Doocey MattMATT DOOCEY (National—Waimakariri): It is a pleasure to rise and speak to the Rates Rebate (Retirement Village Residents) Amendment Bill at its first reading. Could I just acknowledge the Hon Ruth Dyson for the bill that she brings before the House looking to amend this Act. I myself have been known to submit members' bills around amendments that look to update and modernise previous legislation as well. This one looks to modernise and update the Rates Rebate Act of 1973—specifically around definitions.Currently there is a definition around ratepayers under the Local Government (Rating) Act of 2002. This bill will seek to insert a clause that will look at residents who directly or indirectly will pay rates in connection with their occupation right agreements (ORAs). I suppose that is an acronym that we will learn to understand more—the legal definition of an ORA—as well as another acronym we are learning: the licence to occupy. That is language that is progressing with the huge development of retirement homes. I know that in my electorate of Waimakariri we have got one in Rangiora—the Charles Upham Retirement Village—which is just about to open. A staggering 400 people will be living in that retirement village. It is very much a whole footprint—from independent living to semi-supported to supported care homes right through to dementia wards—a whole footprint through the life course.I think that as we learn more about managing and supporting our elderly and the issues they have at certain age groups requiring support it is quite understandable that some of these issues thrown up in this bill come to light. So I think it is fair that we are supporting this bill in its first reading to go to the select committee to understand the issue a bit more and some of the implications. My colleague Paul Foster-Bell mentioned some of the financial implications. There is already a rates relief budget that is around $54 million. The costing of this initially at the moment is around $5 million to $8 million so the select committee will be looking at that. I suppose as legislators we are always mindful that wherever we draw a line there will always be some people who are just inside and some people are just outside. It is about understanding that we will always need a line to have been drawn.It will be no surprise I think around these issues to any members of Parliament from any party across the House that rates are a persistent issue that comes through in constituent work. Normally it comes through around people raising the issue of fairness of the rateable base formula versus maybe individuals in a house or income levels. I suppose speaking as a politics graduate from England we go back to the 1987 manifesto of the Conservatives when they brought in the poll tax. Maggie Thatcher brought that in in 1990 and 1991—and you all pretty much saw how that went. Rates actually motivate and stimulate people in very interesting ways and that normally manifests in how they present through the doors of our constituent offices. I think what underpins a lot of this is fairness and we are looking to understand how we can be fair especially for our Super Seniors.I have just finished a number of morning teas with my superannuitants in Waimakariri and—just following on from previous contributions—the amount that our Super Seniors contribute to our economy to our communities and to our society is phenomenal and I think they should be supported. So if we can look through this bill at possibly supporting some people who are under the abatement threshold of around $24000 I think that is the right direction of travel and it is a fair direction of travel. I am glad it is getting the support of the House. As a member of the Local Government and Environment Committee I am very much looking forward to it coming to the House and to the select committee and hearing submissions and the way forward. Thank you.