Webb Duncan; Brown SimeonHon Dr DUNCAN WEBB (Labour—Christchurch Central): Thank you Madam Chair. I wonder if I might talk to my Amendment Paper which is on the Table because if I've heard the Minister of Local Government correctly he's not going to refrain from repealing the Water Services Economic Efficiency and Consumer Protection Act. It's a pity because some of the work that the previous Government has done around economic efficiency and competition the new Government has actually picked up and I must say done really well with. I'm thinking of the Grocery Commissioner and the fact that that's been embraced by the new Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.If we think about it food and water are basically the two necessities of life. It would be good if the Minister could follow his ministerial colleague in embracing the fact that a Water Services Commissioner with the attendant powers the dispute resolution framework and all of those things that are in that piece of legislation are in fact a good thing to hold on to.But don't worry there is a middle ground. Because I can see that if the Minister is thinking that if he repeals the other pieces of legislation then this will be sitting by itself lonely and with nothing to do. So my Amendment Paper proposes that we simply put that bill on ice whilst the Minister sorts out his new proposals. It would be kind of awkward to repeal this bill and then have to dream up new ways of doing fundamentally the same thing when the Parliamentary Counsel Office and officials along with the Government of the day have done a pretty good job of getting this bill into shape in a workable form including negotiating and listening to iwi as the right honourable member mentioned earlier. That work's all been done and it would be time-consuming and wasteful to do it again.So it's a little innovative. And I know the Clerks—I shouldn't probably refer to them. Not a familiar technique but rather than repealing it just place it on hold which is what my clause 10(1) would do: suspend it. Make it very clear that no powers exist under the Act whilst it's suspended. There are no rights and obligations which come to play under the Act. There's no cause of action which exists under the Act whilst it's suspended but then allow it to be revived—brought back to life—by you Minister by Order in Council. Now the ability to bring things back from the brink of death isn't really something I'd want to confer on that particular Minister but here we have it—giving it to you there. So that is what I suggest. Then making sure that that Order in Council could also adjust the time frames that sit in the Act because obviously times will have expired for them to have been done.But what we have here—and this is the real point and I'm fighting for the Minister to preserve it—is an apolitical very carefully drafted piece of legislation that fits well within the existing ecosystem of competition and consumer legislation. The Commerce Commission has already begun work on setting up the Water Services Commissioner and I understand made an appointment of someone who's expected to assume that role. The expertise is there the drafting work is there and it's a whole lot of investment which will be utterly wasted. But worse than that it will have to be redone. Because we know that competition and efficiency work is necessary and consumer protection work is necessary.As I said earlier this was something which was worked on quantitively it turns out in the Finance and Expenditure Committee—I made an error there—but it was a very useful committee. So by suspending this piece of legislation it will preserve it all in place. We won't have to come back to Parliament take up enormous amounts of parliamentary time go back to the community go back to select committee go back to the submissions process to put in place—and I know what it's like. You won't be able to just say We made a mistake; we're unrepealing that bill." You'll have to come up with a whole new framing of it which does fundamentally the same thing. A wasteful exercise of something that's good. So I would invite the Minister to look favourably upon that Amendment Paper.Hon SIMEON BROWN (Minister of Local Government): Thank you Madam Chair. Just recent questions—one in regard to Te Mana o te Wai. This legislation is aligning it with other references to the national policy statement. And in terms of that definition obviously the Water Services Act or the Taumata Arowai legislation or Resource Management Act legislation would be others that have similar clauses.In terms of the stormwater issue obviously stormwater reverts back to councils who have responsibility for making those investments. I noted the member the Hon Phil Twyford was talking about the issues in regards to private landowners and the management of storms and waterways. These are the responsibilities of private landowners and the regulator in regards to that would be the council in terms of working through those issues in relation to that private stormwater.In terms of the Hon Dr Duncan Webb's comments as I said in Part 1 the Government is repealing that legislation. It was designed to fit the 10-entity model. We are repealing their three waters co-governed mega-entities reform and we will be putting in place our own consumer regulation in terms of those issues that he mentions as part of our Local Water Done Well policy. But the legislation is not worth putting on ice because it relates to a fundamentally different approach to how we want to deal with water infrastructure and that's why we'll be repealing it and replacing it."