Davidson ReubenREUBEN DAVIDSON (Labour—Christchurch East): Thank you Madam Speaker. I rise to speak in support of the Local Government (Facilitation of Remote Participation) Amendment Bill. I'd like to acknowledge my colleague Cushla Tangaere-Manuel whose name this bill is in. It's a great bill.Before I came to this House I was an elected member on a community board and a community board in what is now the second-best electorate in New Zealand Te Pātaka o Rākaihautū / Banks Peninsula. I can say that as I'm now the proud MP for and proudly a resident in Christchurch East. So I'd like to speak for a little acknowledging my fellow board members in Te Pātaka o Rākaihautū / Banks Peninsula and also the amazing team of staff who supported those board members myself and the communities that we were privileged to serve on that community board. We were quite a range of people and quite a range of opinions on that community board. The one thing that everybody who was a member of that board had in common is that they were incredibly busy people. They were very active in their communities. They were running businesses from homes they were juggling commitments with full-time jobs some were parents with young kids and some had mobility or accessibility issues and that made it difficult for them to attend every meeting.This bill serves those people and those people serve our communities and they are amazing communities to be able to serve and we should empower those people to be able to do it properly. So I actually think this bill is about digital democracy because it removes barriers to participation and it will make it easier for people to be involved in the decisions that are directly affecting them.Madam Speaker one huge advantage for you would be that you'd simply be able to mute the likes of our members who like to interject—DEPUTY SPEAKER: That's fine but for new members you're not supposed to bring the Speaker into the debate so yeah.REUBEN DAVIDSON: Thank you and I'll note that. I also bring with me a piece of evidence which is a destination management plan that was generated by that community board that I was on in consultation with the community. It's so thick that it requires a bulldog clip to hold the pages together because a stapler won't do it. The reason that it is so thick—the reason that it is so thick—is that there was so much community participation in shaping and guiding the community board to create this plan for the environment for the community and for visitors to that part of New Zealand.Hon Member: Have you got a bigger version?REUBEN DAVIDSON: I'll blow it up and deliver one to your office.I'd like to give another example. Environment Canterbury is our largest regional council. It's over 44000 kilometres squared. That's bigger than Denmark. It's four times the size of Jamaica. It's 20000 times the size of Monaco—which gives you an idea of just how small Monaco is rather than anything else particularly relevant. But you get my point: it's very very big. Your repeal of three waters won't help with that.But it also has a city in it and it has a large number of rural communities. Rural communities have a lot of farmers who live in them and who want to be involved in the decisions of those regional councils for their future.Hon Rachel Brooking: They don't want to drive into town.REUBEN DAVIDSON: They do not want to drive into town as that member states so clearly. They really can't drive into town because they're so busy doing the important work that they do and this very bill empowers them and gives them the ability to be involved in participatory democracy at regional council level and taking that out will prevent that from happening.So I think that there's a real risk here in not doing this and that is that representation becomes a luxury for those who can afford it. People won't seek office. People won't be able to represent their communities because they can't take the time off work off family off study off their other life commitments to stand up and represent their communities. I don't think we can walk around proudly in this House if we prevent that from happening. I think the aim of local democracy is to remove barriers to participation. This bill does that. I think the aim of local democracy is to make it easier for people to be part of the very decisions that directly affect them. This bill does that. I think the aim of good local democracy makes participation one of the many things you can do in a day not the only thing. This bill does that.