Doocey Matt: Local Government Act 2002 (Greater Local Democracy) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDoocey Matt: Local Government Act 2002 (Greater Local Democracy) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 12 August 2015. Volume:707;Page:5763. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MATT DOOCEY (National—Waimakariri): I am a bit confused. I am standing to speak against the Local Government Act 2002 (Greater Local Democracy) Amendment Bill at its first reading. This is a bill that I will not be supporting and I refute the claims from across the floor that National MPs do not like local government. I must say of the members of my local governmentin Waimakariri whom I work with: I love them I embrace them I work with them and they are leaders in New Zealand. What they are doing at the moment is playing a key role in leading the recovery. I think that we have got to remind ourselves that it is not the Christchurch earthquakes but the Canterbury earthquakes and the town of Kaiapoi was hardest hit in the September 2010 earthquake. I enjoy working with that council and working with the community boards to support them with the recovery and the anchor projects. We recently opened the Ruataniwha Kaiapoi Civic Centre.It is also about working together—central government local government and the communities—around legislation. I think that we have got real lessons that can be rolled out around the rest of the country around housing supply and around how we have freed up land which has increased supply which equals demand. Average annual house price inflation is about 7.5 percent—try 5.5 percent in Canterbury and 3.5 percent in “Waimak”. We are the third-fastest growing electorate by population in the third-biggest district having just taken over from Invercargill. So I embrace local government. It has got a fantastic role to play but I cannot accept this bill.Why I say this is that currently when the Local Government Commission issues a final proposal to reorganise councils in a region there is an ability that if 10 percent of electors who are affected object they can trigger a poll. So there is already a mechanism in place. I can say from my own region of Canterbury that there is absolutely no appetite for an amalgamation or a super-city. So I know that if this were ever raised in the towns of Rangiora Oxford or Kaiapoi there would be 100 percent of people against it—so we would quite easily trigger the 10 percent needed for a poll.But I must say that there is a role for councils working together. What I mean by this is that if we look at an issue like transport as we rebuild and as Canterbury and Christchurch redraws itself we need to ensure that councils such as Waimakariri District Council Selwyn District Council and Christchurch City Council are working together. We know that we have got $900 million worth of roading investment going into the roads of national significance with $300 million of that going into my area of North Canterburyalone. We have about 60 percent of working-age adults commuting into Christchurch City so it was really disappointing to hear that the Christchurch City Council has voted down the Cranford Street extension which would have added increased reliability for commuters coming in on the northern corridor and the Northern Motorway. So we must realise that although we might not want amalgamation we need to work in a system. We are all connected and decisions made in one part of the system influence other parts. So I would urge councils to work together to support their communities.Really being a centre-right Government it is not all about small State; it is about big communities. What this Government does very well is listen to those communities. We care for those communities and at the end of the day we are there for those communities. So I do not support this bill. Thank you.