Court SimonSIMON COURT (ACT): Thank you Mr Speaker. Look the ACT Party supports this bill. It's wonderful to bring more transparency to the operations of local government. If only this Government the Labour Government were so intent on delivering the transparency that they promised.But look let's have a look at the problem. What is the problem definition? Well a top law firm's been looking at this bill. They're asking what's it for and here's what they tell their clients: The purpose of the register is explicitly stated to record a member's interests so as to provide transparency and strengthen public trust and confidence"—public trust and confidence—"in local government decision-making processes." Well this bill goes some way towards doing that but we actually have to ask ourselves why ratepayers and voters have lost confidence in local government. It's not just because elected members might own a business or have shares in something that ratepayers would be interested in; actually it's because voters and ratepayers have lost their confidence that the people they elect are actually accountable to the communities for delivering basic services. They've lost confidence that local councils their elected members are using public money wisely and making decisions on behalf of the whole community so that businesses that employers that the needs of families are taken into account. They've lost confidence because they often hear about grants being made to organisations that they feel really don't deliver for the community.What the ratepayers really want is for local government to deliver basic services on time on budget. That's collecting the rubbish. That is making sure that there is water coming out of the tap and it's safe to drink and that waste water and sewage are not spilling from overflowing manholes into waterways like Te Wai o Pareira the Henderson Creek where I live where local council and council-controlled organisations have presided over multiple waste-water overflows right outside the waka ama club and the water sports club where kids come from Rutherford College to swim and play after school. That is primarily why people have lost confidence in local government. It's not because they don't know if elected members might own shares in something. But of course ACT supports this bill because it does in fact provide transparency.So I want to give you some examples as to why people might have lost confidence in local government because the purpose of this bill is to strengthen public trust and confidence in local government processes and decision making. Well I'll give you an example. Auckland Council and its council-controlled organisation Auckland Transport decided to take out all the parking in the Henderson town centre as part of a Liveable Streets trial sponsored by the New Zealand Transport Agency / Waka Kotahi. They took out all the public parking in streets like Railside Ave and Great North Road Henderson. They painted the streets blue. They put sheep and tacky planter boxes where cars and buses used to roll and where people used to park and the downturn in local business the foot traffic—people couldn't even work out how to drive there. That is why people are losing confidence in local government because local councils local boards and council-controlled organisations believe that dealing with climate change is more important than actually delivering basic services to their communities and supporting local business.It could be because councils like Wellington have voted for incredibly expensive upgrades to their town hall at a cost of tens then twenties then seventies then hundreds of millions of dollars. In fact who knows how much this seismic strengthening for failed buildings will cost Wellington City Council? But what we do know is that the infrastructure in Wellington below the ground is broken. That's why you've got waste-water pipes breaking drinking-water pressure pipes bursting and sending geysers of drinking water into the air. That's why the flat that I had up until a few months ago up the road here just north of Parliament here there was drinking water running down the road for the entire six months that I lived there. And I know it's drinking water because when I bent down and I put my hand in the water that was running down the gutter and I lifted it to my nose I could smell chlorine. So at least we know it's treated. But there were millions of litres running out of broken pipes into the sea. That's why people have lost trust and confidence in local government. But we appreciate the member's efforts to bring this bill to the House the pecuniary interest register to at least try to restore it somewhat.And I want to give you another example about why people have lost trust and confidence in local government. The Nelson City Council this week had to accept that even though they had spent hours and hours debating a motion about whether to install a pride-themed rainbow-coloured pedestrian crossing in Nelson—how much consultant's time they'd spent getting reports done getting special drawings done having public hearings—it turned out they'd forgotten the very people of Nelson who absolutely depend on being able to cross the road safely and that is people who are blind or have low vision and find that a pride crossing is one of the most confusing things you can ever put on the road because they don't know what on earth this thing means when they're trying to cross the road. So Nelson council bless their cotton socks backed down. They decided that it would be OK just to put some pride stickers on the bike racks rather than let blind and low-vision people wander out into the road and potentially get run over because they'd spent all this time worrying about how to deliver a pride crossing rather than actually deliver basic services for the people in their communities.So I commend the member for bringing this bill to the House the Local Government (Pecuniary Interests Register) Amendment Bill so that at least voters know that elected members who have interests in business or shareholdings or property—that that's understood so that decisions they might make in their role as elected members where there's a conflict of interest that that conflict of interest can be reduced as far as practical. But there are a couple of opportunities that I'd like the member to consider particularly when we get to the committee of the whole House—some amendments in fact that could actually make this bill far more effective. We need to consider whether in fact it would be helpful to the functioning of local government—to actually restoring trust and confidence in local government decision-making and processes—to include the pecuniary interests of those individuals appointed to chair and as board members on council-controlled organisations where they have the ability to sign off on procurements worth tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.And in fact in many cases it's not clear that those people appointed to the council-controlled organisations—and I'm thinking Wellington Water; I'm thinking Auckland Transport; and as an Aucklander I'm thinking about the Auckland Council - controlled organisation that controls the stadiums which competes with local business that holds events. That actually means that private companies that want to hold events find that they're either undercut by the council-controlled organisation or priced out of the market because the council-controlled organisation won't let those function centres and event centres to the private sector to carry out their business. And when the local government entity is the biggest kid on the block you know they have market power well beyond what should be acceptable if they really are focused on good governance good decision-making for the benefit of their communities.So ACT would be open to considering actually widening the scope of this bill to address some of the concerns particularly people in Auckland have having seen incidents of very poor procurement decisions—in fact decisions the Serious Fraud Office investigated involving council-controlled organisations and decision makers in local government around transportation and other types of procurement. So the ACT Party would support widening the scope of the bill to actually look at whether it would be worthwhile including elected members and their ability to appoint people to trusts and other council-controlled organisations.So on that note the ACT Party supports the bill in its current form would be open to amending it to making it better in increasing the scope of transparency. But more importantly we want local government to stick to its knitting and deliver basic services for communities. Thank you Mr Speaker.DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member's time has expired."