O'Connor Damien: Tasman District Council (Validation and Recovery of Certain Rates) Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeO'Connor Damien: Tasman District Council (Validation and Recovery of Certain Rates) Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 09 April 2014. Volume:697;Page:17066. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR (Labour—West Coast - Tasman):I move That the Tasman District Council (Validation and Recovery of Certain Rates) Bill be now read a third time. We have now come to the third reading of the Tasman District Council (Validation and Recovery of Certain Rates) Bill and I know that there will be many officials and councillors in Richmond and the Tasman area who will be relieved to know that the bill is about to pass through the House. It has been some time in coming. In fact it was 23 January last year I think when the bill had its first reading referral to the Local Government and Environment Committee. So it has taken some time to come through the process and I am sure that the council has felt as though it is on tenterhooks since that time.Reluctantly I think all members of the select committee and Parliament of course realised that this bill needed to pass through to rectify the mistakes—that would be the polite word I guess—that had been made by the Tasman District Council in setting rates that were wrong not just in 1 year but in fact from 2003-04 through to 2008-09. Mistakes will be made and we accept that we must rectify them. Parliament does not like putting through retrospective legislation but we will do so to assist the ratepayers of the Tasman District Council.The lesson here for staff in all councils up and down this country is to listen a little more carefully to ratepayers who may raise issues from time to time trying to alert them to mistakes possibly or to things that need improvement more likely. All too often—and I have to say that it still occurs within the Tasman District Council—the officials and ultimately the councillors who are supposed to run the officials do not listen carefully enough to wise and sensible propositions from ratepayers. One of the issues at the moment and it has taken me about 2 years to make some progress with the council is the speed limits outside schools. I am not going to dwell on that other than to ask that the Tasman District Council and other councils take more action in a more timely way to improve the way that they operate.When ratepayers like Mr Schmuke and his group of ratepayers at Tata Beach and Ligar Bay raise issues about possible irregularities—the possible illegal setting of rates—then they should be listened to with an open mind and not simply shut down by the council as happened here. Mr Schmuke should be applauded. His tenacity took this issue through to the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman then ruled that not only were the rates for the urban drainage area of Ligar Bay and Tata Beach wrong but in fact the rates relating to this longer period were wrong. That is why the Tasman District Council had to draft this legislation.I am happy to support this bill on behalf of the ratepayers of the Tasman District Council to move forward and to ensure that we have proper rates-setting in retrospect but also that we have a better system going forward. As I said the comment to the select committee that this was a failure of “Rates 101” is perhaps something that council staff should not forget. It should prompt them as I say to have an open mind to always be listening to the thousands of ratepayers who in their own right are astute and inquisitive and who have good ideas to improve the way we run our local government systems. Do not shut them out in the future.It is with that in mind that I thank the House. I thank the select committee for its careful consideration. There was another hearing of both parties relating to the Tata Beach and Ligar Bay urban drainage area in an attempt to try to find some solution. I know that not all parties feel happy about the solution. In the end politics is the art of the possible. We have moved forward and hopefully such mistakes will not occur again. I am happy to have sponsored this bill and as I say to have appreciated the wider support of Parliament. Kia ora.