Wade-Brown CeliaCELIA WADE-BROWN (Green): I rise to speak against the Public Finance (Fines Collection Costs—Budget Measures) Amendment Bill. This is almost the only mention of local government in the whole Budget. Minister Brown has talked up a big storm about working with councils devolving decisions letting local communities have their say but what do we have here? We have an ambush not a partnership between central and local government.The Ministry of Justice says: Finally the paper does not meet the consultation requirements because the proposals in the paper have not been the subject of any substantial consultation with relevant stakeholders." There's the "consultation" word again.The Local Government New Zealand chief executive tells me they were only made aware of this this morning.Hon Simeon Brown: It's called Budget urgency.CELIA WADE-BROWN: Is it? Or is it a trivial little ambush—an arrogant ambush for a relatively trivial amount of money? There's no budget for city or regional deals. There's no budget for GST back on rates for existing or new properties. There's no allowance—zero allowance—for paying rates on Government buildings.Hon Member: Talk about the bill for goodness' sake.CELIA WADE-BROWN: We are in a discussion about urgency during the Budget.Hon Member: No no. We've had the urgency debate already. We're talking about the specific bill. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Teanau Tuiono): Order! Order! I don't want a commentary. Continue.CELIA WADE-BROWN: There is a context in which this bill has been proposed and it is not an attractive one. Some people have trivialised the issues of where we have fines and enforcement but let me give you some examples. Nobody likes paying fines but they're avoidable. If we can't shift cars that are parked on the footpath that's an issue for anyone with a pram or a wheelchair. If we can't shift cars out of bus lanes that's an issue of congestion which I would have thought the Minister in his other hat might have been interested in.Hon Member: How are those cycle lanes helping?CELIA WADE-BROWN: And yes it would be a good idea to move the cars out of the cycle lanes—good thinking over there.I think this is cynical and unfair because we are recovering a trivial amount of money for central government but you are not helping local government recover any of its costs.There's been a recent article—I don't always agree with the third Brown that we're talking about here. We have Minister Brown we have MP Wade-Brown and we also have Mayor Brown so it can get confusing for people. So you might need to be pay attention as to which Brown we're talking about.Hon Matt Doocey: Who's your favourite Brown?CELIA WADE-BROWN: OK we could have a little poll but at the moment—and this is something that could have been changed. You could have changed this. Auckland Transport can only charge $53.60 for towing towing off the footpath towing out of the cycle lane towing out of the bus lane towing off the dangerous corner and the average tow cost is $99.00. You are really not helping local government. You're getting your measly little extra 4 percent but you're not helping local government. There are many other—Hon Member: Who's next on the list?CELIA WADE-BROWN: —you can call me "Your Worship" I don't mind. I'm sure Mr Foster won't mind either. Hon Member: Where is he?Hon Simeon Brown: He's a better "Your Worship".CELIA WADE-BROWN: So you want to recover all of the central government costs—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Teanau Tuiono): Please don't refer to the absence of members in the House—and continue to have a conversation with the Speaker.CELIA WADE-BROWN: Through the Speaker—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Teanau Tuiono): Yes.CELIA WADE-BROWN: —this Government wishes to recover its pathetic little recovery costs but there's no partnership. In fact there's—Hon Member: It's an ambush!CELIA WADE-BROWN: It's lovely to have the help from the Opposition or even the Government.Arena Williams: They're just being horrible. Keep going Celia—keep going.CELIA WADE-BROWN: I shall I shall.What are fines for? What are the courts for? They are when people want to go and argue the case—and we do need to recover the costs. There's no disagreement about that. But why recover central government costs? Why focus on that? Why not support the councils? Whether they're unitary whether they're regional whether they're city whether they're district they all have issues that need enforcement. It might be dumping—it might be dumping rubbish into reserves. Oh we don't want to condone that. But where are you helping local government to recover all of its costs?So we have councils 76 of them who already don't quite agree with some of the things that this Government's promoting. Why not form a bit of a partnership? Why not at least talk to them about how we can work together to bring the enforcement into a more even and effective system? It's cynical unfair and I think it shows perhaps a lack of understanding of the needs of local government. Thank you.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Teanau Tuiono): Members the time has come for me to leave the Chair and go for a kai. The House will resume at 7 p.m.Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m."