Muller ToddTODD MULLER (National—Bay of Plenty): Oh thank you Madam Chair. If I may just have a moment of celebration actually if the committee won't mind I had a little phone call this evening from my daughter who was in her school and they were having an assembly on volunteer week and they wanted two people from the whole school to front and be part of the presentation and get a gift at the end. Everyone had their hands up and she said Dad it's a really tough feeling when you've got your hands up and you don't get picked." and there's a few perhaps who are feeling like that this evening.However I would in all seriousness like to talk about Part 2 obviously and particularly the section relating to amendments to the Local Government Act. The thing that I would like to particularly explore this evening is the theme of transparency and accountability which clearly as we note in the departmental report was an area of some debate between the two sides of the House as this particular piece of legislation went through the select committee process.Now specifically in clause 10 in Part 2 in new section 34B is a section relating to additional information which in and of itself I think is a reasonable start—a reasonable limited effort by the Government to have some obligations on regional councils with respect to transparency and accountability in its particular design of the annual report and the components that the annual report of the regional council that is benefiting from a regional fuel tax must cover.This evening I would like to particularly speak to my colleague Chris Penk's amendment—which I don't believe has had much discussion this evening—that relates specifically to proposed new section 34B(1)(d) which is an insert into what I believe like I say is that limited criteria on reporting as part of the broader transparency theme. This particular amendment requires that the "Reporting of all RFT schemes should be received by each local board in a region and consultation undertaken with that local board prior to the consultation on the annual report."Certainly when I put my hand up to support this particular amendment I was thinking specifically of the Bay of Plenty region and the myriad of local boards that are part of the local government governance arrangements in that council and in the broader Bay of Plenty Regional Council. It's very clear that the Bay of Plenty Regional Council is potentially one of those councils who see the opportunity through the options that are enabled in this particular piece of legislation to put a regional fuel tax in.Now the key point here is that a number of our local boards have had significant disconnect between regional council roading priorities and through that there is a risk that if there wasn't an opportunity or an obligation on the regional councils who are part of a regional fuel tax scheme to liaise back in a more specific way—as outlined by this amendment—to those local boards I think there is an opportunity for that very local voice to not be part of the broader regional fuel tax framework. Bearing in mind that one of the components of this piece of legislation is to ensure that the needs of a particular local community with respect to regional roading infrastructure are met I think that this is a particularly useful addition to what I think is a reasonable start.I think if you look at new section 34B(1)(a) through to (c) in clause 10(5) there are some reasonable components there and I acknowledge Minister Twyford for at least going some way to putting some accountability and transparency into this bill. But I think the particular amendment in the name of my colleague Chris Penk will go a further significant step to ensuring that there is great connection between people in the local communities and the regional councils if they are part of a wider regional fuel tax scheme.I have many other contributions that I'd love to make but I'm conscious that others would like to contribute to this very important debate. Thank you Madam Chair."