Watts SimonSIMON WATTS (National—North Shore): Thank you very much Mr Chair and thank you Minister for providing an overview in regards to Part 2 which as the Minister has articulated is the most substantive portion of this bill. We've got a number of areas that we're going to get into in terms of questions on this part. But I think it is important before we get into that to just stand back and look at the concept around some of the key areas and challenges that have been raised in terms of opposition of this legislation and they fall squarely as part of Part 2 of this bill. Right from the outset in terms of the establishment of the four-entity model while we didn't discuss that in the prior part the concept of how it was landed upon four entities and the significant pushback across local government across the country around that structural model has been well defined. The Minister referred to clauses 15 and 16 around ownership shares and I think there will be a number of aspects that we will want to get into detail around that specifically because I think that also has created quite a significant amount of I guess confusion and clarity on one side but also unmet expectations in terms of you know if you believe you own something do you genuinely own it? That's where the confusion has come in that regard. The aspects that I particularly want to get into first up is in relation to clause 27 of Part 2 Subpart 4—Regional representative groups" which is around the "Establishment and membership of regional representative group". The Minister's just stood up and talked about this concept of joint decision-making. Well it's not joint decision-making. Joint decision-making is a new term that is being introduced. But for those that are not over the detail in terms of how these groups will operate half of the seats at the table are mana whenua - appointed and appointed by mana whenua; half of the seats are in regards to the territorial authorities. And there's a number of challenges in regards to both of those aspects. But that group in order to make decisions needs a 75 percent majority. So you know let's be clear. If there is opposition in regards to that—and that's well and above the 50 percent threshold which I think you would infer from when you refer to words such as "joint decision-making" that basically is going to result in one of those two parties or a number of members within that group having the ability to influence and control decision making. And our view is that complexity that comes from that governance model is going to increase the time it takes to make decisions; it's going to add bureaucracy and additional cost and that's before we even get into the concept of have we got appropriate representation around the table that represents our local communities across our regions and provinces and cities. And the clear view from this side of the House is that we don't have that. So my Supplementary Order Paper is No. 287 and it amends subclause 27(2). The amendment is specifically in regards to the composition of those regional representative groups to ensure that every territorial authority is represented in those groups. Some of the significant opposition that we heard through the select committee process from councils across the country was around the fact of that loss of local voice and we've heard that throughout. So my amendment is dealing specifically with ensuring that all territorial authorities have the ability to be represented across those groups. And some councils as I've said have raised concerns that they've been shut out of that debate and I think that's absolutely fair and genuine and my amendment in regards to clause 27 will in effect allow that representation. I think it's important to say that this amendment is not going to affect the ability for the entities to have boards larger than that number. It simply ensures that at least one seat is available for every territorial authority. The amendment also adds a provision that territorial authorities can provide a majority of positions on the regional representative boards which we can get into in a little detail later on. The territorial authorities are the owners of these assets and therefore should have the control around those boards to oversee the management of those assets. So I would ask the Minister to consider those modifications to clause 27 as part of her deliberations."