Sio WilliamSu'a WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Māngere): It is a sign of a Government that has become so arrogant and out of touch with our communities when we have a national housing crisis that ought to be fixed and instead what we have got is legislation that I do not believe local government asked for. I would have thought that a Government that had a heart and that cared about the community would spend our energy in this House finding the right solutions to fix the housing problem so that we do not have families sleeping in cars this cold winter. This Government introduced this legislation arguing the efficiency argument. Whenever it uses that word efficiency" and argues efficiency we are supposed to believe that something better will come of this and that there will be savings. It has used the argument of efficiency to remove trade union workers' rights and to enable flexibility—actually it is to shift the balance of power from the people on to a few. Tonight it does the same. It uses the argument of efficiency to take away the balance of power from the general public and shift it into the hands of a few. So my colleague Meka Whaitiri is correct. We have serious concerns about this bill and although the Minister has said that he has consulted with a range of organisational stakeholders my belief is that he has simply gone around and said: "This is what I intend to do." That is it. There has been no request for input and there has been no participation by these groups in how this bill has been written. When the Government uses the efficiency argument I cannot help but remember that it also did this when it imposed the super-city amalgamation and it imposed it suggesting that somehow the amalgamation of Auckland would provide some savings. Today there have been no savings. Ratepayers continue to receive increased rates every year. It also used the efficiency argument for the reason why we should develop more council-controlled organisations (CCOs). Auckland has a phrase for CCOs. It is "corporate-captured organisations" because you are taking away the power of elected representatives of our community and instead appointing certain people who become no longer accountable to the general public but who are accountable to the masters who appoint those people on those CCOs. I believe what the member from New Zealand First said. Already many local government bodies share and collaborate. There is no need to impose legislation that forces them to set up a new structure that then imposes additional costs on the ratepayers because not only do you have to—let us say for example Watercare Services. Once upon a time in the former councils of Auckland we used to get a water bill every 6 months. Today we receive a water bill every month. Those costs have gone up. When this Government uses the efficiency argument we are supposed to think that something better will come of it. People in Auckland know through the super-city experiment that big is not going to be cheap. The argument that my colleagues from the Green Party said about the polls—that is crucial. We have not yet had a proper debate in this country since this Government has come into power about how important the role is that local government bodies play in our communities. They are genuine partners with central government in terms of delivering well-being—social economic and cultural well-being—to our communities. Since this Government has come into power it has been focused squarely on controlling local government and the amalgamation I have to say smells suspicious. This Government has had its chance at Auckland—imposing amalgamation there. It attempted to do it here in Wellington and it failed and now it is doing it again in a roundabout way. So I will be looking towards our general public to make strong submissions on this bill in the select committee process."