Sio William: Kaipara District Council (Validation of Rates and Other Matters) Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSio William: Kaipara District Council (Validation of Rates and Other Matters) Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 12 June 2013. Volume:691;Page:11089. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Su’a WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Māngere):I rise to present a view on this bill the Kaipara District Council (Validation of Rates and Other Matters) Bill and to say that the view of the Labour Party is that this ought to go to the Local Government and Environment Committee as recommended by the sponsor of the bill Mike Sabin. Although we will support it going to that select committee there are concerns and reservations that have been raised on this side of the House and that we will continue to discuss.Prior to the bill being introduced tonight I have had the opportunity along with my colleagues who will speak tonight to meet with the commissioners—in particular the chair John Robertson who is with us tonight—and we have met with Bruce Rogan the chair of the Mangawhai Residents and Ratepayers Association and its legal representative.Although we accept on the surface that the recommendation for this bill is that there is no other way and that this has been the last resort that we present to this House for consideration it nevertheless raises serious questions about why this has been allowed to get to where it is. I think members of the House on the other side recognise that last year the Hon Annette King who was the Labour spokesperson on local government raised at that point the need for the Government to act quickly. We criticised the Government for not acting quickly. I was not aware of the details of the situation butcertainly now I see why the Hon Annette King was very critical of the lack of action by the Minister of Local Government at that particular time.I think as outlined by the sponsor of the bill these issues are very serious. It is mind-boggling why a debt that started out so small was able to balloon into a situation where it is in the vicinity of $80 million. There are questions that we would want the select committee to hopefully have the ability to consider. Although on the surface of it yes you have got more than 10000 ratepayers who continue to pay their rates and who continue to put faith in the decisions that have been made there is certainly another group who rightly I believe have raised their concerns and want to hold somebody other than themselves responsible. The sad fact of the matter is that in the meantime they continue to receive the services for the facilities that the Kaipara District Council has produced.It concerns me also that this council and those involved in the decision making of the council made decisions about its rates and made decisions about the Mangawhai waste-water system without consultation. It boggles the mind to believe that the debt almost doubled and there was no consultation with the community which inevitably ends up paying for it.So I am quite pleased to see that in the latter part of the bill Subpart 3 “Other matters” is clause 14 “Council’s right to bring proceedings unaffected” because I think there are issues where the resident ratepayers have taken this to court asking for judicial review. I note that that is within their rights. So I think the select committee ought to be looking at that. There is the auditor’s report which has yet to be made public. The select committee also needs to consider that.But you have got to ask whether Kaipara District Council was asleep at the wheel when these decisions were made. Why did the councillors place so much faith in the chief executive officer and in the officials at that particular time? Why did they place so much faith in consultants—consultants who I have to say provided specification for the project and then ended up contracting themselves for the delivery of it. I am keen to know who those contractors are and who the right-wingers were who clapped from the sidelines lauding how wonderful the council was and the fact that the rates were low at 1 percent I am told with no thought for long-term projections in terms of how it was going to fund some of these long term. And how was it that the size of the Mangawhai scheme doubled in debt without the consultation of the very people who sure benefit from it but also have to pay for it?So there is a range of questions that I am not sure whether the select committee will be able to deal with but certainly they are questions worth asking and worth asking officials. I understand that the Government is supporting this bill and so I think that the committee ought to take every opportunity to be asking that the officials do take an investigation into this matter.The fact that with this bill the rights of the council will remain to proceed in the prosecution of anyone related to this “to bring any proceedings against any person arising out of or in connection with any actions or omissions validated by this Act.”—I think it is important that people can feel confident. But more important I would hope that the opportunity is taken up by every resident and ratepayer of the Kaipara District Council to raise their concerns to raise these matters because we here in Wellington may not have the full details and certainly officials may not have the full details in terms of what has occurred. I would like to hear from every resident ratepayer what the issues are that they now face.Irrespective of that I think the big question has to be asked—and we have dealt with this and tried to discuss this—of who pays. Who ultimately pays? I think there are concerns around the banks that provided the loan to the Kaipara District Council andquestions now have to be asked. Should the legal entities have that ability to lend money to district councils without proper due process of the ability of the councils to repay it and without proper due process to ensure that the process as outlined by the Local Government Act and the relevant legislation is being followed? These questions have arisen because of this.You know I do not want to raise the names that people have given me of people who might be at fault but the reality is that this is such an ugly mess that we have got to clean this up. But I would hope that in cleaning this up we do look for the lessons to be learnt and that we do look for ways of pursuing those who may have been responsible for this decision. OK if it is incompetence then let us say that it is incompetence but those people who are incompetent need to own up. They need to face the Kaipara District Council resident ratepayers.So although we would like to see this bill go through to the select committee thereby permitting the resident ratepayers of the Kaipara District Council district to have a say on this we have got some serious concerns. We are raising them for consideration and I hope that the committee takes every opportunity to seek them out.One of the appalling things I think is that there were no red flags by Audit New Zealand as to why—it never made any sounds. And if it did who did it make them to? Why did the council not pick up on that? This is quite sad because I know that on the whole councils do a wonderful job. They are elected by their constituency to do work and by and large constituencies hold councils and their mayors to account. But in this situation I fear that that did not take place. I am quite sad about that because this is now the reason why we sit here around this table trying to decide how we ensure that the work goes on and how we ensure that that council continues to implement and deliver the necessary outcomes for its local communities.I look forward to this bill being debated in the Local Government and Environment Committee and to that select committee giving it sincere and serious consideration and I look forward to hearing more from the residents and ratepayers. I want to thank the commissioners. I know they have sort of been the meat in the sandwich here; they have been tasked with the job. But I have to again say that this is the reason why the Hon Annette King pointed the finger at this Government and said: “Why aren’t you guys acting? You did the same with ECan in Canterbury.” Thank you very much for the opportunity.