Brown SimeonHon SIMEON BROWN (Minister of Local Government): Thank you Madam Chair for the opportunity to take a call in this debate on the Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill in the first part here which deals with the purpose overview and interpretation provisions of this legislation. And there's been a number of questions in relation to I guess the time frame and in terms of the purpose of this legislation. And this Government recognises the need to act quickly when it comes to this critical issue for councils in regards to their water services and the provision of those services. It's a simple piece of legislation which effectively requires councils to put forward water service delivery plans. It provides their ability to be able to set up council-controlled organisations in a far more efficient manner and it also has some provisions in relation to Watercare in Auckland. Of course there's always going to be questions around the speed and the time frame and I thank the 55 councils which submitted which is actually a significant number of councils—listening to the previous member who just took her seat it sounded like no one submitted; actually 55 councils submitted. So even within the short time frame—I acknowledge it was a short time frame—55 councils submitted and we thank each one for submitting on this piece of legislation.It's really important that though this legislation does act with pace as this Government is acting quickly to put in place Local Water Done Well we have further legislation which will come later this year which will have more detail around the financial arrangements and also the structures for these new water entities and work is under way on that at pace at this stage. But there is an urgency to this issue. And I've heard comments from the previous member the Hon Barbara Edmonds who was saying Well actually this is a really big issue. We need to act urgently." And so she was saying "Act urgently."; a member from the Green Party was saying "Why do we act so quickly?".Hon Barbara Edmonds: We are separate parties.Hon SIMEON BROWN: I know they're separate parties but you're also part of the Opposition and so—but my point there—Hon Barbara Edmonds: The same way you're a separate Government.Hon SIMEON BROWN: We're a great Government and the point I'd make though is two Opposition members had two different perspectives. One was saying "Act really slowly." and the other one was saying "Act really quickly.". And as a Government we are acting with urgency on this particular issue. I'll leave them to decide amongst themselves between the different Opposition parties as to what their particular concerns are. Questions made around the—Hon Barbara Edmonds: We're in for a fun night.Hon SIMEON BROWN: There was a bunch of other—I'm looking forward to it. There were questions around the redacted portions of the regulatory impact statement. This is required to be redacted to preserve the confidentiality in relation to credit rating agencies to ensure that we do not impact the ability of Auckland Council to gain a credit rating for Watercare. And so there's very good commercial reasons for the redaction of that information."