Flavell Te Ururoa: Local Government Borrowing Bill Local Government (Auckland Council) Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Readings 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Local Government Borrowing Bill Local Government (Auckland Council) Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Readings 
[Volume:675;Page:21301] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Assistant Speaker Roy. Thank you for the opportunity to speak on this legislation the Local Government Borrowing Bill and the Local Government (Auckland Council) Amendment Bill (No 2). I do not intend to take too much time other than to make one or two salient points. As other members have said the purpose of the legislation is to make borrowing cheaper for local councils. To cut to the chase the legislation will do that in two ways. 
The first way is by establishing the New Zealand Local Government Funding Agency an umbrella organisation if you like for the purpose of borrowing money for local councils. As Sue Kedgley mentioned the whole notion of bringing together councils is a good idea but there are some risks. Multiple councils using their debt collectively will hopefully lower the costs of borrowing. In essence a collective approach to investment makes good sense. I was interested that the Federation of Maori Authorities particularly supported this concept of a local government borrowing authority. It believes that it will reduce overall costs to councils by borrowing collectively through the new borrowing authority so that is good. 
The second way that the legislation will make borrowing cheaper for local councils is by exempting the Auckland Council from the section of the Local Government Act 2002 that stipulates that local government can borrow only in New Zealand currency. Again that was alluded to by Sue Kedgley. This section has acted as a deterrent to overseas borrowing. As I understand it the reason for this exemption is the size of Auckland City and the inability of the domestic market to loan enough money at a reasonable price—that is there is no competition in the domestic market for lending because of the size of the council. 
It probably could not be a better day to talk about and think about the Auckland Council’s massive demand for resources. Earlier today the House heard the debate on Auckland City’s accountability and performance committee and in particular on the release of its report addressing the aftermath of Friday evening’s chaos at the opening of the Rugby World Cup specifically the crowd chaos and transport failures. Clearly although the council failed to deliver on travel expectations—ferries were closed down and trains were stalled—it did not really plan for the appropriate numbers. It prepared for 50000 people I think it was but 200000 people turned up and so on and so on. I think it is important that we cannot leave our councils in situations where planning and performance are clearly insufficient to meet the needs of the people. 
There is one issue that I want to place in front of the House and it should be no surprise. It is about the whole question of local authorities taking on board a commitment to increase Maori representation. The concept of dedicated Maori representation at the local government level is similar to the approach used by Environment Bay of Plenty and its three Maori constituencies. Maori constituencies at a local level will enable greater enhanced opportunities for local authority candidates to engage with Maori. This is important because we all know that traditionally Maori have had low voter turn-outs at local body elections. By way of some background research conducted by two people Christine Cheyne and Veronica Tawhai demonstrates that Maori feel a greater sense of connection with local government if they are able to recognise their elected representatives based on their community activities and interaction at a grassroots level. We say that dedicated Maori representation has the potential to improve voter enrolment and therefore democratic accountability and engagement. 
In standing briefly to support this legislation I say that we are hoping for a marked improvement in local government patterns of spending that will result in better services. The one key thing that I hope I leave as a key point in this particular debate is the need for more effective representation for Maori at that level. Kia ora tatou.