Court SimonSIMON COURT (ACT): Thank you Madam Chair. I would like to speak to Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) 150 that I have tabled. I think it's absolutely vital that New Zealanders trust and have confidence in their local government and that its operation is restored. We know that in recent local government elections in some cities like Auckland the turnout has been in the low 30 percent of eligible voters. What that tells us is that ratepayers and people who live in large cities like Auckland in particular have lost the confidence that their councils represent them and that they can actually deliver on the basic services that people need councils to deliver. More importantly they've lost confidence that when they speak up about the failings of council-controlled organisations and councils involved in procurement and entering into long-term and short-term contracts for works and services—where they raise concerns not just about the performance of those contracts and the delivery of those services but they raise concerns about the potential for corrupt practices and unlawful dealings. My Supplementary Order Paper extends the requirement to declare interests in companies and other employment by council chief executives their executive team boards and chairs so that we know if they have an interest in companies or organisations that are benefiting from council contracts for works and services. The reason I've tabled this amendment is because it's become clear there is now a pattern of deeply ingrained corruption in the procurement and delivery of local government services. There are a number of very serious cases that the Serious Fraud Office has investigated and found people guilty of indulging in corrupt practices and receiving benefits in their roles as senior managers in local government organisations. That includes council-controlled organisations like Auckland Transport where senior managers were involved in actually employment in companies that they were signing off invoices for. Now it seems remarkable that an activity like that involving employees at Auckland Transport would contract the services of a consultant that they also worked for and would then be signing off the invoices of that consultant. Well those practices went on for over six years and cost Auckland ratepayers millions and millions of dollars. They also cost other private sector competitors who could have bid for that work in an open market but were excluded from it because of the corrupt dealings and practices of some very very shameful behaviours from those council managers. But the problem is that because there is no register of pecuniary interests for people at executive and senior management level and for boards and chairs it means this behaviour went undetected for over half a decade at a cost of millions and millions of dollars to ratepayers and to other competitors other consultants who could also have offered these works and services potentially at a much cheaper rate. In fact many of these works and services weren't actually works and services delivered it all; they were just an exchange of invoices and that money went into people's bank accounts in a corrupt way. We have another case right now before the courts also involving Auckland Transport. We have a case involving an Auckland Council employee in a senior procurement role for IT services. It wasn't that long ago that a manager at a council on the West Coast of the South Island procured a local cake shop owner to undertake water and waste-water consulting services on behalf of the council. So it's absolutely vital that we extend the requirement for transparency in the pecuniary interests to not just elected members but to those members of council-controlled organisations and those senior executives and people in the leadership team who are involved in signing off procurements for works and services to the tune in some cases of tens of millions of dollars. Madam Chair?CHAIRPERSON (Hon Jenny Salesa): Before I give the member further speaking in terms of the debate today can I just remind the member that matters that are subject to judicial decision that are still before the court—Standing Order 116. There are limits to what it is that you can refer to that are still under consideration so please tread carefully.SIMON COURT: Thank you Madam Chair and I do appreciate your guidance in that matter.However let's come back to the real issue here. The real issue here is that New Zealanders have lost trust and confidence in local government to deliver basic works and services. Now there are a number of reasons for that. One of them is that councils are trying to do too much stuff that they just don't know how to do and they're ignoring their responsibilities to deliver basic services like roads like waste management and like delivering on clean water and stopping waste water getting into our rivers and on to our beaches. They are wasting money and they are not delivering and there is nothing that this Labour Government has done that will help that. All of the proposals around three waters and around actually making people pay for roads that they're actually not getting—I mean this Government's only planning to spend 23 percent of the National Land Transport Fund on roads. All the money it takes off motorists—only 23 percent of it going on roads. That is why we need to restore trust and confidence in local government. My SOP my proposed amendment to the Local Government (Pecuniary Interests Register) Amendment Bill will require not just elected members but will also require boards chairs chief executives and their senior leadership team to declare an interest in businesses to declare alternative employment to declare what assets they own in a way that means when those individuals are making decisions about procuring works and services not just the auditor not just the accountant but actually ratepayers and the people who live in these towns and cities can be confident firstly that they're not getting ripped off; secondly that actually the money that is being spent on works and services is being spent wisely that there's no fattening of the invoices that there's no secret handshakes or secret agreements to inflate the value of works and services. I mean it's true that there is significant inflation right now in the input costs of construction materials and labour and so much of that has got to do with other aspects of very poor Government policy like the Resource Management Act stopping quarry operators from doing the earthworks to get to the blue rock because they can't get consents. It's got issues to do with ports like Port of Tauranga which can't get consents to build their new wharf even though there's a fast-track consenting process. They've been kicked out of that. They've been booted out of the fast-track consenting process and sent back to the Environment Court to beg for permission to be able to build a wharf. But what we could do to restore trust and confidence in local democracy is to incorporate the amendments that I propose to make sure that when council-controlled organisations are procuring works and services they are doing so in a way that is transparent so that their competitors in the private sector know that they're not being excluded by shady deals by backroom agreements between people who work in senior roles and should know better and businesses that are getting an unfair advantage because the relationship between those businesses and council executives is not clear. So that is the purpose of my Supplementary Order Paper. I'll read this—clause 4 new section 54A: For the purposes … in relation to a council-controlled organisation or council organisation means the chairperson directors the chief executive and executives who report directly to the chief executive … of the organisation." The purpose of that is so we can be clear that people involved in procuring long-term contracts for works and services know that if they think they're going to be doing side deals and they think they're going to be taking advantage of ratepayers and taking advantage of the goodwill that we have for local government—whatever remains; in Auckland only 30 percent of people turned out to vote. The ACT Party believes that this is one way to restore trust and confidence. We ask the Government and we ask the member to support this amendment if they really want to restore trust and confidence in local government. We ask the Labour Party we ask the member we ask the Government to support this amendment. And if they don't then the people of New Zealand will have to ask themselves does the Government really care about stopping corruption and making sure ratepayers' money isn't wasted or do they not care? Thank you Madam Chair."