McAnulty Kieran; Salesa JennyThird ReadingHon KIERAN McANULTY (Minister of Local Government): Thank you Madam Speaker. I present a legislative statement on the Local Government Electoral Legislation Bill.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon KIERAN McANULTY: Thank you very much Madam Speaker. I move That the Local Government Electoral Legislation Bill be now read a third time.Our local democracy depends on candidates councillors and voters. In turn those people depend on the electoral system to work well. The changes in this bill are technical but their effect is that the electoral system will be fairer and easier for everyone to use. The bill achieves this by creating a suitable process for councils to consider Māori representation giving Auckland Council greater freedom in how it chooses to represent its communities updating recount rules in local elections and modernising the system for nominating election candidates. In addition to this the bill looks at further enabling remote quorum participation which I will explain.Firstly this bill will see that Māori representation is given good consideration at council. For a long time the voices of our Māori communities were not heard appropriately—or sometimes at all—at our council tables. This absence left issues unsolved and opportunities missed. Fortunately times are changing. Māori representation in local government is the strongest it's ever been after this House repealed an incredibly unfair law in early 2021. There are now 34 councils with Māori wards and 66 councillors directly elected on behalf of Māori communities. This bill continues that progress. Councils are already required to review their representation arrangements every six years. They ask questions like: do we need a rural ward? And how many councillors do we need? This bill bolsters the representation review process. The first step to the process will be a conversation about how the council can best represent Māori. In some cases that might be Māori wards—but it might not and that's all good. No one's saying that every council has to have Māori wards. The important part is the community conversation. With this bill councils will know to look in their representation toolbox and have a serious think about what's best to look after their people and this is a meaningful change.Several councils who are required to do a representation review this year are still recovering from the recent extreme weather events. It's important that they focus on their recovery. To enable councils to do this the bill will delay the provisions requiring councils to consider Māori representation. These provisions won't come into effect until the day after the 2025 local elections. Councils would have been required to familiarise themselves with this process and put it in practice from March or April 2023. As it is now July it made sense to delay these requirements to ensure councils can engage in a full and proper consultation process especially with the Māori community. Councils can still optionally consider Māori representation this year and I know several councils are considering this as part of their representation reviews. But again they don't have to. That's entirely up to them.Next I'd like to talk about Auckland. The super-city is like no other part of New Zealand. It is large continues to grow and faces particular challenges. Auckland is also made up of several unique and distinctive communities. Why then is the council limited to 20 councillors? No more no less. The law has tied Auckland Council's hands and stopped it from expanding to accommodate the population growth or to implement Māori wards. That's why this bill allows Auckland to have between five and 29 councillors should they choose to—just like every other council in the country.Auckland Council shouldn't be held back as the city continues to grow as Aucklanders deserve fair representation just like everybody else. We're also making it easier for Auckland Council to adjust its local board boundaries. These boundaries lined up well with the ward boundaries when the super-city began but now because of uneven growth these borders don't always align. We've streamlined the process to help them match up again to ensure communities of interest can remain together. So with this bill Auckland's many different communities can be confident that as they change and grow their democratic structures will be able to change and grow with them—just like every other council in the country.Tied results aren't very common but they do happen. In the current system when there's a tie the electoral office will draw lots to decide the outcome such as a coin toss. While there is an opportunity for a judicial recount it can only be applied for after the coin toss. Imagine getting the job in a very public platform—the mayor of the local council for example. The successful candidate celebrates gets shown in their new office gets sworn in at a public meeting supported by friends and whānau then lo and behold it turns out that they haven't got the job. Instead they have to pack up and go home. These are the kind of situations that the status quo can result in and I don't think it's a fair way to treat the willing New Zealanders who run for council. So this bill does three things to solve this problem.Firstly it creates an automatic judicial recount when there is a tied election. Secondly it enables candidates to withdraw after the deadlock tie if they'd rather not have the outcome decided by what is effectively a coin toss. Finally it slows down the first meeting process so that no one is sworn in until after the recounts are completed. These changes mean candidates will have certainty about whether they've got the job and members of the public will have certainty as to who has been elected.We've also modernised our nomination system. As it stands candidates need to give written consent to be nominated for local elections. Electronic nominations are allowed in other parts of the law like when candidates are overseas or in parliamentary elections. Therefore we are expanding this ability so it is clear that candidates can always be nominated electronically in local elections making another step in the process much simpler.Finally the bill will also permanently enable remote participants in council meetings to count towards quorum. Previously elected members needed to be physically present at council meetings to be counted towards the meeting's quorum. While councils can choose to permit remote attendance in standing orders under the Local Government Act this attendance doesn't count towards quorum. However for the last three years councils have been able to count remote participation towards quorum to support the continuation of local authority business. This was firstly through the COVID19 pandemic and more recently through the severe weather events.The temporary settings for the severe weather events will expire on 30 September 2024. I've heard strong support from the sector for making this option permanent. It makes sense. Everyone else can do it so too should councillors. The benefits to making it permanent include allowing councils to meet if travel is disrupted or making it easier for councils that cover large geographic areas to conduct business. On my tour of local councils I met one councillor who has to drive 2½ hours to attend meetings. This change will allow them to make a choice that's best for them and their community.Again I'd like to acknowledge the people local authorities and organisations who submitted on this bill. I would like to thank Taituarā and Local Government New Zealand who have asked for these changes and I would also like to thank Auckland Council and the 19 local boards who made submissions. In particular I would like to thank the Auckland Council officials who have been working with the Department of Internal Affairs to ensure the changes that impact them most work for them. Finally I would like to thank the Governance and Administration Committee again for their mahi on this bill. The committee's recommendations have had a positive impact on it. Working on such a technical omnibus bill is no mean feat.This bill will help our local democracies run more smoothly and treat those who run for office with greater respect. I therefore commend the bill to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): The question is that the motion be agreed to.