Simpson ScottHon SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): Thank you Mr Chair. Look this is the first opportunity I've had to participate in this debate either in the first part or now in the second part. I listened carefully to a contribution made earlier this evening by my very good friend the Hon Tim Macindoe who gave some very good advice to some of the new junior members of the Government backbench. They really do need to have a much better understanding of the basic principles of democracy that exist in this House. They have come to Parliament to participate in democracy and in debate and what do we find? They want to close that debate down—they want to close that debate down at the very first opportunity.Well I've got very good news for them—very good news for them indeed—this is a bill that is going to be fought vigorously by this side of the House and we've got an awful lot of debating yet to do and a lot of very good contributions to make. This legislation is fundamentally flawed and it's going to need a lot of work to get it right—indeed if it can even be properly considered to be right in any way shape or form.Now we have got on the Table tonight a large range of amendments from Opposition members who have been working diligently and hard on working out ways to try and find a sensible outcome for this piece of legislation and it's part of the parliamentary process that here in the committee stage that's exactly what we do. Now I know that Government members aren't keen on that kind of democratic proactivity but they're going to have to get a little bit used to it because in a Parliament like this actually that's what MPs do: they come to Parliament they come to debate the issues they come to debate the policies and they come to debate the fine detail of legislation like this.So I represent a region in the Coromandel that is going to be greatly impacted by a potential regional fuel tax and I was horrified today to read in the media that none other than my local council—my local council—is considering lining up and asking for a regional fuel tax and it got me thinking about the process that a local district council would be involved as part of a subset of a regional council in the imposing of an unfair ubiquitous tax of this sort on the hard-working and dedicated people of the Thames-Coromandel District Council.So I have got an amendment in my name that is seeking to provide an opportunity that exists under the Local Electoral Act of 2001 for territorial authorities to have a referendum on issues such as this. We know from other pieces of legislation and other events that have occurred recently around New Zealand that when a certain number of citizens get together and sign a petition they can invoke and cause to be had a referendum on matters such as this. Particularly when it comes to matters of taxation representation is very important—that old adage about no taxation without representation comes to mind.So my amendment would seek to insert a new clause after clause 11 in Part 2 and it would be clause 12. It would be clause 12 that would say Amendments to Local Electoral Act 2001". Subclause (1) would say "This section amends the Local Electoral Act 2001" and then subclause (2) "After section 9(7) [of the Local Electoral Act 2001] insert a new clause 7(a)" which would read as follows: "The above section (7) does not apply if the subject of the referendum is a proposed or existing Regional Fuel Tax scheme. All referendum on the subject of a Regional Fuel Tax scheme must be binding."—must be binding.The reason for that is to ensure that any referendum that is triggered as a result of the Local Electoral Act 2001 would then have to be voted on by the good citizens of a particular district or a region and that then when that referendum occurred the result would be binding. And the news for the Government would be very very sad indeed because I don't think that there's a region or a district in the country that would vote in a referendum of that sort for the kind of terrible taxation—the impost of a fuel tax of the sort that is being proposed here—in a manner that would occur in a referendum where there was a public debate where there was a debate held among the citizenry of a district and where arguments for and against were put to the people of the region who were going to be paying this tax. I don't think that there is a district or a region in the country that would voluntarily vote for a regional fuel tax of this sort.So I commend careful consideration by this committee of the whole House to my proposed amendment and I commend the prospect to Government members—particularly the new junior ones—of democracy."