Whaitiri MekaHon MEKA WHAITIRI (Labour—Ikaroa-Rāwhiti): E Te Māngai o Te Whare tēnā koe. Ngā mema o Te Whare nei tēnā tātou katoa. Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker for calling me. It's been a busy day for all of us. During the dinner break I was fortunate enough to host the Wairoa District Council in the Grand Hall. So I think there's some relevance around empowering local councils and we had one in our midst today. So I'm really fortunate to take a call in support of the Local Government (Community Well-being) Amendment Bill and to remind us all that there are three main goals of this particular bill.The first one talks about restoring the purpose of local government to promote the social economic environmental and cultural well-being of communities." The second part is "to restore the territorial authorities' power to collect development contributions for any public amenities needed as a consequence of development" and from the reserves from non-residential development. Thirdly to get the technical clarification around development contribution powers in so far as the New Zealand Transport Agency is in mind. So those are the goals.One thing that I do want to talk about and that makes us distinctly different on this side of the House to that side of the House is our desire to return democracy—return democracy back to our locally affected officials. It's to empower and give them the tools that they require through legislation to make local decisions where they are best made. Like I say having Wairoa District Council here in this House to celebrate the exponential I guess commitment and innovation that comes out of Te Wairoa with iwi leaders and with local businesses is testimony to a piece of legislation that allows that to happen for the people of Te Wairoa. It is around empowering our locally elected officials to ensure that they have the tools to make the decision.I want to reference the speech just briefly of the Minister in the third reading where she said quote: "This bill is a key part of an all-of-Government shift towards taking a more inclusive holistic approach to measuring our success as a country. It is no longer enough that we define and measure the health and progress of our communities in a narrow fiscal sense." When you trip around the various local authorities you can tell without having to sit around their board tables—DEPUTY SPEAKER: I don't I don't.Hon MEKA WHAITIRI: —that their passion for the environment for the culture and for the social outcomes for that community is absolutely apparent. So it's no longer the narrow fiscal sense of measurement that having these four well-beings under the last Government enabled or hamstrung a lot of the local authorities.Now from that side of the House I heard the allegations around overspend and the extra compliance costs but I didn't hear much proof. In fact what I am led to believe is that evidence shows that council spend prior to 2012 and 2014 amendments was a lot less—i.e. before we removed these four well-beings from the Local Government Act our councils were actually fiscally well managed. So the allegation that reintroducing them is going to lead to more spending—I have yet to hear from that side of the House any proof of that matter.As we know the local government sector in this country is the second to the central government largest asset holder throughout this country. It's important to us as legislators that we enable them to make those decisions closer to home that meet those well-beings around social economic environmental and culture—and this bill attempts to do that.I do want to commend the Minister for bringing this bill to the House. I want to commend the submitters and I understand that there were 129 written submitters; 28 from the local authorities 74 from various interest groups and 27 from individuals. It is a really important piece of legislation that clearly both councils and individuals and groups have submitted on. Out of those numbers of submitters I see 45 supported the bill and 10 opposed and the balance of them were obviously keen to ensure that the legislation as we are reading it as a third and final one is robust and fit for purpose. I want to thank the submitters. I want to thank the Minister for bringing the bill in and for the officials that have worked on it.It is about returning the democracy to local authorities. It is to make sure that they are meeting the needs of the community as and when they wish to do that and like I say this is a piece of legislation that distinguishes this side of the House from that side of the House. I recall coming into Parliament six years ago when the promise of the Government of the day was to introduce online voting. That was a way of ensuring that people participated in the democratic decision-making of local government. It didn't happen.Shortly after that we had the amalgamation which in Hawke's Bay went down like a dead balloon. It was actually Te Wairoa the Wairoa people that actually stopped amalgamation in the greater Hawke's Bay region.It is important that we listen to local government. As I've travelled they've asked for these four well-beings to be returned. They see opportunities beyond just meeting the enabling four well-beings that we're putting back into this bill. But it's actually jumping ahead into the real business of creating relationships with iwi and with businesses to bring greater gains to their region and to their areas. I want to commend those very progressive councils that are doing that as we speak.I've yet to hear any dissention to the movements of this coalition Government to reintroduce those four well-beings. It's really a positive reception that this is happening as we read this bill for a third and final time. But I'm thinking beyond the passage of this particular legislation and look towards those opportunities particularly in our rural and provincial towns which often get left out of the mix.So as we commend the Local Government (Community Well-being) Amendment Bill the amendments to the House it is with a I guess sense of positivity and excitement that this bill does put back the authority at the local level with communities with the businesses with iwi who just want to get on with doing the right things for those communities create those opportunities. They want to work in partnership with this coalition Government. I think that's a good thing for New Zealand and I think it's good for all local body authorities across the country that now we have the legislative framework to enable them to do the things that they want to do in their community and bring those gains.I commend this bill to the House."