Court SimonSIMON COURT (ACT): Thank you Mr Speaker. This problem comes from a fundamental misunderstanding about what it is that New Zealand needs and what it is that Rotorua needs. The Rotorua District Council (Representation Arrangements) Bill will do nothing to solve the problems that Rotorua faces. Co-governance does nothing to solve the problems that Rotorua and deprived communities in places like parts of Rotorua face. It doesn't solve the problem with infrastructure funding and financing that's led to water quality in Rotorua being severely affected by waste water for decades and decades. It doesn't solve the problem of how to get more homes built—homes to house the hundreds and hundreds of people that this Labour Government has dumped on Rotorua because it doesn't know how to deal with them. This bill does nothing to help Rotorua heal and move forward from the way it's been treated by this Government but more importantly from the way its existing councillors and the Labour mayor—a former MP in the Labour Party—has treated Rotorua. I'll give you an example.But before I start I just want to tell you: I treasure Rotorua. I studied in Rotorua. I studied at the Forest Research Institute library when I was studying to become an environmental scientist and engineer. I've spent years of my life staying with family in Rotorua on holidays and for special occasions. I lived there for six months in the 1990s. I think of Rotorua as my second home. So it actually causes me a great deal of emotional pain to see what's happened to Rotorua under this Government and under the leadership of its Labour mayor.We think about how co-governance could help fix Rotorua's water quality problem the quality of the lakes. Well actually a few years ago it was decided that the waste water from Rotorua township should be pumped up and sprayed into the forests and hills around Rotorua because that addressed some of the legitimate concerns that mana whenua had with discharging waste water into the lakes and into the river. It seemed like a good thing to do. But what we know now is that that contaminated groundwater is now moving into the lake even though it was discharged to ground and should have been taken up by the trees. It's quite clear that solutions to waste water and environmental and other problems require good science and good data rather than co-governance to solve.I'll give you an example about homes and housing. Rotorua's been the dumping ground—the dumping ground—for this Government for hundreds of people into emergency housing and into motels. This bill does nothing to house people in Rotorua and actually to solve some of Rotorua's terrible underlying social problems which are actually the result of years and years of Government-sponsored State-sponsored poverty. There's families who've been on benefits for multiple generations and who know nothing more than the deprivation of living on benefits. Now it's clear that this Government thinks that by increasing benefits by $50 or $25 a week or whatever it is this time around is going to help them but it's not because what it doesn't do is actually deliver thriving communities and a healthy economy. That's what Rotorua needs to grow.That's why the ACT Party fundamentally disagrees with this bill. It doesn't solve a single problem that the people of Rotorua need Government to help solve. It doesn't help people in business in Rotorua employ more people. The Rotorua District Council is suffering a complete meltdown. Under the leadership of its Labour-led mayor it's created six or seven new general manager roles paying them hundreds of thousands of dollars. They couldn't even come up with a job description for these new general managers after nearly a year. This is a council which sponsored a piece of public artwork on the waterfront but couldn't even get the foundations designed properly so it had to be removed. This bill about co-governance does absolutely nothing to help the people of Rotorua. That's why the ACT Party cannot support this bill. We believe in fact in reforming infrastructure funding and financing so that local councils have the right incentives to do their job.