O'Connor Damien: Tasman District Council (Validation and Recovery of Certain Rates) Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeO'Connor Damien: Tasman District Council (Validation and Recovery of Certain Rates) Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 12 March 2014. Volume:697;Page:16615. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR (Labour—West Coast - Tasman):I will just take the opportunity to perhaps summarise a few things. I appreciate the help of the Local Government and Environment Committee members and those who have spoken before to outline—some of them in much detail—what is in this legislation the Tasman District Council (Validation and Recovery of Certain Rates) Bill. I would like to acknowledge Nicky Wagner and all the members of the committee who were so cooperative. They really did try to do their best for the ratepayers of the Tasman district.I hope that each and every councillor is actually listening to this debate. It may seem long and difficult but they should learn from it. We do not like retrospective legislation and I have to acknowledge that the House has committed quite an amount of time to sort out a problem that was basically developed because the Tasman District Council made basic mistakes—both by the staff and in the oversight by the councillors. I would just like to say that in the preamble to the bill here the wording is pretty much perfect except for one word that I would like to change. It does say here in recital 37 of the preamble that it is “desirable” that the irregularities relating to all the rates be fixed—no actually it is necessary. I do not think it is desirable that the Committee should have to commit to fix this.I think we would be sending a message quite clearly to the councillors at the Tasman District Council and to the staff in particular that they pay attention to detail. I would like to send a clearer message to some of the staff that in their dealings with the ratepayers who are ultimately the people who carry the cost of these mistakes they should be more cooperative. From time to time I hear stories where forms that might not have the right signature or something are rejected and sent back and not in a helpful way but in a rather hindering way. In the spirit of the passage of this legislation I hope that the staff at every level of the Tasman District Council acknowledge that mistakes can be made and that they are there to help people not to hinder them.I will just go through a couple of other things. The Tata Beach situation has been mentioned of course. The maps were mentioned. Yes it is true that that particular incident was incorrect and that the determination and the tenacity of Bob Schmuke and a few of those ratepayers saw them take that issue that they claim was incorrect to the Tasman District Council which rejected them out of hand in a rather arrogant fashion. They then took that through to the Ombudsman who ruled in their favour. In looking at this case the Ombudsman then found fault in other areas of rate setting. Again there is a lesson for councils. Sometimes the ratepayers—although they might seem a little obnoxious and they might seem difficult and persistent—are right. In the spirit of democracy we have to respect those people who put time and effort into trying to keep democracy open transparent and accountable.In summary I will just once again thank the Local Government and Environment Committee. There is a message here. The staff and the councillors of the Tasman District Council have to show a little more attention to detail around things like as I have said speed limits around schools where they again have an attitude that in my view may not be correct. There are community facilities that they are not supporting because of various issues. They have got water management they have got support for information centres and they have got internal processes that are sometimes not helpful. What I am saying is that the consideration of Parliament and the passage of this legislation—and I thank members for their support for me and the bill—should be acknowledged by consideration right through every area of the Tasman District Council for their ratepayers and that should flow on to the rest of the country for people who pay hard-earned dollars to support infrastructure to support their communities and sometimes to invest in areas where councils may have some unease about that. So on this particular first part in the preamble I guess that I have summarised some of the points that I would like to make.