Watts SimonSIMON WATTS (National—North Shore): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. I acknowledge the member for bringing this local bill to the House. I obviously rise on behalf of the National Party as the member for North Shore and as the National Party spokesperson for local government. The National Party in this instance will be opposing this bill and I want to use this opportunity to outline our reasons why that is the case. I think that is important in order to bring context in terms of the opportunity and the challenges that we see with the Rotorua District Council (Representation Arrangements) Bill.The member who has brought this bill to the House has quoted This is what they want." and mentioned that a number of times. If I'm being blunt the vote in regard to this by local council in Rotorua was a vote of six to five. So in terms of my basic maths that is not a unanimous position in terms of support for this bill and actually in terms of the mayor having to place their vote to be able to get this across the line. So what this indicates and local bills are quite unique in the context of this House—we don't see that many of them and when we do it has very much been historically the case that there is a high threshold for ensuring that these bills have been well syndicated well consulted and well considered before they come to this House because they are in effect bills on behalf of our local communities. In this case it is our view that this bill has not been through that degree of engagement and stakeholder consultation and actually in terms of where it's been positioned there is also a significant amount of variation of views around the table at council of actually supporting and opposing this bill. That some may say is just the way it is but as I said the threshold in terms of this type of legislation is generally much higher and so that is a concern for us.The other aspect is that there was in the region of around 159 submissions that the council obtained as part of their consideration for this bill coming to this House in terms of their support and there was significant opposition as part of that submission process to this bill as well. I think that is also important context when we stand here this evening in order to assess this and say "Is this the right thing that we should be doing?" I just wanted to bring that background context to the House so that we know that when statements are made such as I quote "This is what they want." we can substantiate that with the facts that are on the ground. It is the view of the National Party that this bill is unnecessary and it is unnecessary for a variety of reasons and I'll go into that a little bit in detail. Rotorua is an absolutely stunning part of this country. My wife is from Rotorua so I say that with vested interest and I've spent a lot of time in that part of the world. But Rotorua should be working within the limitations of the Local Government Act for their governance arrangements. It is not appropriate in this instance for them to be trying to take a nuanced approach or a different or special approach for something that they can achieve through existing legislation. And I think that is one of the key areas of why we believe that this bill is unnecessary. The other aspect which was raised by the member who has brought this bill to the House was around the co-governance aspects. The council in Rotorua as have a number of councils has committed to introducing Māori wards so therefore some of these changes will be able to be undertaken legally through those laws. We don't require a special law or this House to make such changes as are being proposed in order to achieve some of the outcomes that are being desired. Therefore again this bill is unnecessary.I think it is important to acknowledge that when a bill is coming to this House the ability for central government to start to get involved with nuanced or bespoke arrangements for individual councils of which there are 67 across this country does create a significant degree of complexity. It involves a significant amount of unintended consequence in terms of those decisions. And I think as I said this goes above and beyond what is required and what the council could already do through existing legislation. The other element I want to raise is obviously we talked about the city and the surrounding areas of Rotorua. And as I said Rotorua has a significant number of opportunities but it also has a significant number of issues. One of the key priorities of local government is "to enable democratic local decision-making" and in particular "to promote social economic environmental and cultural wellbeing" for their community both present and future. And I quote there out of section 10(1) of the Local Government Act 2002. Why I use that as a reference is that councils across the country and local government across the country at the moment are faced with a significant burden of reform under this Government. This example is another element of reform and change which will be impacting those hard-working resources that we have within our local government entities across our towns and cities and particularly in this case Rotorua in terms of their focus. The key issues that are facing Rotorua are significant. We talk about the impacts around cost of living impacts in terms of the population there—emergency housing some 381 children in emergency housing and motels in Rotorua at the moment. Why I say that is that there is a lot that council and local government should and could be doing in order to support our local communities for their areas of priority that they should be focused on. Focusing on doing something such as this is unnecessary and is a distraction in the context of their core business which is to support the welfare of their communities. And at a cost of around $49000 which has been spent so far—sorry $46500 and that excludes staff time which in many cases is probably the equivalent if not more of the actual fiscal cost. This has been to date already an expensive fiscal undertaking costing the Rotorua ratepayers in order to go through a process that as I've said we believe is unnecessary. So that's the context in which we place that. That's the reasons and rationale of why National won't be supporting this bill this evening. I think it is important to recognise that local councils and local government across this country do do a significant amount for our communities. They are a pivotal part in terms of the delivery of services to our communities. And what I've seen as I travel around the country and when I've been to Rotorua is the immense amount of value that could be contributed by such entities. So I would ask those members of local government in Rotorua to focus back on the key priorities for your city focus on the elements of social and economic wellbeing that will benefit your communities. Don't get distracted by trying to undertake legislative change such as this which can be achieved through other mechanisms and focus on core business. I think that would be echoed by the many ratepayers and community members across that area. And if you do want to proceed with such structural change then do it in a process which involves everyone undertake full and fair consultation and engagement with all of the stakeholders and ensure that before you come to this House you've done that in a way which is comprehensive and significant and therefore you are able to articulate to us a position that is well supported. Sadly that is not the case with this local bill and as such National will be opposing this bill."