly anonymous donations and strengthens the integrity of the local electoral system. There were some comments about this being the “John Banks Bill” but we do know that both major Auckland mayoral candidates were able to receive substantial anonymous donations under Labour’s legislation. These changes will improve transparency.The changes introduced last year around the setting of ward boundaries information provided by candidates streamlining of vote processing and other areas reflect therecommendations from the Justice and Electoral Committee’s inquiry into the 2010 local elections. Just a minor technical issue that we did have some debate about in the select committee was around the provision that candidates for local elections must provide more information including whether they live in the area or are seeking election to more than one position. This becomes important in that it allows for constituents to be aware of the candidates and whether they are local candidates. But the debate was also about acknowledging their residential address and we were clear that we needed to provide protection as well as raising awareness. We think we have come to a good balance.This is a good bill. We think it does address the issues of transparency and most important it gives trust to the constituents. We look forward to the elections in October for all local bodies up and down the country. I commend this bill to the House.