SpeechJAMI-LEE ROSS (Botany): Thank you Mr Chair. I wish to speak to Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) 489 in my name. It's an SOP which effectively calls for a rates freeze an issue I raised in the House last week. Can I first say generally I think the Government's approach in this bill is the right one. It tackles a range of issues which will assist New Zealanders in their day-to-day life as they deal with issues that they're faced with under COVID-19. But I have to say I was disappointed—not surprised but disappointed—when the issue of a rates freeze and how local government can assist New Zealanders was quite dismissed by the Minister of Finance last week when I raised it in question time. So I put forward this SOP because I think genuinely New Zealanders should be able to enjoy some relief from their local council right now in this time where huge numbers of people are losing jobs when people are struggling to pay the bills struggling to pay the mortgage to keep their home. We should be calling on local government to do what they can do as well to ensure that New Zealanders can get by and that they have some relief when it comes to what local authorities impose on people. Homeowners mortgage payers when they are looking at their daily bills when they are looking at their cost of living an annual increase—it always comes their way—that they never seem to get relief from is their rates bill. Councils are known for always just looking for increases rather than first looking at whether they can cut back some of their own costs and whether they can provide some relief to their ratepayers. So I've drafted this SOP which would implement a rates freeze across the country because I believe it's reasonable that New Zealanders should have that opportunity. It's not as if it's a controversial thing for a rates freeze to be proposed. It's actually what some councils themselves are looking at right now. But as we know local government is a creature of statute. Local government makes decisions around rates and the costs that they impose on New Zealanders under statute that this Parliament passes the Local Government (Rating) Act and the Local Government Act itself. I think in this extraordinary time we should be sending a message to local government and leading the way for them to say that they should be delivering lower costs to ratepayers than they were otherwise expected to do. This is not as if it's a controversial issue either because the likes of Christchurch the likes of Dunedin the likes of the Waikato Regional Council—they're already talking about rates freezes. Other councils though—and having been there as a city councillor I know they're usually scared into putting the rates up by their officials by their finance people who scare them into saying that they can't go ahead with projects if they don't ramp the rates up every single year. The reality is right now the cost of borrowing for councils just as it is for Government is going to be at the lowest they've ever faced. The cost of borrowing is going to be low because if international lenders are looking for good horses to back right now organisations backed up by taxpayers or ratepayers are good avenues for funding. So ratepayers should enjoy the benefits of that as well and councils should be doing just like every other organisation out there is doing in this tough time: cutting back their costs. It's not good enough for a local authority simply to say Well we have to put up the rates because we have no other way." Well there is another way. The other way is to look at their balance sheets look at their budgets and look at where they can make cost savings.So as local government is a creature of statute as this Parliament has passed laws saying how they should set rates we should tell them now how they should implement some savings for their ratepayers as well. So I put forward this SOP. I think it's something that should be considered by the Parliament. I note that calling for a rates freeze is something National Party MPs have been calling for on their Facebook pages and social media so I hope we can enjoy support from them on this issue as well."