Woods MeganDr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram): It is my pleasure to take a call on this Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill (No 2) and to lay out very clearly that Labour will not be supporting this legislation. This is not a decision that we came to lightly. It is one that we are disappointed to have to make given the amount of time and opportunity there was in the Local Government and Environment Committee to fix up a very untidy piece of legislation.I think it is worthwhile considering the history of this bill. It was introduced back in June 2016 by the then Minister of Local Government Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga. Obviously we have had a change of Minister in that time. It was then referred to the Local Government and Environment Committee on 15 June 2016 with submissions due by 28 July 2016. In this short period of time 188 submissions including 66 from territorial and local authorities were heard. The Minister had to ask for a 5-month extension to the report-back date and according to the Department of Internal Affairs report back that was because the submitters regarded the consultation prior to the introduction of the bill as inadequate.So what we have here is a really important piece of legislation with a very clearly defined set of stakeholders that simply has been botched from the beginning by this Government. It failed to consult properly with the local government representatives before it was introduced so it is no surprise that the Government got it wrong. This is a piece of legislation that the select committee was able to do some work on but unfortunately all the changes that were required to make this a workable piece of legislation and something that actually would be in the best interests of the country were not agreed to at the select committee. It is for those reasons that Labour is unable to offer the Government its support for this bill.There is a very very fundamental principle for us on this side of the House when it comes to local government and that is that we should keep the local" in it. That is something we believe in to our very core. This piece of legislation erodes that very and most basic principle. This is a bill that if the Government had any sense it would have let it languish on the Order Paper for a few more short weeks and it would not have seen the light of day in this House. Quite frankly it is an embarrassment from go to whoa for the Government—this piece of legislation.While what we are seeing in the reported-back bill is an improvement on what first landed on the select committee's desks it still has serious flaws in it which we are going to traverse at great length I would like to point out—great length—through the Committee stage. We look forward to taking a very long journey through the problems of the Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill (No 2) and the ways in which the Government has botched it.The bill as it was introduced—let us think about who did oppose it. It was opposed not only by local councils regional councils and district councils but also by Local Government New Zealand and the New Zealand Society of Local Government Managers. It was seen as a serious intrusion by central government and unelected bodies—that is the Local Government Commission—on the business of elected local government organisations; that what it was doing was really taking away the ability of those jobs to govern at that most basic of levels the local level.The bill as it is reported back seeks to promote larger councils and council-controlled organisations and greater central government influence and that is where we have a problem. It is the ability of the Minister to intervene—it is the ability of the Minister to influence via the commission that is the basis of Labour's opposition. We had concerns about the additional powers conferred on the Local Government Commission which—let us never forget—is an unelected body. We can appoint the best and the most skilled people to that body and it is not an objection to those people but it is against the fundamental issue that the Local Government Commission is an unelected body that will be making decisions that should be in the hands of a democratic process not Government appointees.We do not say that just because at the moment—until September—National leads this Government. We would say that when we are in Government too—that we believe fundamentally in that. We do not see how this will benefit local democracies when we have the power of the Minister to direct the work that the Local Government Commission carries out. That is not something that is in this country's best interest and is not something that we can support. The fact that central government via the Minister will appoint members of the commission with only one appointee needing to have local government experience does not bode well for the independence of that commission.Local government is a fascinating but complex beast and I would like to know that these people who are being appointed to the commission have some experience in that sector. This is not a place for bland managerialism. This is a place for people who understand the sector: the needs the opportunities and the challenges of local government; not Government cronies from whatever side being appointed to make decisions in an entirely undemocratic way.Enhancing the powers and scope of the unelected Local Government Commission is risky and at odds with the stated aims of promoting council-led organisations that are covered off in this bill. We want to make sure that critical utilities retain public ownership and that should be a question for elected bodies not Government-appointed local government commissioners. This should only ever be a decision that they can make.It is unclear where the justification is for the Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill (No 2) which we have sitting in front of us or how it will lead to any real community benefits. When we get to the Committee stage of this bill we will be asking the Minister clause by clause where the community benefits are and how this makes things better for our local authorities and for our communities because local government legislation is fundamentally about everyday New Zealanders. We are all beneficiaries of what local government does and that needs to be understood.Something else that I want to get on the record is this: when we come to vote on this piece of legislation this legislation may well pass with the barest of majorities—in fact a one-vote majority. I would like it on the record that that vote will be the vote of Todd Barclay and this is the reason that we have a Government that has failed to act in a moral way in dealing with this situation. So we have five pieces of legislation that this Government has muddled befuddled and completely botched up because it cannot handle a legislative agenda. It is now down to the wire and it is having to rely on that vote to get them across the line. What we have is a piece of legislation that is not in the best interests of this country—that is concentrating more power into the hands of a Minister and an executive in an arrogant way that absolutely ignores what is best for local communities and for local communities to be able to make those decisions for themselves.But what adds even more insult to injury is that we have a Prime Minister who has not acted in a way you would expect a leader and a Prime Minister to act because he needs to get this shambles of a piece of legislation across the line. [Interruption] This is about the bill Mr Deputy Speaker. This is about how this bill will become law in this country and it will be up to the voters of New Zealand on 23 September to make a decision as to whether this is the kind of leadership they want whether this is the way they want their legislation passed. I put it to you Mr Deputy Speaker and to this House that this speaks to the situation that we now have after 9 years of this Government—a Government that has no moral compass—Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Stick to the bill—Dr MEGAN WOODS: —and a piece of legislation that is clearly not in the best interest of communities. Labour cannot support this. We worked hard at select committee to get the changes over the line that would make this a piece of legislation that we could vote for but it is simply yet another piece of flawed and broken legislation from this Government which if we are unfortunate enough to have this Government back in power—well we will need to do it as a Government anyway—will have to be back fixing it because this has been a shambles from time the bill was introduced."