Sio William: Local Government (Auckland Transitional Provisions) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSio William: Local Government (Auckland Transitional Provisions) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee[Sitting date: 17 November 2015. Volume:710;Page:8313. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Su’a WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Māngere): I want to thank the Minister for her earlier comments and I hope that she recognises that without the benefit of a select committee process we are bound to be asking her questions given the fact that we also do not have the benefit of legal advice or the officials’ advice.I want to refer to clause 9 in Part 2 “Validations and consequential amendments”. All of us or most of us in this Committee hate having to pass legislation that revalidates something particularly retrospective legislation. I note that in new section 170 in clause 9 we are having to validate the date on which submissions were received. Rightly some of my colleagues have asked well how many submissions were received that were deemed illegal that we are now having to validate so that they can be received? Hopefully the Minister will have a view around that.But the other thing is—and this goes to the crux of the credibility of the Government—when did it first learn about the need for validation legislation? That is important because as I understand the hearings had started in September last year. The hearings started last year and we are only now over 12 months later passing legislation that validates the work of the Auckland Unitary Plan Independent Hearings Panel. I think it is important that the Minister is able to tell the Committee when the Government first learnt that because if it learnt that at the beginning of the year why is it that we are only now passing this legislation?The other question that I think is also important is: how many concurrent sessions have been undertaken so far? Because we are validating practices that it is my understanding the independent hearings panel has been doing. We are validating their actions. Does that mean that the independent hearings panel has been undertaking concurrent sessions and site visits as the Minister said earlier? Does that mean that the independent hearings panel has been holding concurrent sessions with less than three members? Because we are now—Hon Ruth Dyson: Fewer than.Su’a WILLIAM SIO: Oh fewer than—fewer than as my colleague the Hon Ruth Dyson says. Because the reality is that if we are validating practices that have been deemed illegal since September 2014 I would say that a lot of Aucklanders will be questioning: “Who did we present our submission to if this is what’s happening now?”.The other question I would like to ask is: did they all have a quorum? Did they all have three? Because we are now being asked to change the quorum from three to two. Obviously the practice may have been that it may have been difficult to get three but if the concurrent sessions have taken place which we are currently validating as a result of Part 2 clause 9 then what happened? We do not have the benefit of an official’s report we do not have the benefit of a select committee report and I think it is incumbent on the Minister in the chair Hekia Parata to tell the Committee so that we can have at least some clarity that we are passing this in the spirit of doing the right thing for the sake of Aucklanders.Is there anything else that has taken place as a result that we cannot see? Because here is what we have often seen: in addition to fixing the mistakes that the Government has made in the original legislation we have also been asked to accept that we need to speed things up. I absolutely agree but I do not believe that Aucklanders would want to sacrifice the quality of advice that the independent hearings panel provides for us because of the Government’s attempt to rush through things because I suspect that if we are unable to meet the statutory time frame that the legislation provides surely it would be for the benefit of the Auckland region that we take our time and get it right anyway? But all I am hearing from the Government so far based on the little information that has been provided to us is that it is so intent on speeding things through that I fear that we will be back here again and—