Court SimonSIMON COURT (ACT): Thank you Mr Speaker. ACT will support this bill. ACT believes that local government should be in control of its own destiny and that if New Plymouth District Council have been effective guardians and stewards of investments made in the past then they should reap the rewards of it.This is an example—this investment fund—of local governments' intergenerational thinking decision making focused on long-term sustainable outcomes. And it's a credit to the New Plymouth District Council and to those who have managed the investment fund—at arm's length may I say.But one of the advantages of this fund is that it has paid out over $240 million to the New Plymouth District Council since 2004. That's $240 million which has been used to offset potential rate rises and to cash flow borrowing and debt that's enabled the district council to invest in infrastructure and all kinds of facilities that the town of New Plymouth benefits from.The things that make New Plymouth and the Taranaki region wealthy are things that it's good to invest in: energy natural gas manufacturing farming and tourism of course because New Plymouth is a great place to visit. And one of the reasons it's a good place to visit and a good place to live is because of the investment in infrastructure; not just roads not just pipes but also that social infrastructure like art galleries and libraries and other facilities the people of New Plymouth benefit from.But I think it's important to note that these investments have been managed independently of elected members. It has not been individual councillors or a majority of councillors deciding what to invest in. That decision making has been outsourced to people who are competent at investment. That is why I was surprised to hear the member Ian McKelvie suggest that councils should still be investing in rubbish tips. Well I had an experience working at a council having to clean up after their rubbish tip investments—over 50 years of dumping rubbish in the harbour or in rivers or in the back of someone's farm—and I don't know if councils are the right people to be building and investing in rubbish tips. Now of course local government needs to use waste management facilities and fortunately the private sector provides the best waste management facilities in New Zealand—permitted and consented and operating safely. We don't need council to get involved with that.But again thinking that elected members know what to invest in is what has led to some absolutely disastrous investments. When we think of Auckland Council owning airport shares that haven't returned a dividend for years. Auckland Council where I live owning Ports of Auckland—100 percent. A council that is so cash-strapped they even proposed cutting access to the Auckland Art Gallery to taking paintings away maybe even selling them for a bit of cash. That's why local councils should not be involved in using ratepayers' money to invest in things like ports and airports that don't pay a return when councils desperately need to use their capital to invest in other infrastructure and services.It would be fair to say that New Plymouth District Council's outsourcing of its investment to the Perpetual Investment Fund is the best example we could hold up right now to show why councils should simply focus on the important things. Invest in infrastructure invest in those social amenities like pools and libraries for example that the communities rely on. But in order to do that they do need cash flow. In this case for New Plymouth District Council it comes from their investment fund. But there are other opportunities for other councils. Now I don't agree with Mr McKelvie that councils should be investing in rubbish tips but it's true that there are other ways to raise revenue.What ACT would propose is if other councils wanted to get even close to what New Plymouth has managed to achieve they should consider doing things such as applying user charges to the supply of water which is still a mystery in places like Wellington City—where as a temporary resident spending 30 weeks a year here as a visiting MP from Auckland I notice that there is drinking water running in the streets. When I asked my landlord when I first moved to Wellington why is there chlorinated drinking water running in the streets he assured me it couldn't be and that it must be groundwater coming out of the hill because no one would let chlorinated drinking water run in the streets for what he said would be at least the 15 years he'd seen it running down the road. But it turns out that it was because in Wellington they don't meter the water and no one in Wellington pays user charges for the water that they use.It shows you this huge difference in the competence and the aspiration of organisations like New Plymouth District Council when you compare them to the performance of others around the country. I do really feel for my friends and colleagues who live in Wellington City and have to live under the current regime which isn't delivering infrastructure and in fact is putting people at risk of even having lamps fall off street lights on to their heads as they move around the city.So I think it's important to reflect that long-term decision making; what to invest in whether it's investments—as New Plymouth District Council has outsourced to their investment fund—or infrastructure that is desperately needed for the community local government needs to be thinking long term. And it can only do that when the playing field is clear; when the runway is clear of obstacles. Unfortunately this Government has actually put more obstacles in the way of local government achieving its objectives rather than removing them. When we think about applying—forcing even—co-governance on the Canterbury Regional Council Environment Canterbury through to the aborted attempt from one of their members to introduce a local bill to force a completely unweighted and undemocratic representation arrangement on the Rotorua District Council.Or if we think about the future of local government the inquiry that the Government has set up which produced a report that is so full of woke nonsense you'd think that it has been written by a group of undergraduates at university in their first term of learning about local government it's an appalling prescription for what should be institutions charged with supercharging their community aspirations when it comes to economic and social development. Because that's what New Plymouth District Council has done by outsourcing the management of investment to the Perpetual Investment Fund reaping $240 million in returns over the past 20-odd years keeping rates down and providing sufficient headroom to invest in infrastructure.Now that's why ACT will support this bill. It's a good bill and we look forward to seeing more great things the next time the ACT Party takes our bus to New Plymouth to hold a public meeting—we expect to hear great things about what's going on in New Plymouth. Thank you Mr Speaker.