Wagner Nicky: Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Wagner Nicky: Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:668;Page:15529] 
NICKY WAGNER (National) 
: 
 I rise to support the Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill. This bill is all about better transparency more accountability and improved financial management of local government. There has been much concern among ratepayers that rates are rising continually and dramatically and that they can do nothing about it. In response to this concern this bill makes amendments that will allow ratepayers to assert greater influence on the work of their councils. It is aimed at providing ratepayers and residents with better information about council costs rates and activities and at encouraging them to understand and to play their part in influencing planning and decision-making processes. 
The bill supports standardised and plain English financial reporting and it introduces pre-election reports. Both these measures are to ensure that residents and ratepayers can know more about their council how it operates and what they are paying for. The pre-election reports are designed to stimulate informed debate amongst voters before council elections. Too often we see innuendo and misinformation in local body campaigns. The pre-election reports will provide a factual base for any debate. 
The Local Government and Environment Committee was aware that we needed to find a balance between the cost of providing information and the benefits of that information to the community. We realised that providing a pre-election report increased costs to councils and for that reason we have lessened the requirements for councils with fewer than 20000 constituents the idea being that the smaller the community is the more transparent it automatically is. 
The amendments are also designed to simplify long-term planning processes and to give them a more strategic focus. There has been concern from a number of submitters that some consultation requirements have been removed in this bill and that is true. However the proposals in the bill need to be considered as part of the broader decision-making framework of the Local Government Act 2002. The vast majority of provisions in that Act that enable local people to be involved in council decisions are retained and consultation requirements on significant issues are untouched. 
A huge amount of consultation is still required. Public consultation is required to make changes to the level of service of any significant activity. It is required to start or to end a significant activity and to change the way a service is funded. Public consultation is necessary to establish a council-controlled organisation and consultation is required to transfer ownership or control of a strategic asset. 
Sue Kedgley said that the consultation processes are being gutted; that is nonsense. In fact 24 provisions of the original Act remain only five are repealed and one has been added. The principal Act also requires local authorities to conduct their business in an open transparent and democratically accountable manner. Councils are already required to be aware of and to have regard to the views of communities. Several submitters including the Wellington City Council said that they would consult on issues even if they were not required to do so under the Act. We also heard from some councils that in meeting the requirements of the present Act were actually paying people to come and give their opinion. In many cases we heard that the ordinary public has consultation fatigue. It is a costly waste of time and energy to go through the process just to tick the boxes to say that it has been done. Everyone agrees with and supports the need for meaningful consultation and the amended Act requires consultation on significant matters but we do not want expensive consultation processes merely for the sake of consultation. 
Finally the amended bill gives councils more flexibility to choose effective and efficient delivery methods of water and other services. Again I say it was interesting to hear from the Wellington City Council which has very successfully contracted out its waste-water treatment system. The Government believes that the changes in this bill represent significant progress towards better more effective local government and that they will make it easier for ratepayers and residents to participate in the important activities and decisions of local councils. Thank you.