Doocey MattMATT DOOCEY (National—Waimakariri): Thank you very much Madam Speaker. I rise on behalf of the National Party to oppose wholeheartedly this bill and also as the member of Parliament for Waimakariri on behalf of my constituents who also oppose this bill as well.I want to pick up on a couple of comments from that last speaker Barbara Edmonds who I think elucidated a lot of where the position of the Labour Party is today. In her comments she said that it's been five long years and well isn't that true? It's exactly what New Zealanders are feeling now—five long years. The only one addition I'd make to that is that it feels actually like eight long years not necessarily five. But it actually elucidates the policy position they find themselves in today of five long years. They feel as though they have no alternative but to pursue this policy direction even though they've been told by stakeholder after stakeholder Kiwi after Kiwi that they do not want this reform.What we also heard—which I thought was fascinating because I once read that there was a Conservative Prime Minister in Britain by the name of Maggie Thatcher and I'm sure many people will know that. They asked her once and they said to her What's your biggest legacy?" and she said it was the Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair. Well I think Maggie Thatcher's got another legacy today because that's exactly what Maggie Thatcher used to say: "tina"—there is no alternative. As we said with Maggie Thatcher this lady isn't for turning and—exactly—this Labour Government is not for turning. Come hell or high water they are going to rush this bill through Parliament under urgency. Mark my words next week we will be under urgency and they're going to ram it through because they know this has gone down like a cup of cold sick in their electorates.I tell you what for those watching this debate this afternoon a picture is worth a thousand words. This Chamber is a lot smaller than it looks on TV and here on the Opposition benches we can look across and see the whites of their eyes and boy their faces—wow! They paint a thousand words: stony with their heads down because many of these MPs—and Kieran McAnulty is laughing because he knows. In fairness Kieran went out and he spoke to all the local governments and to all the councils and he got feedback after feedback. "Hell of a nice guy but in the wrong party."—that's exactly what they said to you. Every meeting you went down and spoke about three waters—and he's nodding his head as well.But you just can just tell by the looks on their faces that they are defeated by this. They must be looking to their party leadership and saying "How have we ended up in this position?" They are going to ram through a bill that is so unpopular it's going to tank them more than they're already tanking in the polls. You can tell why they're driven by the polls because all of a sudden—it used to be about green sludge coming out of the pipes but it's not about that any more. Cost of living—oh they've finally woken up. We're in a cost of living crisis and in Labour's world—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): Order! Order! If the member would like to speak about this bill.MATT DOOCEY: Sure Madam Speaker. Just to finish that off in today's world in Labour world the answer to the cost of living crisis is this bill.So as you say Madam Speaker we're here in a second reading. The second reading is to talk about the select committee process and boy wasn't it fascinating what that last speaker said about the select committee process? I'd like to apologise to the 88000 New Zealanders who made a submission because if you listened to that last speaker the Labour MPs decided upon themselves to go through every submission and decide the validity of it because they are now the king judge the dictators of the one-party State we live in—oh not all submissions are equal apparently according to that last speaker. The Labour MPs went through and they decided "Ooh I'm not sure about the text. I'm not sure about the font. Oh it probably came from Canterbury and we don't want to listen to them."We look up and see all the Canterbury mayors here today and I tell you what why are the Canterbury mayors up here? Because they are fighting for their constituents. That's why they're up here today because they know that Cantabrians do not want this. Where have the Canterbury Labour MPs been? Where has Tracey McLellan been? Where has Duncan Webb been? Where has Sarah Pallett been? Where have they been?Barbara Edmonds: Point of order Madam Speaker. A long-time convention in the House—the member is asking where those members are. They're not in the House which is clear and he's asking where they are.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): I would just like to ask the member to come back to the bill and you do know that there is a convention that we do not refer to members who are not currently in the House. Please just talk about the bill. Thank you.MATT DOOCEY: Can I speak to that point Madam—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): No no. Please just continue with your speech but bring it back to the bill. MATT DOOCEY: Point of order Madam Speaker. I seek leave to make a personal explanation.