Hide Rodney: Local Government (Rating Cap) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Hide Rodney: Local Government (Rating Cap) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
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RODNEY HIDE (ACT) 
: 
 I move  
That the Local Government (Rating Cap) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. 
 This will be a test for the Labour Government. Does the Labour Government stand for those Kiwis on a fixed income who are stuck with spiralling rate increases? Does the Labour Government stand for working families that are struggling under higher and higher taxes a higher and higher cost of living and to beat it all off a 300 percent rate rise that year from local government that is out of control? 
We have heard the protests up and down New Zealand from low to middle income families and pensioners who are struggling. What has the Government’s response been? “Oh it’s nothing to do with us.” Labour MPs can do something about it tonight. They can vote to send this bill to a select committee and indeed pass it. After tonight if they do not do that they will not be able to look their constituents in the eye and say there is nothing they can do about councils that are raping and pillaging people’s pockets every week. [ 
Interruption 
] The Greens call out that that is not true. I would like Mike Ward to come up to Auckland to a meeting with Grey Power members and say to them that what Rodney Hide is saying is not true that no council is raping and pillaging their pockets that it is all hunky-dory according to the Greens. A rate increase of 400 percent according to Mike Ward is OK. That is what he says. 
The Minister of Local Government Chris Carter stood in this House day after day saying that there was nothing he could do as Minister. We should understand the constitutional procedures here. A local council can strike a rate only because Parliament gives it the authority to do so. Local government I say to Mr Ward operates within the rules set here in Parliament. That is what happens. I suppose that if one is a Green MP a 400 percent increase is not very much for other people to pay but if one is stuck on a pension I say to him or working each week and struggling to make— 
Mike Ward 
: How many of these 400 percent increases were there? 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Mike Ward asks now he is thinking about this bill how many there were. Heaps! He should come to Auckland go to some meetings and talk to some people for a change instead of wandering around on cloud nine with his mate Nandor Tanczos who is not even on the planet. He should come to Auckland and talk to some people about what is happening in New Zealand with rate increases. The Auckland Regional Council I say to him put up its rates on average by 30 percent. That is what happened under the Government that the Greens support. That is what happened. 
John Carter 
: Who did? Which council? 
RODNEY HIDE 
: It was the Auckland Regional Council. There was a 30 percent increase across the board and some elderly people on fixed incomes I say to Mr Ward suddenly discovered that their rate bills had gone up 400 percent. Do not worry the Greens say it is not happening. 
Well here is what ACT proposes to do about it. We say that Parliament should cap the ability of councils to put rates up on a ratepayer in any one year. What would be wrong with that when one sees rates go up 4.5 percent a year on average yet the rate of inflation is 1.5 percent? I say to Mr Ward that everyone—except Green MPs—has to live within a budget. But the council does not. It finds itself running out of money and it just puts up the rates. Then what happens? Low-income families pensioners—the sort of people I thought the Greens wanted to represent—have to lose their disposable income and their net income goes down as a consequence. I know that might be hard to grasp but that is a fact of arithmetic and running a budget. This bill says: “Sure put up your rates but only in any one year by the rate of inflation plus 2 percent.” The truth of the matter is I think that is too generous. No one is sitting there getting an automatic wage rise of inflation plus 2 percent. But I thought if I was generous my colleagues in the Labour Government would have a heart show that they cared show that for once they are listening to the pain of middle New Zealand and of our pensioners and say that that is not bad and is quite reasonable—the rate of inflation plus 2 percent. 
There is another constraint in there—that is in any 3-year period rates can go up by only the rate of inflation plus 4 percent. That tightens it somewhat over a 3-year period. If any council wants to put its rates up by more than that then it will have to get special permission under this amendment to the Act. 
We have a chance here to show that we care to show that we have listened to the rates revolt and to show that we understand what it is to struggle on a low income and be hit out of the blue by local authorities whose spending is out of control. I have to say to Mr Ward that some of this out-of-control spending is a direct consequence of obligations placed on them by none other than this Government. We hear them on the podium. Constituents come to see me and say: “Well I’ve been to see the Labour MP who was very sympathetic.” They say that Chris Carter was very sympathetic to their plight but then he said that there was nothing whatsoever that he could do—and that was from a Minister. Well I am giving the Labour MPs and even the Green MPs— 
Simon Power 
: Steady on! 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Well maybe not. Even the Green MPs have an opportunity to show that they care about hard-working families and pensioners on a fixed income and show that they understand the toughness of living on a tight budget and send a firm message to local government that it cannot turn round and out of the blue increase a person’s rates by 400 percent. That is what we are deciding tonight. Do we think that is fair? If we think it is not fair to increase someone’s rates by 400 percent then I implore members of the Government to have a heart and to vote for this bill to go to the Local Government and Environment Committee to be considered. Then we can hear from I say to Mr Ward Grey Power and the ratepayers of New Zealand. Let us do that. Let us have some consultation which the Greens are keen on. The way to do that is to vote for my bill and to send it to the Local Government and Environment Committee. For once let us hear from the people.