Mitchell ClaytonCLAYTON MITCHELL (NZ First): That's all right. I forget my own name sometimes—CHAIRPERSON (Hon Anne Tolley): It must be getting awfully late. CLAYTON MITCHELL: —it's totally acceptable. Thank you Madam Chair. I rise to take a call on this very important bill. It's actually this very subject that got me into politics at the start because the role that local government plays in our everyday lives arguably probably plays in some people's lives more of a role than what central government does because they have so much to say about the things that happen directly in our communities. I think over the years we've seen some departure from some of those responsibilities that have been bestowed on to local councils territorial authorities and regional councils and this bill acts to tidy up some of those anomalies. I just would like to say that I guess it's been quite refreshing hearing the support from the other side although the other side hasn't supported Supplementary Order Paper 323. Kieran McAnulty: Not much. CLAYTON MITCHELL: But the best support you can hear is when they're actually not saying too much Mr McAnulty. So I've actually enjoyed that silence because silence is golden and there's a lot of smart words in nothing when it's not being said. I'd just like to raise a point about the council-controlled organisations and this is the part that I think steps out as being quite a pivotal move. What we want to see is openness and transparency and the autonomy for a council to operate but in an open and transparent way. I think on many occasions we have seen councils opt for a council-controlled organisation set up to obfuscate—is my word—their responsibility to manage and administer what are core functions of a council. When you look at local roads and the connector roads in your cities and regions when you look at swimming pools and parks when you look at halls and when you look at the waterways and the three waters—the waste water the sewage and your drinking water—and you have situations where councils set up an organisation that is put behind a firewall and that is funded by ratepayers but without being able to have that openness and transparency it creates some concerns. This actually tidies that anomaly up. It also constrains and puts a tightening up around the fiasco which was the amalgamation of the super-city in Auckland and we saw the problems that that has caused. This bill here in this Part 1 takes away the ease in which a council could look at amalgamating with other territorial authorities and other regional councils etc. which I think doesn't prevent it from happening but it makes it quite difficult for that process to be undertaken. I think that's quite an important part as well. We need to learn from the mistakes of our past. But the key function I think of this bill really is around ensuring that those council-controlled organisations don't get put into a box out of the reach of the eyes and minds of the ratepayers and therefore I think that that's to be commended in this bill overall. I did spend some time in local government. As I say there are frustrations that seemed to build up in a community by not being listened to by their elected members but more frustrating is when they have been elected to do a job and then that job has been passed on to a board of independent people where the funding is put into an organisation that is then not able to be managed by the governing body that has been elected to do so which is irresponsible. Another aspect that I think is very good with this bill is it also creates some autonomy around the Local Government Commission—CHAIRPERSON (Hon Anne Tolley): I'm sorry to interrupt the member but the time has come for me to report progress. House resumed. The Chairperson reported the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission/Te Waihanga Bill without amendment the Kāinga Ora—Homes and Communities Bill without amendment and progress on the Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill (No 2). Report adopted. The House adjourned at 9.57 p.m.