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): No I'd rather you just continue with your speech and let's continue with the convention that we do not refer to members when they're not in the House. MATT DOOCEY: Well that's what I'm trying to talk about Madam Speaker but you won't let me explain. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): That is actually our convention in this House. You've already called them out and many of them are not actually here.Hon Gerry Brownlee: Point of order Madam Speaker. You might like to take some advice on this. The convention is that you do not refer to someone being absent from the House but to ask in a debate about a topic where they have been on the topic is quite a different matter. Now I appreciate the sensitivity that is being felt on the other side of the House but this is a debate and it's quite reasonable to ask where someone has been on a topic and that was the tenor and in fact the direct interpretation of what Mr Doocey was saying.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): And he has called out many of those members by name. Please do now make your point and then move on in your speech.MATT DOOCEY: Thank you very much Madam Speaker. The point I was making was where were those members of Parliament during the course of these reforms.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): So now continue on with your speech because we only have a few minutes before we break.MATT DOOCEY: Thank you very much. I hope we did stop the clock during that. All good—OK. So let's get back to the debate we've got today and in my view I don't want to offend anyone because today we're sort of stepping on some toes. They're all a bit sensitive. It says a lot when you're hitting nerves doesn't it? It says a lot. The heads are down—hitting nerves.But in my view Labour has misled New Zealand on this bill and you can see it because it comes back into the House with minor changes—seven minor changes. Why I think they have misled New Zealanders is because they promised New Zealanders that they could opt out of this reform. They said they could opt out. The Mayor of Waimakariri Dan Gordon and Neville Atkinson the deputy mayor are here today. They went to their ratepayers and asked them and 95 percent of Waimakariri ratepayers said no—opt out—and what do we find from Labour? It's a legislative all-in. There was no choice.So this bill that apparently Labour says is brought into the House on good faith—there's no good faith. It's bad blood because you misled the public right from the start and the truth is that when you look at the changes proposed during the select committee process that we are debating today in the House in fact during that process of the select committee the major Fairfax newspapers were advertising for chief executives of the mega-entities that this bill is establishing. How arrogant is that? They were already advertising for the chief executives and this bill hasn't passed yet. That's why Kiwis have been misled. They were told that they could opt out of this bill.Here we have a Government that encouraged submissions—88000 Kiwis made a submission but in Labour minds they weren't all as equal as others were they? They talk a lot about equity this Government. Not equity in the submissions—it depends who puts it in. Then they had the audacity to tell Kiwis—88000 of them—that "We're only going to listen to 227 of you." and they took the select committee round the country for five days—Hon Member: Oh big deal!MATT DOOCEY: —five days big deal; exactly—because they knew that they had to close the debate down. They knew they were doing this irrespective of what Kiwis thought. I think actually when you look at this I firmly believe this bill has no mandate. This bill has no mandate in New Zealand and I want to say well done to Simon Watts for clearly articulating National's position in this debate and making it very clear for those chief executives of those mega-entities who think they've got a cushy job to make the most of it because you'll be out of a job in a year's time. National will repeal this bill because in fact it has no mandate from New Zealanders. I would challenge any Labour caller to get up when they're ready to take their call and explain why they think they have a mandate to push this through. What is the mandate when Kiwis don't want this bill? You know there are alternatives but now we're told it's a response to a cost of living crisis. That's only because they got told they couldn't run their misleading sludge ads anymore. Remember when they claimed to be the most open and transparent Government? Now they are the Government of spin. They're the Government of fake news. They're the Government of misinformation. This will be their tombstone for ever known as the Government of three waters. That's why I stand up on behalf of Kiwis and especially Cantabrians who oppose your bill. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): Order! The member's time is up. This debate is interrupted. I will resume the seat at 7 p.m. after dinner break.Sitting suspended from 6.03 p.m. to 7 p.m."