Webb DuncanDr DUNCAN WEBB (Labour—Christchurch Central): Tēnā koe Madam Speaker and thank you for that call. This bill really is about communities. It's about putting control where it belongs which isn't in the Local Government Commission; it's in the cities and entities and the elected representatives that govern them. So the fact that there were proposals out there that would see amalgamation proposals be able to be investigated essentially on the whim of one citizen or another was a very bad thing and it's a good idea that we see that off.We know that sometimes those amalgamation proposals can be very ill-motivated. I can remember some time ago east Auckland wanting to have its own city not because it was a great idea but because it didn't want to help wider Auckland by spreading the rating base. It was self-centred it was selfish and it was short-sighted and that's not the kind of amalgamation or proposal that we want to see. So it's really good that we've got a Minister who's looked at what the proposals were and has tidied them up considerably.Council-controlled trading organisations have an important part to play and what we can see across New Zealand is that different cities use them in quite different ways. In Christchurch we've got a number of council-controlled trading organisations and by and large they operate well. One of the good things about them is their statements of intent which can direct not only financial outcomes but also wider outcomes. Under this Government we're absolutely committed to those wider outcomes and we put those wellness requirements back into the Local Government Act 2002 as well and not a moment too soon so that council-controlled trading organisations can take the appropriate form for the communities that they are in. If the councils want some services to be in there that's fine but those kinds of things should be local decisions made by local people. That's what local democracy really is all about and this bill strengthens that local democracy. I'm very pleased to see this bill introduced into the House and in fact to strengthen what council-controlled organisations can do because the idea that the Local Government Commission could require a council to move its services into trading organisations was a very poor idea. The fact of the matter is that the recent study on the Local Government Commission saw that it was in fact very poorly aligned with the needs of Local Government New Zealand. So it's great to see this now here adjusting that. So it really is about transparency. It's about accountability. I must say in Canterbury we're very excited about the proposals in respect of public transport because public transport is at the very centre of what cities need to be doing. Of course this Government recognises—with all of our coalition partners Ms Swarbrick—that transport needs to be integrated with housing and integrated with city planning. So the division of transport between regional councils and city councils in sometimes bizarre ways doesn't help. Where there are regional councils and territorial authorities there's work to be done. This Government isn't one that's going to preach to local authorities about how that's to be done but it's going to give them tools to do it for themselves. One of those tools is the ability to put public transport management in the hands of territorial authorities. I know that once again Christchurch has been pushing for these great ideas and this is something that is being very closely looked at in Christchurch. So this power—the ability of a local body to again take control to examine what the best transport solution is for Christchurch for Hamilton for Auckland or for any centre—Chlöe Swarbrick: Auckland.Dr DUNCAN WEBB: I just said Auckland member over there. The member who—what's your electorate? And of course that's important. So this is part of local body politics being tailor-made for the locality and being in the hands of the locality.Something that I was very pleased to see in the recent election was when we had a fully democratic election for Environment Canterbury which currently does public transport—something that was taken away by the last Government. But now we've got a great council there and I know it's going to make huge strides—huge strides—which has a democratic mandate at last. But again public transport is really important and I'm very pleased for that change.Of course the whole idea of reorganisation coming from the top down is a very bad idea. Of course it's important to recognise that if there's good reason—for example if a local body itself suggests a reorganisation—that's still permitted. That's still fully within the bounds of this legislation. Or if some citizens are keen enough they can go out they can get 10 percent of the electorate and they can initiate that study themselves. But the idea that it can be done on a whim—well we don't need that. This Government isn't happy with that and that's why the Supplementary Order Paper here is doing that.So this really is about partnership. This is about central government recognising the important relationship it has with local government supporting innovation at a local government level but not imposing because taken together the original proposals were essentially two things. They were a centralisation of power—taking power away from local bodies and putting it at central government level. That was the first thing and that was a bad idea. The second thing was a corporatisation of city councils' operations—the ability to by stealth quietly incrementally push operations into trading organisations. We know what can happen with trading organisations don't we? Put on the block Mr Henare. Yeah. We don't want to see that because that is taking away important assets because on this side of the House we recognise that it's about much more than rubbish and roads; it's about communities it's about protecting people and it's about enhancing wellness and this bill under the great Minister Mahuta is absolutely doing that. So I commend this bill to the House.