Eagle PaulPAUL EAGLE (Labour—Rongotai): Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. Look it's always enjoyable to stand up in the House and talk on anything related to local government so it's my—Chris Bishop: Ha ha!PAUL EAGLE: Oh! It's the honourable member for Hutt South. Don't get me going. I don't want to say dishonourable because that would be dishonourable—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): Yes it would be.PAUL EAGLE: —but what I do want to say is—thank you Mr Speaker. I do want to just acknowledge my colleagues on the Governance and Administration Committee. It's a pity I wasn't too attentive during these hearings because I wasn't there but look I've got a great relationship with my colleagues. It's a pretty collegial committee and probably one of the better ones. In fact probably the best select committee dare I say it. We talk we debate but we get on and we look at the things that are important to local communities. So I want to acknowledge the hard work that that committee does. The local member for Nelson—he's been there so long I thought his colleague was going to mention maybe a valedictory next week or something but that's not the case. But I do want to just acknowledge that His Worship the Mayor is here from the mighty Tasman—welcome to the capital city—and other officials who put this together.Look I don't want to repeat what's been said. Those upstairs and on TV will be going God how boring." but I do want to just look through. It's been interesting—I had a look back at the Department of Internal Affairs report and I just want to sort of balance up some of the views. Since I last spoke one thing I did have is just some feedback from local people. Coming from local government you know you've got to—what did they say? Yes let's get to it. I had Victoria Davis and Lewis Solomon write to me. They just wanted me to be aware and to balance up some of the submissions that were made. It was interesting. I went back though 137 submissions. Actually 57 were in support and they made the comment that 27 would benefit or stand to gain—or "profit" was the word that was used—20 were neither for nor against and 60 were opposed. Mr Solomon for example is a qualified electrical engineer of 25 years' experience at Nelson Pine. I guess what I'm really saying is that these people bring some valid concerns to the table but if I reflect back on my speech that I made one of the big things that local government has to do and should do is make some bold calls. This is I think a bold call. Infrastructure—those smaller districts sometimes find it a bit tough to get the dollars together to say we need to look at the unsexy stuff. That's generally the infrastructure but I know—and I can see a former mayor opposite me Maureen Pugh—that you've got to make the big calls and invest wisely on things like this that will carry the district through. Maybe they'll amalgamate one day—oh God I shouldn't mention that but maybe for the next century they'll have core infrastructure in place that will serve their community. I guess that's the decision they've made. We are certainly supporting it and I'm proud that we are because it would be easy—I know as a former local elected member that many a time it was the unsexy stuff that people couldn't see they didn't want to see and the price tag had lots of zeros in it but actually you do have to make these calls and someone's got to be bold enough. I don't know if the mayor will get re-elected over this but good luck to him next year. Local body elections are less than a year away. Good luck. I'm sure he'll have a narrative and a story and a product really and that he'll be able to say "This is my legacy to the district and to Te Tau Ihu"—the top part of the South Island—"and this is good for the people."Look I'm not going to talk too much. I know the member for Hutt South gets a bit nervous when I talk but I just want to commend this bill to the House."