Little Andrew: South Taranaki District Council (Cold Creek Rural Water Supply) Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Little Andrew: South Taranaki District Council (Cold Creek Rural Water Supply) Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 21 March 2012. Volume:678;Page:1192. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
ANDREW LITTLE (Labour) 
: 
 It is a great pleasure to stand and speak on the South Taranaki District Council (Cold Creek Rural Water Supply) Bill. You would have thought that after the last couple of days this Government would be very alert to promoting things on the basis of sleaze of dodge and of more graft because that is what sits behind this local government bill. Our position is clear: we will support this bill to go to the Local Government and Environment Committee because if there is one piece of local government legislation that needs scrutiny then this surely is it. We have to get past the purple phrases and the great story about the noble struggling farmers of the slopes of Mount Taranaki / Egmont and what they did. 
This was a scheme that was funded at least in half by the taxpayers of New Zealand. It is a community scheme and it was not all about the farmers running it because that is not correct. At the beginning of the life of the scheme the scheme was administered looked after and maintained by the local council the Egmont County Council. Then later—later—the day-to-day administration was transferred to the company that had been set up by the farmers but the council retained responsibility for the treatment plant and the headworks. This was not some noble gesture by the local farming community to take complete responsibility for the scheme. It was always a community scheme. It was 50 percent funded by the Government. 
Now what we have is the 160-odd farmers seeking to control it and to own it. And who heads that company? A chap by the name of Neville Ardern. We have heard that surname before. We have a Jacinda Ardern and we have a Shane Ardern. Guess which one Neville Ardern is related to? Let me give you a clue: it is not Jacinda. It is Shane Ardern. When the South Taranaki District Council had a meeting on this in August 2011 who turned up to speak on it? Three people did. The three musketeers Shane Ardern Chester Borrows and Neville Ardern turned up hand-in-hand hand-in-glove to prevail upon the South Taranaki District Council to hand this scheme over. 
As my colleague Grant Robertson has said and as Andrew Williams has said the representations made at that meeting do not make for very salutary reading. Now these minutes are put together and are polite and pleasant and it was not just the threat that came from Shane Ardern—according to the minutes—that if the Cold Creek community failed in their divestment request then there would be some legislative programme through Parliament that would bring about the kind of ownership they desired. There is the first threat. That was followed by “the brother”. The brother came along and he then said if the council did not proceed with the divestment then the company would take legal action which would cost a lot of money and headache for both parties. Well we are going to make a headache because we are going to quiz the proponents of this legislation. 
Then Mr Borrows the great liberal champion of the Government turned up at this meeting. He was hand-in-glove with them the black hand of the union movement. He turned up and said he noted that this was about community ownership. He said if the council could show where the money had come from other sources then they would be happy to refund the council and the ratepayers those funds. Well there has been a public contribution to this scheme and it needs to be recognised in relation to any new scheme that governs it. It will not just be the nominal value of the contribution made; it will be the real value of that scheme—the capital value—and the share of it owed to the public. 
This is an important local government bill that needs good scrutiny so the select committee will need to have a close look at the reasons for this legislation and the people who are behind it. They will need to talk to not just the Ardern brothers and Chester Borrows but the South Taranaki District Council mayor the councillors and all of them. There needs to be independent scrutiny of this proposal in this legislation and I look forward to seeing that happen.