Smith StuartSTUART SMITH (National—Kaikōura): Well thank you very much Mr Speaker. I'd just like to point out actually every New Zealander has rights and responsibilities and interests when it comes to water. Everybody does and actually this bill restores equality when it comes to governance arrangements and access to water and that's as it should be. That's modern democracy and that's where we should be.This bill was great. It's true it was a shortened report-back date that we had. None the less we had 182 submissions and actually they were high-quality submissions. The submitters that appeared before the Finance and Expenditure Committee really added to the process and so I'd like to thank them on behalf of the committee. I'd like to thank my fellow Finance and Expenditure Committee members who worked very hard on this bill in a shortened report-back date so it really added to this bill.It had some unique features this bill. We had to get clearance under Standing Order 295(1)(b) to get the power to consider an out-of-scope amendment which was Amendment Paper 41 which was appropriate but I think it's the first time I've struck that in select committee so it was rather unique and that brought a lot to the table.This is the second of three bills. Ultimately it replaces three waters with local water done well which is a fantastic plan actually. As my colleague from New Zealand First mentioned before having more Government oversight of what's going on with councils is a great help because obviously when we look around some councils have made a real hash of their water infrastructure assets. We don't have to walk too far from this building to see that bubbling up in the street ourselves. So that was very good.We had also a good old Henry VIII" clause. We had a submission from the New Zealand Law Society and the Regulations Review Committee on clause 102 in regard to the danger of it being a "Henry VIII" clause and the dangers around that—well it is a "Henry VIII" clause; let's be clear but we looked at the guidelines and absolutely it fits within that. However the clause doesn't pose a constitutional risk because Parliament actually had a policy that that will give effect to. So Parliament and the executive gives policy right? But the executive can't do that on its own. So having that regulation-making power so an Order in Council can extinguish those particular clauses—that's what it does. Until the national policy statement on freshwater management is replaced that is still in line with the policy intent.So it was a really good lesson I think for the committee; a few new members on our committee—I don't know probably the first time a "Henry VIII" clause has come up and it was a very interesting discussion on that.When three waters came up from the previous Government I don't think I've seen as many road signs and had so much email traffic about anything so water is very dear to people. Why is it so dear to them? Because obviously none of us can survive without water and none of us can survive really as we found out—and I'm sure my colleague Catherine Wedd will talk about what happened in Havelock North—without having clean and safe water so getting this right is really important.I congratulate the Minister of Local Government on the work that he and his team have done and the officials that advised the committee for the work that they did under such a tight time frame and I think this bill is actually what we need in New Zealand and it gets New Zealand back on the track of democracy. With great pleasure I commend this bill to the House."