Smith NickClause 4 New section 5AA inserted (Transitional savings and related provisions)CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): Members we now come to the debate on clause 4. This is the debate on the new section 5AA and the transitional provisions. This includes the debate on the Schedule to the bill.Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National): We get a window into how Draconian this bill is when you read the Schedule that is covered in clause 4. And I particularly want to question the Minister about the sledgehammer of clause 6 of the Schedule. Now I've heard lectures from members of the Labour Party about respecting the power of general competence and councils' capacity to be able to make decisions. Let's read what clause 6 says: a council is able to pass a resolution. This is not the provision where a community does not want Māori seats and initiates a poll—that's not what this clause is about. This is where a council has decided they would voluntarily like to have a poll. And they've passed that resolution—a democratically elected council not because of a poll not because of a petition has passed the resolution and said that we want to put this to the poll. And what does clause 6 say? The resolution ceases to have effect on the commencement date." What sort of arrogance is it from this Parliament that a council anywhere from Kaitāia to Bluff has made a resolution their elected representatives have passed a resolution and this Parliament is saying—under urgency with an electoral bill riding roughshod over electoral process—"We don't give a stuff what you've decided we know best and we're going to overrule it."I challenge Labour members opposite when did you decide to do this? We know in your manifesto at the election last year you promised—[Interruption] Well the member who's a new member got elected on a mandate. Let me remind him of what he told his voters in North Harbour what his policy was.Hon Members: Northcote.Hon Dr NICK SMITH: And I will read it to him—Northcote. He said this: "Labour will ensure [that] major decisions about local democracy involve full participation." Does this clause 6 do that? This clause 6 says exactly the opposite; that he is going to vote to take away to overrule the decision of a council. And so my question to the Minister of Local Government: how far will you go? If any council passes any resolution in any corner of New Zealand is this Government saying "Well we might just roll a bill in under urgency and overrule it."?Hon Scott Simpson: That's what they're doing.Hon Dr NICK SMITH: That's exactly what they are doing. What sort of jackboot Government do you have when you propose clauses—and I'll read it again: "The resolution [passed by council] ceases to have effect."? Did the Minister consult with those councils whose resolution through this clause they are attempting to overwrite? Simple question to the Minister: has the Minister talked to the councils who have passed a resolution—not forced by a petition; that they have voluntarily decided to do—that through this clause she is proposing to overrule that local democracy in direct contradiction to Labour's manifesto at the last election?Then clause 5 in Schedule 1 goes down exactly the same route—same sort of jackboot sort of approach. What clause 5 says is that even if the legal requirement has been met the law will say the council must conduct its business on the basis that the poll and the petition never existed. What? Parliament is passing a law to pretend that something that happened didn't happen.Hon Scott Simpson: It's a fiction.Hon Dr NICK SMITH: Well my colleague calls it a fiction but how can any member of this House pretend that that is good lawmaking? I remind the House again this isn't any old law. This is electoral law. This is constitutional significance. This is the sort of things that dictators do where they pass resolutions and say "Even though the council passed that resolution we now have to pretend it did not." I seek a response from the Minister."