Hide Rodney: Local Government (Rating Cap) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Hide Rodney: Local Government (Rating Cap) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:632;Page:4471] 
RODNEY HIDE (ACT—Epsom) 
: 
 I move  
That the Local Government (Rating Cap) Amendment Bill be now read a first time 
. This issue will not go away and it is not something that Parliament can vote away. Rates throughout New Zealand are causing a great deal of heartache hardship and distress. In Auckland residential rates are set to rise this year by 13.8 percent. No one is getting a salary rise of 13.8 percent but people have to find an extra 13.8 percent for their rates. 
In the last 3 years Wellington City Council rates have increased by 20.5 percent Christchurch City Council rates by 19.4 percent and Hamilton City Council rates by 15.2 percent. The average increase in rates across the country is 7 percent per year. That sort of increase would make the Sheriff of Nottingham blush if he were taking that money from the poor peasants among the people. Yet we sit idly by while local government is doing that to the citizens of New Zealand. 
Parliament cannot duck responsibility for that because it is this Parliament that has given the power to local government to the councils to set those rates. We cannot sit back in Parliament and say that it is an issue for local government; it is an issue for this Parliament. Every member of Parliament knows what an issue it is because we all have constituents coming to see us who are on fixed incomes and struggling to pay their rate demands. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: In Epsom. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Mr Brian Donnelly whose party does not have any electorate seats—and because New Zealand First did not look after Tauranga and the poor ratepayers there it lost that seat to the venerable Mr Bob Clarkson—calls out: “In Epsom.” Absolutely in Epsom! People who are retired on fixed incomes are getting hit hard by rate demands and are struggling. I know that might be a surprise to Mr Donnelly and New Zealand First but it is a fact. People are struggling. The member shakes his head to say it is not possible. Well I think New Zealand First members should get out amongst the people a bit more and start listening to what people are saying. 
Maryan Street 
: It’s your defence of them Rodney that’s making people shake their heads. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Sorry? 
Maryan Street 
: It’s your defence of people that’s making us shake our heads. And this is a surprise! 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Who is this member? I have never heard a contribution quite like it. It is true contrary to what New Zealand First members might be asserting that there are people in every electorate in this country who are struggling. I was rung up last week by a Roger Beauchamp. He has been hit. He is a pensioner who has lived in his house since 1960—it is a family home. This story is repeated up and down New Zealand. He has been hit with a rates demand of $2800. I say to Mr Donnelly that it is true that Mr Beauchamp does not live in Epsom but he is getting hit with rates of $2800 and he cannot afford it. Mr Beauchamp asked me what he gets from the Porirua City Council that is worth $2800 in a year. The answer is not much. So he went to the council and said: “I can’t afford this.” Do members know what he was told by the caring people in local government which is supported by the Labour Party and now New Zealand First? He was told to sell his House if he could not afford his rates. 
Even the Sheriff of Nottingham did not do that to the peasants. But this Labour Government in association with New Zealand First expects pensioners to have to sell their houses to pump up local government so it can have its flash offices and build its monuments while the poor people of New Zealand lose their family homes. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: Is this bill going to reduce his rates? 
RODNEY HIDE 
: No it is not but I will tell the member what it will do. It will stop them going up at more than plus 2 percent inflation a year and that has to be a good start. Why are New Zealand First members going around supporting rates increases of 10 percent and 20 percent a year—which New Zealand First’s own supporters cannot afford and are complaining about to them—and saying: “We don’t care.”? Why does New Zealand First not care? Because it has the baubles of office. 
Members should think about the inequity of this situation—they can look it up. Helen Clark’s rates as Prime Minister are $1600 for the year. The rates of this poor pensioner in Porirua City are $2800. Where is the equity and fairness in that situation which this Labour Government with New Zealand First is defending? 
Mark Blumsky 
: She doesn’t pay rates for the one she lives in up in Thorndon either. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Well I do not know. I am sure that Taito Phillip Field pays enough rates for half the country when one adds up all the houses he has. But that has to be iniquitous. 
I heard of a farmer who has a farm amongst the vineyards. His rates bill is $50000 in a year. The answer is not more subsidies from taxpayers; the answer is in getting local government spending under control because we see the waste and excess of local government every which way we look. When one sees what some of these city councils are up to one could say it even makes central government look quite reasonable in how it wastes its money. 
Members should understand that cities like Sydney and London have caps on how much they can increase their rates by in a year. The Hutt City Council has a strategy to raise rates by no more than half a percent above inflation. I remind the House how generous my bill is. It is saying that councils can put up rates in any year by inflation plus 2 percent. Even that is outrageous but I thought I would be generous because I would get the big spenders in New Zealand First—the big Government defenders—and the Labour Party to say that 2 percent plus inflation is quite reasonable. But oh no they are happy to vote for the rates of the poor people of New Zealand to go up by 14 percent or so a year. 
I believe there is a mistake in my bill and it is this. In order to get the support of the House the bill states that if a council wants to go higher than 4 percent plus inflation over 3 years or 2 percent plus inflation in a year it can go to the Minister of Local Government and get an exemption after having to put a case publicly. I believe that is a mistake. I included that provision because I thought it would be a cost-effective way of managing rates increases but I believe we should make it so that councils can increase their rates above that amount only by having a referendum of the ratepayers. It should be the ratepayers who get to decide whether their rates are to go up faster. If the local government has a good reason for increasing rates then I am sure the people will go along with it. So I believe we can fix that mistake in the select committee and actually give the power to the people—the ratepayers. 
Again I ask New Zealand First members what they have against ratepayers in New Zealand that they will not let them have that say. I again ask New Zealand First members having heard them trumpet their concerns about rates and about people on fixed incomes why we do not just have the debate. Why is this Parliament so scared to debate the issue of rates and how they are controlled? 
How will we have that debate? At the appropriate time I will be moving that this bill go to the Finance and Expenditure Committee. That is the appropriate committee for this bill. Why? Because every party is represented on that committee. Under Mr Shane Jones’ admirable chairmanship it is supposedly the most powerful committee in this Parliament. So that is where I will move that this bill goes to be considered so that every party will get to have a say and some input and so the people of New Zealand will be able to come to Parliament and explain their situation with regard to their rates the demands they are having and the fact that they are losing their houses and homes that they have lived in for their entire lives. I look to New Zealand First and ask why its members would deny New Zealanders the opportunity to make that contribution.