Bayly Andrew; Borrows ChesterANDREW BAYLY (National—Hunua): It is a pleasure to be talking to the second reading of the Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill (No 2). Mr Deputy Speaker I feel sorry for you listening to that tripe—absolute tripe—from that previous speaker Megan Woods. What I would just like to do first of all is acknowledge the previous Minister who introduced this bill into the House the Hon Sam Lotu-Iiga and the former chair of the Local Government and Environment Committee now the Hon Scott Simpson for working their way through the bill.As has been noted previously the bill was introduced into the House some time ago back in 2016 but the Government has deliberately delayed its finalisation to take into account the views of many of the submitters including Local Government New Zealand and the New Zealand Society of Local Government Managers (SOLGM) as well as other relevant parties. That is a Government that is listening to what is going on contrary to the assertion made just before. The purpose of this bill is to give local authorities more flexibility to coordinate and combine resources and infrastructure especially in relation to networks across their regions. At present unfortunately legislation does not provide for that very easily. So this bill is about providing greater flexibility at the choice of the local councils involved.Given the financial constraints of many of our smaller territorial local authorities (TLAs) it is becoming imperative to—and in fact they are wanting to—actually coordinate and collaborate better with other relevant local councils particularly contiguous ones. This bill provides for that but it also provides for larger organisations and larger councils to come together under their agreed arrangements so that they can better coordinate their capital spend planning and how they utilise their operations and their infrastructure so as to get a better outcome for their ratepayers.Now this is something that they will want to do. That is driven by them; it is not driven by us. And there is a perverse view about that. So this creates the opportunity particularly for infrastructure such as transport and also for water and waste-water services in particular to come together across multiple jurisdictions. It also creates the opportunity for other what are now termed substantive council-controlled organisations (CCOs) where there are assets of more than $10 million involved or by agreement to provide greater certainty where there are multiple-owned CCOs—or what I mean is owned by many CCOs and controlled by them.For the first time the councils will be able to lead the reorganisation proposals in consultation with their communities and neighbouring councils. Parts of those reforms mean that when they do want to do that and their CCOs are set up those CCOs will have the right to have bylaw-making powers and also the ability to collect certain revenues. The changes in the bill have made it very careful that those changes are subject to the controlling councils.There have also been substantial changes to the Local Government Commission. This bill provides for the commission to have enhanced powers to work with councils and Government to support their reorganisation proposals. There are a whole lot of administrative issues around the commission to enable it to work better but one of the key changes is that the Minister has been given the authority to set out an expectation for the commission but the commission must then report back by way of statement of corporate intent and an annual work plan.One of the key changes is that previously TLAs had to get the approval of the Local Government Commission before consulting on transfer proposals. One of the crucial changes is that the commission must agree to any TLA proposal unless it is satisfied on reasonable grounds—and I just note that point—that the disadvantages of the proposal significantly outweigh the advantages of the proceeding transfer. This has shifted the obligation and given more powers for councils to put forward proposals and less authority for the commission to overturn them.My last point contrary to the last speaker—I just do not know where she is getting her information but I just want to put it on record—is that this bill has the support of Local Government New Zealand—Michael Wood: No it does not.ANDREW BAYLY: —and SOLGM. There is an assertion that it does not—it does. On this basis I am very much looking forward to debating the merits of this bill as it progresses through the House. Thank you.Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Meka Whaitiri—a 5-minute call.