Simpson Scott: Local Government (Auckland Transitional Provisions) Amendment Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSimpson Scott: Local Government (Auckland Transitional Provisions) Amendment Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 19 November 2015. Volume:710;Page:8325. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): It is a pleasure to take a short call in this third reading of the Local Government (Auckland Transitional Provisions) Amendment Bill in the name of the Minister for the Environment Dr Nick Smith.It is interesting following the member for Mt Roskill who is on Sunday going to make a significant announcement about his future and his future ambitions not only for himself but also for Auckland. During the first and second reading debates we heard him go through his lines. He was practising them well into the night last night and again today he has been running those lines ready for his campaign launch on Sunday. Indeed he has just updated his Facebook page with a nice superimposed photo of himself standing on what looks like the Devonport foreshore with a nice Sky Tower backdrop. I guess we are going to see an awful lot more of that.But the member does make a very good point in the support of this bill by the Labour Party. The Labour Party understands as does the Government that in order for Auckland to succeed in terms of its new unitary plan then we have to work through these hearings and get them completed before 22 July next year. It is in nobody’s interests as Mr Goff said for that deadline date not to be met. When Auckland succeeds and when Auckland succeeds well then so too do the regions and the provinces around Auckland and around the rest of the country. So it is in all our best interests for us to do that and get this through.It has been a very large task so far to complete what has been the largest planning project of any territorial authority in the 24-year history of the Resource Management Act. So far the Auckland Unitary Plan Independent Hearings Panel has made excellent progress on its work hearing the submissions but there are some 5000 yet to go. That is not going to be possible unless the changes that are going to be implemented in this bill are passed by this House.I think we have got general consensus across the Parliament that the three main provisions of this bill are good and that they will achieve the results that we are looking for in terms of speeding up the process allowing more flexibility in the hearings process and ensuring that people do get their chance to be heard by the hearings panel.There are three main points to this bill. The first is that it will reduce the quorum for the hearings sessions. This will reduce from three members to two members. That is a sound practical sensible administrative change. The second item that this bill seeks to achieve is to increase the size of the panel. The possible number of appointed hearings panel members will go from seven to 10 and that again helps with the flexibility of the hearings process. The third point that this bill seeks to achieve is to enable the panel to make its recommendations in stages. That has not been the case up until now and so the panel will be able to complete a series of work make its recommendations and then move on to another piece of work before having to report it in full.I think that is the kind of practical pragmatic flexibility that the hearings panel requires in order to complete its work before 22 July. It is a pleasure to commend this piece of legislation to the House.