Andersen GinnyGINNY ANDERSEN (Labour): Thank you Madam Chair. Thank you for the opportunity of speaking at the committee stage on this bill. Look it's really good to see engagement from across the House on key issues and it's also encouraging to see general support from members opposite on this bill. It is in particular that I would like to look at some of the changes proposed around council-controlled organisations or CCOs and to look at some of those areas and ask a couple of questions to the Minister in the chair Nanaia Mahuta in this space. The provisions within Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) 323 aim to improve responsiveness to local authority direction. They also aim to improve transparency in this area and in addition to that to enable iwi and Māori to have greater input into how CCOs are being run—better public responsiveness and responsiveness to Māori. This is achieved in a number of ways in the bill. I'd just to use a particular example from the Hutt Valley where I reside. We have a CCO that's been operating there for a good while and it has really concerned me in terms of how it has been operating and how it has been transparent. So I'm interested to know from the Minister in particular whether these changes will mean that a CCO will have to operate with those wellbeings in mind—the new four wellbeings that we've applied to how local government will be operating. So the example that I'd like to use to illustrate this point is a CCO by the name of Urban Plus that operates providing cheaper housing in the Hutt Valley. What they do is they own a number of properties—particularly for people over 65—and they are rented out at 90 percent of the market rate. But what's been happening lately is that they've pretty much got into the role of property development where land is being purchased built upon and sold at market rate and a profit has been made and then pocketed which is what happens. But what I would've always liked to have seen is at a time when there is such desperate need of increased housing opportunities in the Hutt Valley Urban Plus taking a far more hands-on role in terms of assisting to deliver more affordable homes for families across the Hutt Valley. So I've always been interested to know how we could have greater transparency and a greater responsiveness to the needs of the community for an entity that is under the general ambit of our council. I look forward to understanding a little bit more how this would impact upon my own area. Some of the SOP's key changes to CCOs I note are that the Local Government Commission will not be able to transfer council services to CCOs. In addition to that there are proposals to create an elaborate system of council-controlled organisations to deliver water transport and other services. That's withdrawn as well by the Supplementary Order Paper. There are also provisions added to enhance the transparency and accountability of council-controlled organisations to councils and communities. As someone who has attended an annual general meeting of a CCO I think the whole meeting was conducted in about 2½ minutes flat. So I would like to also know what types of public accountability—how people in the community can find out about what the business of CCOs is and how they can be involved in understanding what that work is and how it benefits the wider community if at all. So I'm really encouraged to see a Supplementary Order Paper that looks at taking an area where I think additional benefits could be seen by the community and I'm very interested in finding out a little bit more in terms of how those things in particular can work to operate alleviating big long-term issues such as those of housing in the Hutt Valley that we see. So thank you Madam Chair.