Mark Ron: Local Government (Auckland Council) Amendment Bill (No 3) — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMark Ron: Local Government (Auckland Council) Amendment Bill (No 3) — First Reading[Sitting date: 24 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4770. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]RON MARK (NZ First): Sometimes some of my colleagues on the Local Government and Environment Committee make it difficult for me because whereas you would like to stand up and give a bit of a rousing speech and rip into it they are actually good people and it is a little disarming sometimes. So I am going to start by saying that I appreciated the speech by Paul Foster-Bell and I concur with many of his comments.The first point is to say to Alfred Ngaro that we in New Zealand First will be supporting this bill. I probably would like to backtrack a tad and pick up on a comment made by the chair of our select committee Scott Simpson who said that the decision to send this bill to the select committee is a practical and useful one. I absolutely agree and New Zealand First would applaud him. The pity is that the Government did not have the same view on the legislation that we have just debated the SuperGold Health Check Bill. How we can go from one irrational decision that showed no logic and was completely lacking in heart we would argue to then arguing on pure logic that this is the very reason we should send this bill to the select committee actually befuddles and bemuses me somewhat. But it is no worry—we have the video taped. We will play those ad nauseam in certain MPs’ electorates on the campaign trail and we will let the people be the judge which leads me to my next point in respect of this bill.We had some discussion over this bill and it would be fair to say that there were as many pros for this bill as there were cons. One of the cons for this bill is that it actually interdicts impedes and negates the will of the voters. It actually undermines democracy. You see at the end of the day the voters may not necessarily do what we think they should. We may question their logic and their argument but at the end of the day the voters have the vote and their vote stands supreme in the decision that they make and they make that decision to elect a person to one or two boards because they think that is a smart thing to do. For us to pass a piece of legislation that says “Thou shalt not have the same member representing two different bills” actually undermines the very principles and the basis and the fundamentals of democratic choice.It is interesting also because I have had some experience in local government and I consider myself to be the better for having that experience in local government before coming back to the House. So I am well aware that there are times when voters elect people because—and the argument has just been put up by the previous speakers from the Government—they know them more by name and face than they do by deed or skill. Well right or wrong that is what the voters do. They have every right to do that. We have some people whose inability to get elected we lament because we know them personally we know their skill sets and we know their experience levels be it in business or in the social community doing good work amongst our people but their name recognition is not high. So amongst the plethora of candidates they do not stand a dog’s chance. That is sad but it is the reality of the way the democratic process works and who are we to challenge the voters?In terms of the pros we see that it does remove potential for a conflict of interest. That is an issue that has been seriously championed by certain members of the public and we would welcome the opportunity to have those views expressed at the select committee. We would come back I think to the view that at the end of the day the choice as to who represents people is made by people who vote. So let us have this discussion at the select committee let us hear the submissions let us hear the pros and the cons and let us collectively as a committee make the right decision and a wise choice. Thank you very much.