Carter John: Local Government Law Reform Bill — In Committee 
Carter John: Local Government Law Reform Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:632;Page:3824] 
JOHN CARTER (National—Northland) 
: 
 Rates rebates and the way in which this Government is putting them to local government are a perfect example of the comments that I and my colleagues have made with regard to this Government continually putting on to local government more compliance costs. The Minister in the chair the Hon Mark Burton will stand up and wax lyrical about the wonderful thing the Government has done for elderly folk and the poor people who cannot afford to pay their rates—that this wonderful Government has taken money out of the pockets of hard-working taxpayers so it can give it to some people who cannot pay their rates. But the Minister does not tell the ratepayers of this country who is paying the cost of administering that. They should ask the Minister that. 
The situation is the same as when the Minister said people should not worry about the long-term community consultation plans because the audit was not too much of a cost. But as my colleagues have said the Minister does not tell the ratepayers of this country what it cost local government to put the long-term community consultation plans together. For instance it cost Whangarei District Council over $500000 to put its plan together. On top of that the district council will have to meet the administration of the dog law that the Government has just put through and all sorts of things such as the earthquake and war damage measure the Building Act and the prostitution law reform legislation. The list goes on and on. On top of that here we go with the rates rebate. The Government is loading that on to local government. 
Do members know what is really disappointing with regard to this Government? It is not a matter of whether it cares about that; it does not even know what it is doing. It never occurs to the Government that someone actually has to administer these things. When somebody goes to the council and asks to have a rates rebate local government has to have a clerk to provide the application and get the papers filled out. The clerk then has to vet the application go through it and make sure it is right. There is time involved and then the application has to be processed. The council then has to put a claim in to the Government and it goes on and on—[ 
Interruption 
] It takes three people to do rates rebates? It takes one person in Waitaki and three in Invercargill; I bet there is a whole department in Auckland. 
Mark Blumsky 
: I will tell you. 
JOHN CARTER 
: Our colleague is even going to tell us how many people there are there. 
Do members know what the real worry is? My mother will go along to the council and say she wants a rates rebate. The problem is that she will not know whether she is eligible. That will cause more time and more cost. Who will pay for that? 
Jacqui Dean 
: The ratepayers. 
JOHN CARTER 
: No my mother will pay because she is a ratepayer. She will actually pay for something that she is trying to get for herself from this Government that she has already paid for in the first place. She has paid her taxes. She has given that money to this Government to hand to local government so that she can then go and apply for it. How dopey is that? 
That is the trouble with this Government. It never thinks about where money comes from. It never thinks about who pays. It does not care about the costs it imposes on people. It does not care about the fact that there are compliance costs and they cost ratepayers a whole heap of money. What does the Government do? Oh no this cosy warm Government likes to hand out our money and to put its hands in our pockets—I can think of some hands in my pocket that I do not actually want to be in there but the Government puts them there anyway. I bet that sometimes it gets a bit of a surprise but that is its problem. Then the Government takes the money out—[ 
Interruption 
] Mr Williamson should think about my dear old mum who pays her taxes. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: I think about her every morning when I wake up. 
JOHN CARTER 
: No the member does not. But the point is that she pays her taxes. Mark Burton takes them from her writes out a cheque and gives it to local government. Then Mum goes in to the council and applies for the rebate. So she has paid taxes and then she pays rates to administer that process so that she can get the money back again. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: It is no wonder the elderly are confused. 
JOHN CARTER 
: My mother is so confused she is having problems getting the roller door up and down let alone getting a rates rebate. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Ann Hartley) 
: Before I call the Minister I advise the Committee that the vote on Part should have been called as 111 for not 110. With the permission of the Committee that will be amended? Thank you.