Mark RonHon RON MARK (Minister of Defence): Well I have to say to my Cabinet colleague the Hon Nanaia Mahuta thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you on behalf of all of my Local Government New Zealand whānau—my former colleagues the mayors that I worked with and the councillors I worked with up and down the country.I recall very very clearly the reaction of Local Government New Zealand when the 2012 amendment bill went through steered by the Hon Nick Smith. We who were in local government at the time remember very clearly the stigmatisation the demonisation the demeaning and the belittling of local government politicians up and down the land as the Hon Nick Smith justified the removal of the four well-beings by telling everybody that local government was inefficient was wasteful was spendthrift and didn't know how to manage their assets. The same man actually called 70 of us to a meeting in the Grand Hall to tell local government—all the mayors and deputy mayors and CEOs—what was going to happen why it was going to happen and that there was nothing we could do about it.It was interesting. I predicted at that meeting about 15 minutes before it started that he wouldn't be the Minister in two days' time. The Hon Fran Wilde at the time chair of the Greater Wellington Regional Council was astonished and asked me why. I said Well I just heard a speech as I came into town given by the Rt Hon Winston Peters where he highlighted some matters that Mr Smith had to face up to." And he was consequently removed.We thought in local government that was a jolly good thing because that Minister failed to comprehend in any shape or form whatsoever that from local government's perspective the well-beings were fundamental to how one cared for one's community. Well I mean: social well-being. Looking at the economic well-being—we always thought that National of all parties would have understood that you needed to factor in the economic well-being into your annual plan your long-term plan and your ultra - long term plan. But clearly they disagreed. Environmental well-being—focusing on the environmental well-being meant that as a mayor I could listen to my community who said they no longer felt it appropriate that we continue to discharge waste water into the Mangatarere Stream. Councillor Jill Greathead who formed the Mangatarere Restoration Society was adamant that we needed to get out of that. Hapū Hurunui o Rangi made it very clear to my council that we needed to come up with a plan that enabled us to stop discharging waste water into the Mangatarere Stream in line with making sure we catered to the environmental well-being of our community. But oh not Mr Smith. He said it wasn't important. Well it was damn well important as far as we're concerned and that's why we invested the money we invested into land-based systems. Getting out of the Mangatarere Stream became an environmental must for my council.Catering for the social well-being does little things that focuses the mind of your council on ensuring for example oh maybe something that central government should have been thinking about at the time like that there are no homeless people and like that people aren't living in cars Mr Simon Bridges. You focus on the well-being of your community in the same way central government should focus on the well-being of the nation. But these things—this sort of proposition that economic social environmental and cultural well-being are of no significance—comes from the minds of bean counters and pencil heads who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.People who put big business profits—Mr Kanwaljit Singh how disappointing raises the issue about how terrible it was that property developers had to pay a development contribution for the infrastructure they were going to tap into that had been built and paid for by previous ratepayers. Well hell where we came from we heard ad nauseam from Ruth Richardson in Canterbury that the market forces would meet the need. But see there's the irony. It's not right to have a development contribution but it's perfectly fine to have a council-controlled organisation levy everybody with an infrastructure charge ranging from $7000 to $27000. Me thinks that there is a phrase that fits the description of that type of argument but we're not allowed to use the word in this Parliament.There are people all over the country right now who are deep-seated card-carrying members of the National Party who work selflessly in local government. They were overwhelming in their condemnation of the National Government of the time. In fact the remit at Local Government New Zealand conference that year passed with an overwhelming majority to lobby central government to restore the well-beings back into the Local Government Act and that is what this House is aiming to do. That is what the Hon Nanaia Mahuta has brought to the floor of the House and New Zealand First supports it 150 percent. And let's look forward to the third reading of this bill.To all of my whanaunga out there in Local Government New Zealand you work hard and we appreciate what you do. Take satisfaction right now that this Government has listened to you and is doing exactly what you Local Government New Zealand asked us to do."