Mark RonHon RON MARK (NZ First): Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. It's really interesting listening to this debate and I welcome the third reading of the Local Government (Community Well-being) Amendment Bill. Please forgive me if I'm a bit difficult to understand; I've got a bug. I wasn't actually going to take a long call because of my voice but I really cannot sit here and listen to that last speech and let it go unanswered. It's a speech given by someone who's clearly held no real level of responsibility in local government and has no real understanding of the Local Government Act and how it is actually enacted by those charged with responsibility.It also reminds me of a very arrogant belittling demeaning and stigmatising speech given by the Hon Nick Smith when he introduced a local government amendment bill into the House I think on—tell me if I'm wrong—27 November 2012. It rings a bell with me because I was the Mayor of Carterton at that time. I actually responded by sending an email to the Prime Minister and the soon-to-be Prime Minister—as it turned out he became Prime Minister when I came back to the House the Hon Bill English—thanking them for in one fell swoop giving every National Party member who was a councillor a deputy mayor and a mayor in New Zealand a reason not to support their party in the next coming election.The comments that have just been made by the honourable member talking about how reintroducing the well-beings—something which the National Party removed in November 2012—would actually unleash a new wave of fiscal irresponsibility tells me that that member knows nothing about the work that Ian McKelvie did when he was the mayor nothing about the work that Jono Johnson did when he was a mayor and a former National Party MP and knows nothing whatsoever about the work that Lawrence Yule the National Party MP did when he was the president of Local Government New Zealand. It tells me that the party across that side should really spend their time in Opposition reflecting on the way in which they demeaned stigmatised belittled and denigrated their own members of the National Party who are very responsible citizens of this country who'd been elected into those offices out of respect of their constituencies.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): Order! The member needs to come to the bill.Hon RON MARK: I will come to the bill Mr Assistant Speaker. The bill seeks to redress the anomalies in the views held by the previous Government. This bill reinstates the well-beings which were removed by arguments such as that councils would increase rates and that ratepayers would have no control over how the councils would increase their rates—which is just an absolute mistruth. Councils will be required under this Act which we are improving by amending it back to what it used to say to consult with their ratepayers. Councils are required to deliver something that this Parliament central government never does: produce a 35-year plan. They're required to produce a 10-year plan they're required to consult with their ratepayers on their annual budgets and to produce a fiscally neutral zero budget—that's what the Act does.The biggest problem that that past Government should have addressed and fails to really recognise now is that the mechanisms by which councils raise money are outdated—it's outdated; it doesn't work. They're limited in how they can raise revenue. They are dictated to in how they can raise revenue by this House. And the argument that councillors charge off on their own merry way and spend money hand over fist on projects of their own desire is not true. The only one I can think of is a former National Party mayor who had a V8 car race in Hamilton and lost a lot of money—and what was the irony about that? It was that it got picked up by the National Government and moved into Auckland and subsidised by the National Party when they were sitting on this side of the House who said on one side of their mouth that councils shouldn't get involved in subsidising business and events and then he turned around and subsidised the V8 races in Hamilton. Actually I like the V8 races and I can understand the economic advantage of having an event of that nature in one city—pity that Carterton wasn't big enough; we would have asked to have it there.Members on that side of the House are very good at picking on things in councils' budgets that they don't like: like funding community advisory—or what do they call budget advisory groups—and putting in swings in a park. Instead they are telling the councils that social well-being should be removed because parks weren't their business that swings and slides for children weren't their business roads and rubbish were and then underfunding the councils' funding for rural roads and cutting it then introducing the one road network and introducing roads of national significance and cutting councils' funding backwards.Those are the issues that this bill is going to redress because we're introducing the ability for councils to look at the social and economic well-beings of their communities. The irony is that if a council steps up to give money to its local chamber of commerce to promote an event that's going to bring economic advantage like Toast Wairarapa like the balloon festival like the harvest festival no National Party person objects because it's economic subsidy and corporate welfarism that they approve of. What they don't like is the building of an event centre for arts and culture and for the community groups to come along and for the school groups to run a kapa haka festival in. That's what Mr Hudson hates. He doesn't like Carterton having an event centre so that all the schools from all over the Wairarapa can come and have the biggest kapa haka festival they have ever had. What he wants is Federated Farmers to get a subsidy for the young farmers' awards—that's what he wants. So he'll stand up here and talk about fiscal purity out of the one side of his mouth while advocating and applauding corporate beneficaryism on the other side of his mouth.There is a word that they would use out on the street which can't be used here but it fits appropriately Mr Hudson. I want Mr Hudson to reflect on his speech which I will post on my Facebook page for local government to see—for every National Party mayor. Alex Walker Mayor of Central Hawke's Bay District is going to love that speech because Mr Hudson thinks that she's wasteful that she throws money around that she has no fiscal responsibility at all that any money she puts into—you know look at what we're facing in Central Hawke's Bay right now. It's part of the Wairarapa electorate although Alastair Scott wouldn't know that—he wouldn't know it at all. When I visited there last—Jamie Strange: Where does he live?Hon RON MARK: He lives somewhere in Wellington. But when I visited up there recently we met in the office with a local police sergeant. I was meant to meet the police sergeant separately but we met together because that police sergeant had been out to attend to a suicide. At that point in time they'd had one fatality from vehicle accidents and eight by suicide. I say that because it gives an indication of the social stress that mayors deputy mayors and councillors have to deal with on a day-to-day basis.So Mr Hudson if they're focused on the emotional well-being of their community good on them. If they're focused on the spiritual well-being of their communities good on them. If they're focused on the heart of their community and supporting local farmers who are stressed good on them. If they subsidise a festival that promotes economic activity good on them. If they subsidise a racing event and their ratepayers say no and vote them out of office good on them. But Mr Hudson they don't need that member's paternalism. They don't need that member's condescending attitude and they don't need to be told. The Mayor of Central Hawke's Bay district Alex Walker—a strong National Party supporter—will probably be very disappointed in that speech right now as will John Booth from Carterton as will other mayors and councillors all over New Zealand.