Hayes Joanne: Local Government Act 2002 (Greater Local Democracy) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHayes Joanne: Local Government Act 2002 (Greater Local Democracy) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 12 August 2015. Volume:707;Page:5761. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JOANNE HAYES (National): Kia ora and thank you Mr Deputy Speaker. What a fire it was tonight with the member Su’a William Sio. That “grr” real guttural stuff happening—“grr”. It got me going over here in the back—“grr”. [Interruption]. It is it is.I am really pleased to take a call in the first reading of the Stuart Nash bill the Local Government Act 2002 (Greater Local Democracy) Amendment Bill. I am really really surprised at some of the things that I have come across tonight from the Opposition. How can anyone on this side of the House support a bill when all it is doing is taking away and blocking changes for people who may want to have some changes in their area and may want to do it? It takes away their democracy. It does not even enhance local democracy. So what it really does is it just halts the process of reorganisation it slows it all down and makes it more difficult. That is where that real “grr” starts to happen and it gets my blood going.Where there is always a vote on a proposal of reorganisation even if there is no opposition to it—no opposition to it—we would still have a vote anyway. What kind of bill would actually advocate for that? I think that this bill actually insults the communities by taking away their right to determine their own destiny of their respective local government regions. Let us face it the only thing that this bill is trying to do is to unwind the good work of this Government. That is what it is trying to do. That is the underlying current. That is what it is trying to do. Over on this side of the House that is what we can see happening. It is not about the people. This is about how those members can get in there and usurp the National-led Government’s bill that we made in 2012.National’s Better Local Government reforms are part of this Government’s broader agenda to build a more competitive and productive economy while also improving the delivery of public services to all New Zealanders. This is really key for the growth of communities. As I stood here tonight I heard all the whinging and moaning around what happened with the Auckland super-city amalgamation. But what I can tell you right now is had that mayor been right-leaning everything—absolutely everything—that we put together for that amalgamation would have come true because that is the work that right-leaning mayors do in our cities. Had that happened—Carmel Sepuloni: Oh come on Jo.JOANNE HAYES: You will never know until a right-leaning mayor ends up in Auckland who can push through all the things that the whole amalgamation process was to be about. It is very difficult when you are union-led I can tell you that right now. We over this side see it.The Minister of Local Government has been clear that she has no interest in imposing unwanted changes on communities and that she will also not legislate for big organisations. This is what our Minister the Hon Paula Bennett is about. She is about shaping up and making sure that all local government organisations are working to their fullest potential. That was the speech that she gave at the Local Government New Zealand conference just recently. This Government is very very clear that any amalgamation of councils is up to the communities and this has been evidenced a couple of times with the proposed Wellington amalgamation and the proposed Northland amalgamation. The Local Government Commission sat down it listened and it took on board everything that was happening. Just when people in the Opposition thought that they were winning—no.This is a Government that listens. We have ears to listen. We have eyes to see. We have a voice and we are there to represent this country at a local government level. When I hear members make comments about our new local government commissioner Sir Wira Gardiner being the husband of a Minister well I can tell you right now that the Opposition has had that on many occasions so I would not even go there. He has a great history as a Public Service person and also within the armed forces and defence as well.I want to agree with the chair of our Local Government and Environment Committee who said that this bill is all about defining democracy. That is all it is about. It is all about defining democracy. Based on all the points that I have spoken about and all the points that my colleagues here on this side of the—