Hayes Joanne: Christchurch City Council (Rates Validation) Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHayes Joanne: Christchurch City Council (Rates Validation) Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 06 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3288. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JOANNE HAYES (National):I am pleased to rise and take a call on the Christchurch City Council (Rates Validation) Bill sponsored by the Hon Nicky Wagner MP for Christchurch Central. The Local Government (Rating) Act provides an avenue for councils to amend incorrectly set rates. In the case of Christchurch it was to correct irregularities that occurred in the resolutions setting the Christchurch City Council’s rates for the financial years 2003-04 to 2012-13. In particular as we have already heard from my speech on the previous reading Christchurch City Council had been in breach of the Local Government (Rating) Act for some 10 years—some 10 years. It seemed that the council may have felt that its oversight of resolutions required would eventually right itself but it did not. Perhaps with the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes the resolutions error was the furthest thing from its immediate attention. But the problem as suggested just moved over for the urgency of the earthquakes. Were the council bureaucrats aware pre-earthquake of the rates resolution issue? Did they know that if left the Government may intervene? And did the councillors know about the situation? Or was this a genuine oversight? Was it arrogance? What was it? We in this House will never really know. For all our posturing and finger pointing here today we must conclude that we will never know what happened there even including those auditors. And who kept an eye on those auditors? We will not know.What we do know though is that we are here today. This National-led Government is righting the wrongs of the past. We are doing that. Some of this stuff happened back in the time of the previous Government. It was unaware of it. The window for the time of the Christchurch City Council rates resolution has passed. We need to move on. We have been here before though have we not? The Government has passed retrospective legislation pertaining to rates validation. Let us look at the first time we passed retrospective legislation on rates validation. The member Damien O’Connor sponsored the Tasman District Council (Validation and Recovery of Certain Rates) Bill during the period 2003—The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): Order! We are on this bill.JOANNE HAYES: OK. Righty-o. What I was trying to do was explain that this is not the first time. We have done this two other times—the Tasman District Council and the Kaipara District Council—twice for rates validation.Dr Megan Woods: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. I would just like your assistance on this. Clearly you have already asked the speaker once to get back to the relevance. The Tasman District Council is not under question.The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): I am the judge of that.JOANNE HAYES: These are examples of where respective councils have not adhered to the law. In the case of Christchurch city when the rates resolution was simplified the council failed to specify the rates payment dates the penalties charged how penalties were calculated and the dates by which the penalties would apply. When this was brought to the council’s attention by the Department of Internal Affairs the council acted quickly. For me this is the third time the Government has had to pass legislation validating rates and it has to stop because the cost of doing so through the House is very expensive as we heard from the Minister.Sue Moroney: So sit down. You’re just costing money.JOANNE HAYES: Just listen because you might learn something. I want to add—The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): Order!JOANNE HAYES: To the member sorry—to the member.The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): Order! Do not bring me into the debate and stick to the subject in hand.JOANNE HAYES: OK. For me this is the third time the Government has had to pass legislation validating rates and it has to stop because the cost of doing so as mentioned by the Minister previously through the House has been so expensive. I want to add into my speech today about the changes that have occurred in Christchurch post-earthquake. It is the work that the council continued to do to support the—The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): Order! That is not part—[Interruption] This is a very succinct debate and the content of it does not go beyond what is in the bill. I ask the member to come back to it.JOANNE HAYES: Thank you. This is a short yet focused bill that is remedying the wrongs. Clause 5 validates—