Wagner Nicky: Christchurch City Council (Rates Validation) Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWagner Nicky: Christchurch City Council (Rates Validation) Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 28 May 2014. Volume:699;Page:18422. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon NICKY WAGNER (National—Christchurch Central): I moveThat the Christchurch City Council (Rates Validation) Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Local Government and Environment Committee to consider this bill. I have been asked to be the member in charge of the Christchurch City Council (Rates Validation)Bill which sets out to validate the rates irregularities that came to light for the council last year. Each June the Christchurch City Council resolves to set its rates for the next financial year beginning 1 July. Since 2004 the wording used for the resolution has been the same or similar. However at the beginning of August last year the Department of Internal Affairs advised council staff that the council resolution that it passed in 2013 did not meet the requirements of the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002. The council did not pass a specific resolution stating the due dates for payment or a resolution to authorise the imposition of penalties on unpaid rates. In other words when it simplified the language back in 2004 it left out these important parts of the resolution.Section 24 of the Local Government (Rating) Act requires a local authority to include in its rating-settings resolution each year “the date on which the rate must be paid or if the rate is payable by instalments the dates by which the specified amounts must be paid.” Although on occasion the information has been made available in the council’s rating policies and funding impact statement it has not been included in resolutions passed since 2004. So the information has been available but it has not actually been in the resolution. Section 57 of the Act enables a resolution to be passed that authorises the addition of penalties to rates not paid by the due dates. This resolution must be made no later than the date on which the local authority sets its rates for a financial year. It must also state how the penalties are to be calculated and the dates on which they are added to the amount of the unpaid rates. Again although this information had been available to ratepayers it had not been included in the resolutions passed by the council since 2004.As a consequence of these irregularities relating to the payment dates of the rates and the imposition of penalties the council undertook a thorough review of all its resolutions that had happened since the rates were set in 2004. This review identified a number of other technical irregularities in relation to the setting of seven targeted rates and the uniform annual general charge. Again although the funding impact statement for each year included information about how liability for the targeted rates was to be calculated—for example as a fixed amount per rating unit per separately used or inhabited part of a rating unit or per connection—this information was not included in the rates resolution. Although the funding impact statement for each year also indicated how the uniform annual general charge was to be calculated generally as a fixed amount per separately used or inhabited part of the rating unit this information was not included in the rates resolutions.The council was able to rectify the situation for the 2013-14 financial year by resetting its rates under section 119 of the Act. However that particular process is not available to correct similar issues with regard to rates set in previous years. Parliamentary intervention by way of a local bill is required in order to validate the rates set payment dates and penalties imposed. The local bill before you is needed to rectify the situation for the council. Parliament has previously validated rates irregularities for other local authorities including the Kaipara District Council and the Tasman District Council.This local bill the Christchurch City Council (Rates Validation) Bill is a short and focused bill. It will achieve the following outcomes as if those resolutions were made on the date that the council set the rates in each year from 2004-05 to 2012-13. Clause 5 validates the payment dates for the rates. Clause 6 validates any penalties added to the rates. Clause 7 declares all money received by the council in payment of the rates and any penalties paid in respect of those rates to be and to always have been lawfully paid to and received by the council. Clause 8 provides that any part of the rates or any penalties payable in respect of those rates by virtue of clause 7 that have not been paid to the council on or after the commencement of this bill are lawfully payable to thecouncil and may be recovered by the council as if the rates and penalties had always been lawfully payable. Clause 9 validates the specified rates. The specified rates comprise the council’s uniform annual general charge and seven targeted rates where irregularities had been identified in terms of section 23 of the Act.This bill validates rates that have been incorrectly set since 2004. It is not about their being calculated wrongly and it is not about the wrong amount of rates; it is all about a technical irregularity in the wording of the resolution. Thank you.