Upston Louise: Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Upston Louise: Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:660;Page:15543] 
LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupo) 
: 
 I will take us back to the focus and intent of the Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill because we have not heard very much about that unfortunately in this debate so far. We have heard from the members opposite a lot of alarmist talk and scaremongering and emotive extremism that has actually bordered on histrionics at times. But I want to talk about the bill because that is what this debate is about. I say it is about the bill in case some members have forgotten that. I actually do not think many members opposite know what the bill is all about so I will take members through the background— 
Jonathan Young 
: They weren’t on the committee anyway. 
LOUISE UPSTON 
: That is right and those who were did not show up all the time. 
This bill is actually about sharpening up the local government debate and making sure that we achieve in local government. It is very important to have effective local government because we know that builds strong communities. Strong communities are empowered by local government and they have influence they have a say and they have access to transparent information so that they are in a better position to influence the decisions of those who represent them. That is why I want to spend a bit of time talking about what the council is involved with and the transparency around that and about actually being able to provide good information back from a council on how it has been doing with some consistent performance measures. Also what most people would expect is a financial strategy as to how ratepayers’ money will be spent and then a report back as to whether that was done. 
One of the issues that came up from time to time in the submissions comes up a lot for me as an electorate MP. I am not sure how many members opposite are electorate MPs but a lot of constituents who come through my door talk about the fact that their greatest concern is the ever-increasing burden of rates increases on their fixed income. Measures in this bill will provide those people with the ability to look at and have a say on what local government is doing. 
Let us have a look at a couple of those measures—for example core services. We have heard a diatribe from members opposite about core services and I want to set the record straight on the intention behind the statement of core services. That statement actually enables councils to have a focus on core services but nowhere is it stated—and it never has been stated—that a council is restricted to those core services. Instead the statement is about creating a priority for those activities and then allowing debate by the people who live within a council boundary to decide which other activities should occur. 
For example economic development was mentioned several times and that is an important activity to touch on. If I look at the Taupo electorate I see that economic development occurs quite differently in Waipa from south Waikato and from Taupo. Not one of those councils is stopped from doing economic development but the priority is different based on the needs of those communities. This bill provides the flexibility for each council to work towards meeting the needs and demands of its communities. If a particular community wants to invest significantly in economic development then local ratepayers get to make that call which is exactly how it should be. 
In terms of core services though we would not want to have a situation where some non-core activities took priority over the building of roads for example. Every ratepayer has a certain expectation about roads to drive on and water to drink. That is exactly what we have in terms of core services. 
Despite some random comments from members opposite this bill is about communities making decisions around the activities in their communities. More important in activities like the pre-election report the community gets to see how the council has been going with regard to the decisions that the community has had input into. At local body elections—and we have just had one—voters will be able to rely on solid information rather than just electioneering material. The previous speaker talked about democracy. I am not sure why members opposite cannot understand that pre-election reports allow for more information to be provided to enable voters to make informed decisions about whom they will vote for. Yet members opposite say this bill takes away democracy.