Strange JamieJAMIE STRANGE (Labour): Madam Chair thank you for the opportunity to take a call on the Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill (No 2) in the committee stage. Can I begin because we are talking about local government just to acknowledge those candidates who are standing for local government in the elections. The election date will be 12 October so I'd just like to acknowledge all of those who are standing. Hopefully we'll have an increased diversity within our councils. There are two key points I want to pick up on and I've got some questions for the Minister of Local Government. The first one is around the amalgamation and the second one is around the council-controlled organisations (CCOs). In terms of the amalgamation aspect obviously this bill and Supplementary Order Paper 323 remove the threat of amalgamation from local authorities by restricting reorganisation requests requiring a petition of at least 10 percent of local electors in order to proceed. So it's a fairly high bar. Basically it means that somebody must have a petition with at least 10 percent of the local electors in order to trigger a discussion about amalgamation. Now my question there to the Minister relates to collaboration versus amalgamation because the word amalgamation" is I think to be fair probably a little bit of a dirty word among councils. We had a discussion recently across the Waikato region where I think it was the CEO of the Waikato Chamber of Commerce Chris Simpson in the public domain said "Look let's have a chat about amalgamation." and there was some quite strong backlash against that with the councils quite strongly saying "We do not want to amalgamate." However on the flip side those same councils who strongly said they do not want to amalgamate have been collaborating very well on one particular project and I'd like to highlight it and alert the House to that project—and the Minister knows about it. It's the Hamilton to Auckland corridor work. We've got the Hamilton—CHAIRPERSON (Hon Anne Tolley): Can we focus on the bill? This isn't a general business session; it's a particular piece of legislation. JAMIE STRANGE: Thank you Madam Chair. So my question to the Minister relates to the fact that—how does she encourage collaboration without having amalgamation? The example with the Hamilton to Auckland corridor is where councils have collaborated how do we foster that—so how does the Minister plan to foster that—without forcing that aspect of amalgamation on them? CHAIRPERSON (Hon Anne Tolley): Fine fine but could you address the legislation. This is the committee stage where we look at the detail of legislation and discuss that. So a general question to the Minister about what she intends to do without actually relating to a piece of legislation is a bit difficult for the Minister. I'm sure she can handle it but you know stick to the topic. JAMIE STRANGE: Thank you Madam Chair. So the councils are collaborating together. The second aspect is around the CCOs and around the transparency. The bill clearly makes CCOs more accountable to local communities through the councils that control them and so how does the Minister intend to increase that transparency and how does the bill increase that transparency in terms of the CCOs. With particular relation around infrastructure because the Minister in her opening speech spoke about water and the fact that for councils the delivery of the three waters reforms is a key aspect. Many of the councils are interested in CCOs but how do the CCOs work? I'm also interested in the Minister's comment around an Audit New Zealand report—which covers this—around the transparency. The Audit New Zealand report says "It is also important that the local authority carries out its statutory functions well to provide the foundations for an effective relationship. In particular the local authority needs to: be clear about the purpose of its CCOs; appoint the right people to govern each CCO; and meet the requirements for monitoring and accountability."—so linked to that aspect of transparency and how it largely depends on an effective relationship between the CCO and the local authority and how that relationship plays out in general practice. So the aspect of amalgamation—how councils collaborate without amalgamating—and secondly the transparency aspect in terms of CCOs and particularly around the three waters reforms which the Minister alluded to because that is a topic that is certainly front of mind for our councils. Thank you Madam Chair."