Mark Ron: Local Government Act 2002 (Greater Local Democracy) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMark Ron: Local Government Act 2002 (Greater Local Democracy) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 12 August 2015. Volume:707;Page:5762. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]RON MARK (Deputy Leader—NZ First): Well I start with a little mixed emotion here because I have to say I am a little bit annoyed with Stuart Nash and the Labour Party because one of the reasons I decided to give up my position of the mayoralty of Carterton a position that I absolutely loved and cherished was what this Government did in 2012 with the Local Government Act 2002.I had the realisation that local government was not being listened to and that local government was being abused by a particular Minister who held the portfolio at the time and who unfairly and unjustifiably stigmatised and demonised local government in order to ram through the legislation that sought to achieve the National Government’s objectives that being that local government needed fewer councils and bigger was better and that it was going to come in by hook or by crook methods—let us put it that way. By hell or high water it was going to do that.As the mayor it astonished me to hear card-carrying members of the National Party who were solid hard-working councillors deputy mayors and mayors being described by the National Government as being lazy incompetent and incapable of running their communities. It said that they could not run a balanced budget and that they ran up deficits. Excuse me? In the time that I was out of the House this Government has racked up what $83 billion or $86 billion in debt and yet every year Carterton runs a surplus. Every year Carterton runs a balanced budget and over the last 4 years it has actually run a surplus. This Government and in fact central government has very rarely if ever run a balanced budget—if ever.We sat there and we watched the disaster that was the Auckland super-city. What was interesting was that a year or so after it had happened we had corporate people come to us and say “You know we believed what the Government was telling us about super-cities being good and costs being lowered and rates going down.” but one who was the chief executive officer of a very major international firm with a head office in Auckland said: “But in 1 year our rates have gone up by 22 percent.”So the bottom started to fall out of it and now what are we seeing? Well Rodney wanted out and now Waiheke Island wants out. Waiheke Island—the home and the bastion of the country’s millionaires the people who fund the National Party the people who supported the National Government’s amendments that removed democracy and installed what we in the Wairarapa called the hostile takeover clause. That is what we called it. This clause made it possible for the tyranny of the majority to reign over small communities. That particular amendment became the most hated amendment out of everything that the Government did in the Local Government Act. I am not telling you anything from New Zealand First’s perspective; I am telling you what the Government’s own card-carrying members of the National Party who are councillors regional councillors deputy mayors and mayors all over the country are saying.I welcome having the National Government vote this down. I am loving it because I can assure the House that every speech made by every National Party member—and I am looking at my good friend over there who is going to stand up and represent Waimakariri Matt Doocey. You know Matt I am going to have to send your speech to every councillor in rural provincial New Zealand—every councillor every mayor and every deputy mayor—so they can see that this Government believes that getting rid of the hostile takeover clause is undemocratic. Why should Wellington City—220000 people—dictate to Carterton which has been running its affairs very efficiently and is consistently rated by Business and Economic Research as one of the top nine performing councils in New Zealand? It would blitz Auckland—blitz Auckland. Why should it be dictated to by the majority?Here is one of the other bizarre things that is an unintended consequence. When the Government changed that Act and it required people to petition for a referendum—not have it as a matter of right; they do not have a democratic say as a matter of right but they have to put a petition together to get a referendum—it then made it possible for a little enclave up in the Tararua which is an affected area to sign that petition. Ten residences—it only needed one of them under the Government’s own silly legislation to sign that petition and the referendum was automatic.The problem is the tyranny of the majority over some good small councils which actually when one looks at the performance are outperforming many of the so-called bigger is better councils. New Zealand First supports this bill. We actually look forward to the Government voting it down and we so desperately look forward to the fallout and the consequences on the National Party in the 2017 election. Thank you for voting it down National. You have done us well.